Ted Johnson on Programming & Architecture

This post builds on previous posts ( 1 , 2 ) and is serves as additional commentary and context to a post by   Franco Civello -  UML for MDD - Oxymoron or match made in heaven?   Not sure what Model-Driven Development (MDD) is exactly, then check out IBM's MDD Redbook which is one perspective. UML is a modeling language with thousands of features and facets.  Most people discount UML, even experienced modelers and language developers, without understanding what the language is capable off.  The primary UML feature missed of importance here is the UML Profiles capability.  People miss that UML Profiles allow for extension and constraints of the language itself, read section 18 of the UML Superstructure or take a look at the UML profile catalog .  The two linked posts ( 1 , 2 ) speak to what UML profiles are etc, so you might consider reading them before proceeding.  This extension and constraint mechanism is exactly what is n...

I have followed the DSM (Domain specific modeling) happenings online for sometime now and at best the community is scattered and most discussions/happenings limited to conferences. However, the DSMForum.org pulls this information together for easy consumption. Don't be fooled by the dated last century website design, all nerdy modeling website look that way. The DSM Publications page provides the best set of links for DSMs on the web, including podcast, conferences, and papers. Dispite one of the co-founders working for MetaCase a tool I am not currently focusing I found their coverage not too biased. The tools page they provide is nearly accurate, playing down eclipse and rational contributions a little bit, but the list represents the major players to my knowledge. RSM/RSA now has a UML Profile Tooling capability and eclipse GMF has beta WYSISYG editor the list could use rework, but a minor complaint. They also have a Linked-in group, although it is not that active.

Great minds think and do not always think alike. In surfing the web this week around clojure , Stack Overflow , Architecture and DSL (Domain-Specific Language) sites there is just a broad misunderstanding of UML. Really smart people seem to miss that UML is more than a modeling language with everything and the kitchen sink that is to vague to use. Just keep reading...really. UML is meant for extension and restriction as it offers, via the UML Profiles, mechanism which I recently extolled in Profiles - The UML problem solver . I have found others that are in this camp, http://www.dsmforum.org/ . They even wrote a paper UML vs. Domain-Specific Languages, Methods and Tools which if you go by the title seems to pit UML against DSLs, however it is quite the opposite. They seem to understand that UML profiles can be used to create restricted models or DSMs (Domain Specific Modeling); and yes I am using DSM and DSL interchangeably. Call me crazy, but this is also what the OMG - Objec...