UML Design and Auto-Generated Code: Issues and Practical Solutions

Abstract : This article is based on experience gained during the early history of a project being worked on at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. One of the customer requirements on this project was a specific development tool based on Unified Modeling Language (UML) Version 1.3, namely Rational Rose RealTime (RoseRT). The project issues and solutions presented in this article are from the real-time control system. The configured software items consist of software design elements expressed in UML from which C++ code can be automatically generated. The observations presented in this article do not necessarily apply to all UML-based development tools, but the authors have made an attempt to raise a few issues of general interest to those involved in similar projects. The focus of UML is to model systems using object-oriented concepts and methodology. UML consists of a set of model elements that standardize the design description. These elements include a number of fundamental model elements and modeling concepts, in addition to views that allow designers to examine a design from different perspectives, and diagrams to illustrate the relationships among model elements.