Steve Cook's WebLog

The beta version of UML 2.5 is now available at http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.5/Beta1/ .  Potential users and implementers are encouraged to read it and raise issues for consideration by the Finalization Task Force.  Issues may be logged at...

When UML 2.4 was released we discovered an issue that meant it was impossible to interchange StructuredActivityNodes reliably. StructuredActivityNodes are executable nodes in an activity diagram that are also groups.  UML 2.4 doesn’t specify clearly...

Last week I was at the OMG meeting in Salt Lake City. A high point of the meeting was issuing a Request for Proposals for a new “metamodel extension facility”, which could in time replace the current UML profile capability with a better designed and more...

I’ll be off to Salt Lake City in a couple of weeks for the next OMG meeting. One thing I’m going to try and do is get a Request for Proposals issued for a Metamodel Extension Facility that will improve and extend the current UML Profiles capability. UML...

I just finished participating in the OMG meeting in Arlington. Our work on UML 2.5 is moving along, although more slowly than I would like. We’ve got a decent scheme for generating substantial portions of the specification directly from the metamodel...

Alan Wills has created a new sample that pulls together several of the capabilities of our Visualization and Modeling SDK . The sample illustrates: How to associate data with any UML element by using References . How to add decorators to UML elements...

Finally we have completed all of the technical processes for creating UML 2.4. Now it just has to go through the OMG’s voting procedures and, assuming it passes, will be formally issued as the latest UML specification. We’ve given a lot of attention to...

I’m back from the OMG meeting in Santa Clara. We talked a lot about the future of UML. Just about everybody is agreed that we need to create UML 3, but there are some real practical dilemmas. Currently UML is complicated and it can take a lot of expertise...

There is an XMI 2.1 Exporter now available for VS2010 UML Tools. It is available as source code in the form of a sample. It builds into a VS Extension which you can easily install, and which will enable you to export UML models in the standard XMI 2.1...

I’m currently hurtling through the French countryside at some significant fraction of the speed of sound on the Eurostar train from Paris to London. I’m returning from giving a keynote talk at Model Driven Day . I spoke about UML – Past, Present and Future...

I had a conversation recently in which the following three use cases for UML were suggested: UML as a precise graphical representation of existing programming languages UML as a higher level full life-cycle development language UML as a means to communicate...

Jean Bézivin is telling the story of UML on his blog. His post on How to choose the good ingredients to get a good UML? makes some really key points about what happened in 1996. I guess I’m glad that we managed to get OCL into UML, but I remain disappointed...

I’d like to explore the idea that UML could be made more useful to mainstream developers if it were redesigned so that a UML model could directly represent the semantics and terminology of modern programming languages. For example, if you are working...

I just arrived back from the Object Management Group’s September meeting in Cambridge (the one across the river from Boston, not the one in UK where I went to university and go to work). I want to make UML more relevant to mainstream developers...

Our DSL Tools book website at http://www.domainspecificdevelopment.com/ has been updated with references to the latest SDK and documentation.

I have co-written a paper about the future of UML with Ivar Jacobson . You can find it here. Let me know what you think!

Back in 1994 I co-authored a book on modelling with my colleague John Daniels . We called our approach “Syntropy”. The book has been out of print for several years now. Sales were modest, but it was quite influential. The Object Constraint Language, which...

I’ve recently become a signatory to SEMAT (Software Engineering Method and Theory). They’ve been trying to get me to sign up for some time but I resisted so far. Why did I change my mind? Originally, SEMAT was branded as “a revolution in software engineering...

I’ve just finished the OMG meeting in Jacksonville. I got my first taste of the Board of Directors: it was bigger than I thought, but otherwise much as I expected. We had interesting procedural and technical moves to get some standards through the Architecture...

Channel 9 has published seven interesting interviews with Ivar Jacobson, in which he gives an insider’s perspective on the history and development of UML, as well as promoting some of the things he is working on now. There is some interesting historical...

I shall be speaking at the Microsoft Architect Insight Conference on 31st March, soon after arriving back from the next OMG meeting in Jacksonville. My topic will be “The Role of Modeling Standards in Visual Studio 2010” and I’m planning to talk about...

We’ve all been working very hard on beta 2 which is now available – see Cameron's announcement . I’ve been particularly working on the API for creating, accessing and updating UML models. Cameron has also started a series of posts entitled Modeling and...

I got back from San Antonio a week ago. The jetlag was bad this time; I’d been in the USA for two weeks and it’s taken me a week to get back to normal. San Antonio was a nice place to go. The river walk was very enjoyable, and we had some great meals...

Reminder: the closing date for submissions to the Future Development of UML RFI is the 17 th August. There will be an all-day workshop to discuss the responses to this RFI on Sunday 13 th September in San Antonio. If you wish to present at this workshop...

In my last two posts I outlined the basic ideas of Parts, Ports and Connectors as they appear in Structured Classes. This time I’m going to discuss Components, and in particular the changes we’ve been making in UML 2.3 so that the Components chapter is...