UML, Free Software and Umbrello UML Modeller
KDE User and Administrator Conference
2004 KDE Community World Summit
Speaker: Jonathan Riddell
Language: English
Talk is scheduled for: Saturday, 28th of August 2004, 15:30 - 16:15
Check the Schedule for an overview of all talks during this conference.
Bazaar style collaborative development of Free Software has a reputation for being haphazard and without care for careful planning of the design of the software. The Unified Modelling Language can be used to create diagrams of software giving an abstracted view impossible with pure programming code.
Umbrello UML Modeller, of which I am the project administrator is the leading Free Software UML tool available nativly for Unix and is part of KDE SDK.
UML can be used to create diagrams of programmes which are directly related to the resulting software code, specifying classes, their attributes and methods and the relationship between those classes. Using Umbrello's code generators, available for an increasing number of programming languages, these diagrams can be used as a replacement for the early stages of programming. Use case and component diagrams give a higher level of abstraction which allow a programmer to develop their ideas about the program before having to think about codeing issues. UML diagrams can also be used for documentation of a program, Umbrello is being used for this by Quanta HTML editor.
Because UML is standardised and language independent its simple diagrams can be understood by an increasing number of programmers, an incredible help when developing with coders on the other side of the world who you've never met. Unfortunately Umbrello, like an increasing number of Free Software programmes, is threatened by software patents which if upheld could be used to restrict the functionality the program can provide.
About Jonathan Riddell
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Jonathan Riddell works as a freelance Free Software developer and a licenced rickshaw driver. Besides Umbrello UML Modeller (http://uml.sourceforge.net) he has helped with en-gb convertion, Gwenview's KPart Konqueror plugin, the sidebar media player and kio-mac. As the KDE wing of the Quaker Free Software Mafia he has helped organize stalls at several UK exhibitions. Jonathan usually lives in Edinburgh. |
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