Robert Klemme said:
>  - UML is used for modeling *and* graphical programming.  IMHO it's better
> suited to modeling than to programming; the difficulties getting a proper
> UML tool with working reverse engineering are a good indication for this
> point.
>
>  - People often do not distinguish between these two use cases of UML and
> that creates some confusion.
>
> I still find UML (or rather a subset of it) quite useful to sketch or
> design certain aspects of a system.  I never use it for direct code
> manipulation as I've experienced too many problems with this.  Also I
> think it's not productive to model a complete system down do every detail
> with UML - which is what you would have to do if you wanted to get code
> out of this.

I like Martin Fowler's descriptions of how UML is used (cf.
http://martinfowler.com/bliki/UmlMode.html): As a Sketch, as a Blue Print
and as a Programming Language.  I definitely fall in the the UmlAsSketch
category, with occasional excursions into the land of UmlAsBluePrint. 
Unfortunately, the UML standardization process is heavily oriented toward
the UmlAsProgrammingLanguage camp (i.e. MDA) and UML 2.0 is loaded with
heavy semantics that most people will most people will probably never
bother to understand.

-- 
-- Jim Weirich     jim / weirichhouse.org    http://onestepback.org
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"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct,
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)