Real-Time UML: Developing Efficient Objects for Embedded Systems (Paperback)

by Bruce Powel Douglass (Author), David Harel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
It's no surprise that object-oriented analysis and design can work for embedded systems--such as those in VCRs, car engines, elevators, pacemakers, and other hardware devices--which far outnumber traditional computers. That's the argument of Bruce Douglass's Real-Time UML, which presents the latest modeling techniques using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) in the context of embedded design. This book is a successful introduction to both UML and the vagaries of embedded systems, which have their own set of pitfalls and constraints for efficiency and high reliability.

Real-Time UML is good at presenting the basics of modeling objects, from class design to object behavior, with an eye for the rich set of diagrams available in UML used along the way. Examples, from elevators to medical systems, are used to illustrate the theory.

The authors are up to speed with the latest research on "patterns" (reusable higher order designs) that can be used for embedded systems--especially within the chapters on design. It's obvious from this clearly written and comprehensive book that embedded systems can benefit from the methodology and notational strengths of UML. This manual avoids the abstraction of a lot of software engineering texts and relies on some good real-world detail for its examples. It's definitely a recommended source for any embedded-systems developer who wants to ramp up on the new details of UML.

Product Description
Real-time systems programmers face unique challenges. Qualities such as execution speed and memory size are paramount in the development of real-time systems, and performance is a fundamental aspect of correctness in this domain. Given these constraints and requirements, it is fair to say that the development of real-time systems is more challenging than that of most software systems. Yet the lack of a standard notation and design process has discouraged embedded systems developers from adopting a revolutionary new approach to software design--object technology--that has produced clearly identifiable benefits in less specialized software applications.

With the development and wide adoption of a standard notation, the Unified Modified Language (UML), real-time systems developers can now avail themselves of the benefits and advantages of object technology. UML is a 3rd generation modeling language which rigorously defines the semantics of the object metamodel and provides a notation for capturing and communicating object structure and behavior. It is particularly well-suited to modeling real-time and embedded systems. Real-Time UML is the introduction that developers of real-time systems need to make the transition to object-oriented analysis and design and modeling with UML. It covers the important features of the UML and shows how to effectively use the UML to model real-time systems. The book includes special in-depth discussions of finite state machines, object identification strategies, and real-time design patterns to help beginning and experienced developers alike.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 363 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman; 1st edition (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201325799
• ISBN-13: 978-0201325799
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,788,448 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you write embedded software go and buy this now, September 16, 1999

By	Daniel Moth (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Simply stated the first book to devote itself to UML for real-time systems and the only author that does it. Although my background is not in the embedded world, this book introduced me to real-time systems, discussed the advantages in taking the OO approach to developing embedded systems and then explained the UML notation with the real-time extensions and a process for applying it. A MUST HAVE for every embedded developer. END

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is not a good book as it was supposed to, August 16, 2000

By	John Hsu (Vancouver) - See all my reviews

The title of the book is good. But the book itself is not as good as it should be. The C++ codes are awful!

I prefer one of this author's white paper "State Modeling Using Statecharts and Timing Diagrams" which can be found on online. All he wants to say are there.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your Money, December 6, 2002

By	Daniel J. Danner - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Real-Time UML: Developing Efficient Objects for Embedded Systems (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book is so poorly edited that the examples are very difficult to follow. It appears that this book was originally written as a much bigger book, and then was severely edited-down to its final size. In the process the examples that are used throughout the book were cut-up to the point where they no longer hold together. There are too many inconsistencies between the various sections of the book to follow the details in the examples.

A much better book is by the same author: "Doing Hard Time: Developing Real-Time Systems with UML, Objects, Frameworks and Patterns". This book does an excellent job covering the following very difficult topics: 1. Designing Hard Real-Time, Embedded Systems; 2. Designing Object-Oriented Systems; 3. Using UML correctly; 4. Using OO Patterns; 5. Designing an OO Framework