My Homework Told Me to Drink Beer: My Introduction to OO
September 22, 2009 · 2 Comments
Most of my object oriented (OO) knowledge up to this point has been purely theoretical. A few years ago I decided to go to grad school to get a double masters in Information Systems and Library Science. Unfortunately I haven't completed it yet because I found a FT job, but I fully intend to complete my degree.
I signed up for my first quarter of classes late and ended up taking an advanced class called 'Information Systems Analysis & Design'. From the description, I could not tell what the class was about. It turned out to be a UML (Unified Modeling Language) modeling class. This was the textbook:
 Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development by Craig Larman |
When I first looked at the book I had no idea what UML or Patterns were and no idea why neither of the pictures on the cover are not sailboats. The class and the text assumed I had basic knowledge of OO and Java. Needless to say, the text was difficult to get through sometimes.
One evening as I was feeling particuarly lost with the reading assignment, I came upon p. 237.
I had to do a double-take! Did my homework really just tell me to drink beer? Yes, yes it did. Best. Class. Ever.
Well, to make a long story short, things started to click and my final project was to model a shopping cart for a music store. Seeing as I've re-written my spagetti code shopping cart/CMS system around 4 times by this point, I passed the class with flying colors.
But what did I really learn from the class? I came out with a basic understanding of what an object is and how to make pretty pictures to represent them in UML. I also am now a big fan of the Use Case and iterative design.
What I didn't have any idea about was how to apply these diagrams to ColdFusion. I was not yet using CFCs so the connection between components and objects wasn't there. I also had no idea what a pattern was. Which I find funny seeing how the book title has the word 'Patterns' in it. That would come later, and is the subject of a future blog post.
Tags: Object Oriented (OO) · Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Comments
Jose Galdamez wrote on 09/22/09 6:28 PM
I just started my Master of Information Management this semester. In one of my classes we'll eventually get to discussing UML, but we haven't gotten quite there yet. We were recommended to get another book called "UML Explained," but I ended up weaseling out and got an O'Reilly book through Amazon instead. Looking forward to seeing how you're applying UML to CF.
Jim Leether wrote on 09/22/09 1:11 PM
Sometimes drinking beer slows the mind down just enough to where the words don't jumble together on the page. Just ask Ray Camden.....beer is the answer. I don't know why but it just is.