Model Driven Development

[Bruce Adams]

On Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:11:27 +0100, JAnderson <ask at me.com> wrote:

> Bruce Adams wrote:
>> Hi,
>>    I don't know if this has come up before but is always worth a review  
>> every so often. As far as model driven development goes
>> are there any tools out there currently that support or plan to support  
>> code generation for D and round trip engineering
>> (that is syncing the code back into the model). I'm also curious as to  
>> peoples opinions on model driven development in general
>> (please keep the religious flame wars to a minimum though eh :).
>>  Regards,
>>  Bruce.
>
> I like the idea of modern driven development.  I think that it gives a  
> better way to communicate to the team what is happening.  The only model  
> tool I've used is rational rose however it was clunky.
>
> The trouble is, I haven't found a good one yet.  I think the only model  
> driven development tool I'd be able to use is where the editor is built  
> around it so your kinda forced to learn it (old habits die hard).   It  
> would also be more appealing if it provide some drag-drop productivity  
> improvements such as refactoring tools (free functions into class, class  
> into free functions, break up class, switch into class etc...).
>
> It would be cool if it was done in an 3D framework so you could quickly  
> zoom in and out of stuff kinda like the iphone.
>
> -Joel

Eclipse has a modelling framework. I don't know how far it goes. It also  
support
re-factoring in java and less so in C++ (unsurprisingly its very java  
centric).
Descent is based on Eclipse isn't it? So in theory we could have the EMF  
(eclipse modelling framework)
available with only a small effort.

For context. I've been prompted to ask these questions mainly because I've  
been forced to sit
through YAUMLC*. We were using enterprise architect which is cheap and  
relatively effective.
Though also very bug ridden. I'm pretty much in the same camp as the other  
responders so far.
If I need to draw a diagram or see one it will be vaguely in UML in as far  
as any of us remember
a particular standard correctly.
As far as actually using modelling in practice. I've yet to come across a  
project that tried to do it
and didn't keel over and die. In theory it must be possible or people  
wouldn't be flogging the same
dead horse all this time would they?
As far as modelling maturity levels go (see  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modeling_Maturity_Level) the
highest I've seen in a working project is about 1.5 (using something like  
Doxygen which generates class diagrams
for you). This is hardly model *driven*. Has anyone actually used this  
approach successfuly?

Regards,

Bruce.


* yet another UML course.