2.0. The UML Defined

The Unified Modeling Language User Guide states the following:

The UML is a language for

  • Visualizing

  • Specifying

  • Constructing

  • Documenting

the artifacts of a software-intensive system. [BOOCH99]

Visual Programming

Don't let this analogy to Java confuse you. The UML is not a visual programming language. The UML enables us to create an expression of our application in the form of a model. We can't express many implementation-specific details in the UML. The UML does map nicely to Java, and this mapping is discussed in Chapter 3. Helping you to model, and ultimately design, more effectively is a goal of this book.

Exploring this definition further enables us to realize the true intent of the UML. As stated previously, the UML is ...

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