Re: UML cooperation

[Derek Neighbors]

I know you all hate hearing this but I will say again.

This is a GNU project. Freedom is AND will be VALUED over ANY feature.
Rational Rose discussions do NOT belong here.  I dont care how good it is.
It's a product that unless it under goes radical license change will not
be a part of this process.

Now the other tools argouml or whatever else I assume are under some other
license that is free so if we want to compare them to Dia that is fine.
However, a decision has been made to use Dia for now as no tool at this
point is gonna let us model objects and spit out the proper application
server code we need.  So lets move on. :)

Rather than brag how great rational rose is and give them a bunch of
moneyu, the FSF way would be to make plug ins to dia or contribute to some
other free modeling tool to get the functionality you need.

Derek Neighbors 
GNU Enterprise
http://www.gnue.org
address@hidden

On Thu, 26 Oct 2000 address@hidden wrote:

> * Alejandro Imass <address@hidden> [001026 08:16]:
> > Well. We must admit that DIA is VERY limited at the
> > moment and it's a pain to use. BUT (and it's a BIG AND
> > LOUD BUT) the framework on which DIA is built will
> > assure not only continuity (GIMP LIB, GNOME, XML,
> > etc..) but I can bet anyone the it will be far more
> > functional than any other OO package (like RR) in the
> > "near" future. For this reason I placed my bets on it
> > and am using it despite it's present (BTW I'm only in
> > 0.8 and probably many things are fixed in 0.86) state.
> 
> I wouldn't want this to turn into a religious argument. When the new "Dia on 
> steroids" will outfeature and outperform RR, I'll be the first to dump RR 
> (although I presume RR will not stand idle, but will add other convincing 
> arguments to justify its pricetag, in the time Dia will take to catch up). I 
> am concerned presently with "here" and "now": for the current task, what are 
> the best tools at my disposal Today ! 
> 
> Remember the computer world "before" the arrival of the GUI ?
> What I see from RR (perhaps other tools I am not aware of) is the emergence 
> of a new development paradigm, where the focus shifts from editing source 
> code to a higher graphical level (the UML diagrams) WHILE maintaining 
> performance (!). Yes, there are other higher level tools, like the scripting 
> languages, which are also very inefficient (read "slow"). What RR allows is 
> higher level (and graphical) development in the form of UML diagrams !!AND!! 
> no loss in performance (in its ability to generate source code for efficient 
> compiled languages). 
> 
> So, this new dev paradigm standardizes on UML, with "legacy" compiled 
> languages (C++, etc) as an interim state. RR's appeal is not in its drawing 
> abilities, but in introducing a new development cycle: Legacy-source-code -> 
> UML-diagrams -> many-lang-source-code -> binary-executable. Dia should not 
> just replicate RR's revolutionary approach (at least to me it looks 
> revolutionary), but integrate it in a seamless development flow, where 
> developers' resources will be focussed at the UML level, not at the 
> source-code level. 
> 
> Granted, RR present incantation's ability are far from a flawless 
> implementation of this vision (it only generates skeletal source code, for 
> one, no executable), but it is gradually improving, definitely moving in that 
> direction. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a farfetched idea for the open sorce 
> community to also start looking in this direction, maybe put some resources 
> in this potential upcoming battle (from my point of view). And possibly a 
> major one, if the implications sketched in this message materialize (for 
> example, expect Microsoft to buy Rational,Inc and integrate Rose into 
> VisualStudio, if the dev paradigm described here starts to get serious 
> momentum ... or if they read this e-mail - ha, ha; like with the internet, MS 
> won't see it coming, but once it focusses its formidable resources on 
> something, watch out for bodies falling; just read that they bought a third 
> of Corel, a war trophy, no doubt).
> 
> But coming back to Dia vs. RR, it's more than the drawing ...
> 
> So I guess that's my opinion on the subject.
> Vio
> 
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