Drawing diagrams
Author
Hiya,
Does anyone still draw diagrams on paper nowadays? I do it a lot but I can never find a decent way to express classes, private/public members and derived classes well on paper. It usually ends up as a mess. How do you do it, and do you find that it actually helps at all when you come to the coding stage?
Cheers,
Kris
UML is great, also simple flow diagrams are drawn up on paper. These are rough sketches and nothing is wrong with them. If you are going to be sharing them with a bunch of people, print them up though...
I make diagrams on paper. They help me think when I am planning. I don't try to follow them exactly. Instead, I keep them around to remind me what I thought of, even if I have decided to change some of the details. As to representing members, I don't bother representing them at all; they are part of the implementation, which I usually find is best planned out directly in code. Instead, my diagrams represent class hierarchies and general program architecture. I mostly just write things in boxes or circles and draw arrows between them.
I draw diagrams in my head. I probably could visualize the actual paper too if I thought it would be helpful :)
Author
UML looks good, but I can't find a decent looking (and free, preferably non-java) Windows program that can use it. Any suggestions?
I use pen and paper as a backup storage system, in case I forget details after thinking of them, and also as a validation tool by forcing me to write down all the details related to a concept.
Most things I write down are thrown away a few minutes later when I realize there was an error in them, because there was this one little detail among hundreds of others that just doesn't work (and I only thought of it when I actually had to write it down).
The things I keep are not written in UML, simply because I do not understand the need for using UML in a team of one. UML is greatly inferior to "proprietary" graphical formats that better reflect my own train of thoughts, and use emotional and connotational content in addition to their basic structure.
Most things I write down are thrown away a few minutes later when I realize there was an error in them, because there was this one little detail among hundreds of others that just doesn't work (and I only thought of it when I actually had to write it down).
The things I keep are not written in UML, simply because I do not understand the need for using UML in a team of one. UML is greatly inferior to "proprietary" graphical formats that better reflect my own train of thoughts, and use emotional and connotational content in addition to their basic structure.
I find that UML diagrams help enormously. It usually saves the code ending up a mess. Usually the diagram gets a few changes during the actual coding. I also find myself making notes and scribbling ideas on paper, so I always have a notebook or something nearby.
I use Dia to draw the UML diagrams.
I use Dia to draw the UML diagrams.
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