Chapter 2: Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Overview

If you're the only programmer working on a small project, drawing a small sketch of the application on paper or keeping the design completely in your mind is often sufficient. A solo programmer can usually complete a project without any problems this way.

Say that you were to get a larger project requiring two developers. You're the one who's responsible for designing the system, and the second developer is there to help you write the code. How would you communicate the design of this system to the other person? You could describe in words what classes were necessary and provide a description of how the system functions both for the end user and internally. After a while, you might end up with a lot of text describing the system. If you imagine a larger project, it quickly becomes clear that describing a large software system purely in words is not practical. If you created diagrams of your own design, you'd have the added task of explaining your system of notation to the other members of the team.

Another language exists, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), which was designed to solve this problem. UML is primarily a language of standardized diagrams, each of which lends itself to describing a particular area of software design. UML gives everyone the same way of "speaking'' about a system and provides a powerful method of visualizing it.



Professional PHP5 (Programmer to Programmer Series)
Professional PHP5 (Programmer to Programmer Series)
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 182

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net