The UML Profile for Framework Architectures [Paperback]

Marcus Fontoura (Author), Wolfgang Pree (Author), Bernhard Rumpe (Author)

Book Description

Series: Addison-Wesley Object Technologiey Series | Publication Date: December 12, 2001

The aim of the UML profile for framework architectures is the definition of a UML subset, enriched with a few UML-compliant extensions, which allows the annotation of such artefacts. Thus, the resulting profile that we call UML-F does not correspond to a specific domain, but to framework technology. Though profiles might be standardized in the future, sound proposals from various communities will get the process of defining and standardizing UML profiles started. In that sense, this book sets the stage for the UML profile for framework architectures.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The UML community has begun to define a series of 'profiles' which better suit the needs of UML-users within specific domains, settings or technologies.

The UML Profile for Framework Architectures provides a UML profile for object and component frameworks. It shows how to describe framework architectures and to support framework modeling and annotation by using UML-compliant extensions.

If you are a software developer, project manager, researcher or student interested in design patterns, framework technology or UML, this book is essential reading. It will enable you to:

• Understand the basic elements of the UML-F profile and to harness UML to support framework development more effectively.
• Define UML-F tags for domain-specific design patterns.
• Learn a real-world approach for framework design, development and adaptation, through practical hints and guidelines.
• Apply UML-F, illustrated by the sample framework JUnit and a framework for embedded control system.

Features:

• Real-world case studies, introducing eXtreme Design concepts and how to put the process you have learned to work.
• Cookbook of generic 'recipes' that guide you through the framework adaptation process and help you accomplish specific tasks.
• Accompanying website http://www.UML-F.net containing Java source code for all the examples described in the book, additional examples, complementary papers and UML-F presentation slides.

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About the Author

Wolfgang Pree is professor of computer science at the University of Constance, Germany until the end of 2001, moving to the University of Salzburg, Austria, in 2002. He has worked for several years in various areas of software engineering, in particular focusing on object technology, software architectures, frameworks, and human-computer interaction. Wolfgang is the author of Design Patterns for Object-Oriented Software Development (Addison-Wesley/ACM Press, 1995).

Marcus Fontoura has led several framework projects in the last four years and specializes in Web-based software development and service-oriented architectures. He has recently held research posts at the Computer Systems Group, University of Waterloo, Canada, and Princeton University Computer Science Department, U.S.A. He is currently a research staff member at the Computer Science Department, IBM Almaden Research Center.

Bernhard Rumpe is leading consulting and research projects on software engineering technology, such as UML, frameworks, modeling notations, object-technology, and lightweight and agile development processes at the Technische Universitaet MUenchen. His primary interest is to enhance the foundations of software and systems engineering to achieve a problem-adequate portfolio of software development skills that improve the quality and time-to-market of the product as well as allowing a better prediction in the development process. He is also co-founder of a consultancy company dealing with process, methodical and modeling issues focusing on e-business and has co-authored several books and contributed to many articles in these areas.

0201675188AB12142001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (December 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201675188
• ISBN-13: 978-0201675184
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,065,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An useful and amusing book, March 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The UML Profile for Framework Architectures (Paperback)

Whenever I read about a new UML profile for something, I wonder whether it will be really useful and also usable. Well, the UML-F profile presented in this book, happens to be both -- useful and usable, for framework developers and users, but also for people interested in frameworks, patterns and OO in general.
It is a very good, easy-to-read book (contents and style):
the authors grasp the reader's attention from the very beginning, with motivating examples and good explanations.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you are into Frameworks, UML, Design Patterns,, February 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The UML Profile for Framework Architectures (Paperback)

This is a great book! It gives a good insight into Design Patterns, Framework, Components and UML. It is especially useful as it provides a good and practical explanation while combining these concepts.
I have always been into Design Patterns, Framework, Components and UML. Although still missing some points when mixing these concepts. This book definitely provides a good clarification as it goes further into these OO concepts.
In a whole, it's a book worth studying carefully.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good in lots of ways, April 26, 2004

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wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The UML Profile for Framework Architectures (Paperback)

First, it's a very clear example of how to extend UML within its own rules for extension. Other authors need more than raw UML gives, so start adding cruft any way they want - wrong! UML was meant to be extended and has explicit points at which extension is allowed. This shows extension as it's meant to be done.

Second, it is a worthwhile application area. Frameworks have been around for years, important all out of proportion to the relativley small number of them and relatively small number of framework developers. Framework development deserves attention as a specific discipline, and it's good to see this kind of attention being paid. The authors have chosen parts of well known design patterns for examples, keeping the ideas readable and understandable.

Best, it doesn't try to pull the entire UML standard into the discussion. To tell the truth, if I printed out the whole set of UML standards documents, I'm not sure I'd be able to lift the pile. This uses a well-chosen subset of the standard, but still lets the afficionado use as much more of the standard as desired.

Still, it's just notation. It's a set of tags for making statements about frameworks. The book doesn't really go into the design of frameworks. Framework design appears to be a premise, something the reader already understands well - perhaps not a good assumption.

The real problem with this notation, though, is that it is barely useable without tool support. It's based on sets of tags, which refine other tags (using something like inheritance), which refine yet other tags. Looking at tag A, though, there is no way to know that it refines tag B. Nothing about the tag indicates its family tree of inheritance, or even where to look for the information. Also, the UML extension mechanism for tags appears not to have dealt with global uniqueness at all. Nothing prevents me and you from coming up with the same tag names independently, then causing collisions for our common customer. XML deals with global uniqueness fairly well. If XML conventions are compatible with UML, they should be used - if not, UML needs to create conventions.

On the whole, this is interesting and informative. It's nearly impossible to put to practical use without significant automation, however, and that automation is not available to me.