How to actually write a program?

Peter Hansen peter at engcorp.com
Mon Sep 6 19:02:50 EDT 2004


Neil Benn wrote:

> Nick Evans wrote:
>> I have been on and off learning to code ...
> 
>          It's good that you are thinking of this rather than just trying 
> to manically write some code to see what happens.  As a general point, 
> there is a system that you can use to help you model out your program 
> (taught to most computer science students).  This system is called UML 
> (Unified Modeling Language) - I would advise getting a good book about 
> UML and reading through that.  

Ahhh!!  Run!  Run, Neil, run!  UML!

> It's is complementary to the XP (Extreme 
> Programming) stuff that people are talking about.

Ahhh!!! Run away some more!  UML and XP are nearly anti-thetical.
Don't even consider going there.  (Well, consider it, but please
don't waste any money buying a UML book as you do.  Find a few
web sites, then ... run away!  It's cheaper that way.)

In my opinion, if you try to get a beginning programmer to work using
UML when he isn't even sure how to start writing code in an empty
file, you will not have a beginning programmer for long.  And I
don't mean because you've just got him over that initial hump...

In another opinion of mine, if you try to get a more advanced
programmer to work using UML, you also deserve whatever you get...

-rabidly-anti-UML-ically y'rs,
  Peter



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