UML 2.4 is complete

  • Article

Finally we have completed all of the technical processes for creating UML 2.4.  Now it just has to go through the OMG’s voting procedures and, assuming it passes, will be formally issued as the latest UML specification.

We’ve given a lot of attention to making the machine-readable specification of UML 2.4 solid.  That does not mean it is perfect, by any means, but it is a lot better than any earlier version.  The specification of UML 2.4 is itself a UML 2.4 model serialized using XMI 2.4, which can be imported by any UML 2.4-compliant tool.

We’ve now started working on UML 2.5.  From an end-user and tool-vendor perspective, UML 2.5 should be the same as UML 2.4.  The main point of UML 2.5 is to greatly simplify the specification itself, so that future improvements become tractable.  Additional goals of UML 2.5 are to formally specify what diagrams are valid, to correct inaccurate constraints, and to fill in missing ones. I’ll only be satisfied if we reduce the total length of the specification by at least half.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2011
    For real?

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2011
    Nice to hear that the UML 2.4 specification can now be imported by any UML 2.4-compliant tool. Now this bring to the forefront several new interesting questions, like :

  • will these UML 2.4-compliant tools be able to self-check if they follow the entire specification?
  • will the modifications to the UML 2.4 specifications be made avalaible as a delta model? If yes will the tools be able to auomatically adapt to these new specifications? In the case of UML 2.5 which is mainly simplications, this goal may be partially reachable.
  • Anonymous
    February 01, 2011
    first launch uml 2.4 then think about uml 2.5, don't act like RamGopal Verma(bollywood film director)...