[PLUG] UML users?

[Phil Tomson]

On Mon, 19 May 2003, Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Mon, 19 May 2003, Phil Tomson wrote:
>
> > I've never used UML, but I'm curious: what is the appeal of UML?
>
>
> > Personally, I think that if you're working in one of the agile languages
> > like Ruby, Python, SmallTalk or Lisp/Scheme that UML offers very little
> > because it's so easy to change your design in those languages.
>
>   It's easy to change the design in _any_ language.

Perhaps, relative to changing a piece of hardware.  However, it's much
easier to change your design in a dynamically typed language than in a
statically typed one.  So let's say your change leads to needing to change
the type of an argument that shows up in a hundred or so function
declarations - not fun.  In a dynamically typed language there's no issue.

Check out this article by Paul Graham:

"Why Hacking is like Painting"
http://paulgraham.com/hp.html

Key quote:

"A good programming language should, like oil paint, make it easy
to change your mind. Dynamic typing is a win here because you don't have
to commit to specific data representations up front. But the key to
flexibility, I think, is to make the language very abstract. The easiest
program to change is one that's very short."

Phil