Are You Using OMG's Model-Driven Architecture?

Mazzaroth queries: "Over the last few years, system architects saw many middleware and language eras. RPC, CORBA, .Net, EJB/J2EE (with WebLogic, WebSphere, and the zillion of other apps servers), XML/SOAP, Java, C++, C#, to name a few. More recently, an effort has been initiated to isolate application's architecture from the middleware particularities: Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). The idea is pretty good. This will eventually allow me to model the application, deploy it on .NET, then change my mind and go for WebLogic instead for instance. Even if the number of software engineering tools supporting MDA is quite limited for now, I would like to get feedback from people using an MDA approach to develop their application. What are the drawbacks, difficulties and limitations of MDA? What would be required in UML to better support MDA? What percentage of code can actually be generated? Can you share your experience?"

Comments

Don't bother

[ClosedSource]

All these cross-platform, cross-language, cross-vendor schemes are the perpetual motion machines of the software world.

almost none

[random735]

I'm working on a large project at a big blue colored company in which we use UML models coupled with a code generator to target EJB deployment. Let's just say getting the models and code generator correct for ONE distributed architecture is bad enough. I don't want to think about trying to get it working for multiple deployment platforms.

And let's face it, the idea of writing your EJB and then deploying it on any EJBServer using any DB backend is a pipedream as well. So consider the problems with that, then imagine multiplying them by the number of different distributed architectures you want to support...forget it.

What's the point of all this anyway? Abstraction isn't always needed... the appropriate platform, code for it, optimize for it, test on it. Don't target 5 when you only need 1.

The Only Answer You Need!

[avdi]

Blah blah blah failed idea blah blah unrealistic ivory tower academic fantasy blah blah cleaner in LISP yadda UNIX did this thirty years ago blah blah you should be using Python instead blah blah engineering methodologies are all crap blah blah no silver bullet blah blah C++ is for ninnies blah blah just start coding blah blah you should be using UML blah blah UML is worthless shite yadda yadda my company tried this and now I'm unemployed yackety schmackety snake oil blah blah this is the next revolution in software engineering yadda yadda that's a one-liner in Perl blah de blah there's no such thing as cross-platform blather blather the OMG ran over my dog, I wouldn't trust them mumble mumble you really should be reading the book by Hungadunga et. all babble babble duh, it's called the "Eggs Over-Easy" Pattern, stupid! burble snork why aren't you using W3C-standard XMLXSSTYXJW-XYZZY Transubstantiations? blah blah blah...

There, that should about cover it!