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Pros and Cons of MDA Code Generators?

Posted by Cliff on from the code-writing-code dept.

amartel asks: "Four years ago, Ask Slashdot asked if anyone was using a Model-Driven Architecture. The number of MDA tools are now almost overwhelming, and I strongly believe that comments to the same questions would be rather different nowadays. What are the drawbacks, difficulties and limitations of MDA? What percentage of code can actually be generated? I would like to add a few more: is it realistic to create a custom GUI rather than CRUD operations with these tools? Finally, what about Microsoft, the new competitor on the scene, and their DSL Tools?"

1 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. MDA is best served with a large mountain of salt by _flan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have had (am having) the displeasure of being part of a pilot project for an in-house MDA utility based on Rose and Eclipse. In a nutshell: it sucks.

    There are two general problems that I've encountered:

    • Poor granularity
    • Crappy tools

    The granularity problem is that you have to spend a lot of time specifying fine-grained details in the model that are more easily expressed in code. Examples are: method calls, persistence, behavior parameters, etc. Often these details don't even show up on the screen. This makes them almost useless for someone trying to understand what is going on. This is a big problem and not going away.

    The tool problem is that if the tools don't help you work effectively, the whole process fails. Using Rose is like sticking pins under your toenails and kicking a wall. Rose seems to get in your way on purpose with a hideous interface. Sure, this problem is tool-related, but its impact is huge. It can turn what should be simple into a marathon of pain.

    So far, we've spent weeks on a toy application that should have taken two days. Perhaps these in-house tools will evolve to the point of usability, but somehow I doubt it.

    Ian