UML是可视化的语言



The UML Is a Language

    A language provides a vocabulary and the rules for combining words in that vocabulary for the purpose of communication. A modeling language is a language whose vocabulary and rules focus on the conceptual and physical representation of a system. A modeling language such as the UML is thus a standard language for software blueprints.
 
     Modeling yields an understanding of a system. No one model is ever sufficient. Rather, you often need multiple models that are connected to one another to understand anything but the most trivial system. For software-intensive systems, this requires a language that addresses the different views of a system' s architecture as it evolves throughtout the software decelopment life cycle.

    The vocabulary and rules of a language such as the UML tell you how to create and read well-formed models, but they don't tell you what models you should create and when you should create them. That's the role of the software development process. A well-defined process will guide you in deciding what artifacts to produce, what activities and what workers to use to create them and manage them, and how to use those artifacts to measure and control the project as a whole.
 
      作为一门语言需要有自身的词汇表和以交流为目的使用这些词汇构成语句的语法． 建模语言的词汇表和语法集中在一个系统的概念上和其物理表现上．像UML这类的建模语言就是构建软件蓝图的标准化的语言．

     建模过程让一个系统易于理解．这个系统的模型不可能包含所有的功能．恰恰相反，你通常需要重复建构模型，以利于将那些有用的但却很琐碎的系统包含进来．比如软件密集型系统，这类系统需要一门语言从系统结构的不同视点使得整个软件开发生命周期进化．

    像UML这类的语言，其词汇表和语法告诉你如何构建和阅读结构良好的模型，但是它们不能告诉你构建一个什么样的模型，也不能告诉你什么时候构建模型．那是软件开发过程的职责．一个有良好定义的过程将会指导你哪些是人工界入过程，哪是是自动的过程，过程由谁创建又由谁管理，以及如何通过人工来度量和控制项目的整体．