Timeline for Did the need for software design specification significantly decrease with the evolution of more expressive programming languages?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9, 2017 at 17:04 | comment | added | RubberDuck | The creator of Matlab Simulink did. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 17:00 | comment | added | JimmyJames | @RubberDuck I had the pleasure of working with an IDE a long time ago for Java that basically treated UML and code as two sides of the same coin. Updating the code updated the diagrams and vice-versa in real time. It was really cool but in order to keep all the detail of the UML in the Java code, it had to use comments (this was before Java had annotations.) So I conclude that Java did/does not have the ability to express those elements of UML. I wonder if anyone has approached language design from this angle. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 16:58 | comment | added | Frank Puffer | @JimmyJames: I absolutely agree. All of the disadvantages I listed in my question do not apply to generated diagrams (and generated documentation in general). | |
| May 9, 2017 at 16:56 | comment | added | RubberDuck | I like that you mention generating diagrams @JimmyJames. I prefer generation over manual creation. You've a very valid point, but I wonder if it's a function of expressiveness or tooling. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 16:55 | comment | added | Frank Puffer | @RubberDuck: Diagrams do make sense in some cases, for example to explain the overall architecture. But I don't think that they should be the default. There are definitely good and useful diagrams but unfortunately most UML I have seen is more confusing than helpful. And what's worse, it often differs from the actual implementation. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 16:53 | comment | added | JimmyJames | @RubberDuck It occurs to me that the ability (or lack thereof) to generate various useful diagrams from code could be a measure of the expressiveness of a language. There no diagram that you can draw that cannot be expressed in some sort of language. The question is whether that language can convey the same information in a way that can easily be written or read. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 16:19 | comment | added | RubberDuck | @FrankPuffer a diagram is worth 100,000 LoC. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 14:32 | comment | added | Frank Puffer | Sure, high level documentation that doesn't deal with details is absolutely required. But that's exactly what I expect from a good programming language. It should allow to write code at different levels of detail. Code doesn't have to be an unstructured mess of low level instructions. | |
| May 9, 2017 at 13:00 | history | answered | JacquesB | CC BY-SA 3.0 |