October 27, 2003
A Few Thoughts as I Get Close to Finishing This (Computer) Book...
I've just about finished reading:
Designing Data-Intensive Web Applications
which goes along with a methodology:
WebML ("UML for the Web")
and a CASE tool (which I've got a 9 month "academic" license to work with):
WebRatio
Herewith, just a couple of (very positive!) thoughts about it (as I penned them in an e-mail today)...
Believe it or not, this system actually provides me a tool (and a methodology, a way of approaching the problem) to build a Struts (or, for that matter, .NET) website. Fairly amazing. I hope to use it to actually build things, but more importantly gain better understanding about how Struts, MVC(2), etc. work.
As for the WebML methodology, it is pretty interesting. The web geek software dev guru
guy who wrote the preface for their book (Adam Bosworth, chief architect at
BEA WebLogic, and inventor of MS-Access, Quattro Pro database, etc.),
described what these Italian computer science professors and database "big
brains" types have come up with as "something very nearly as simple and elegant as
the relational calculus."
---- (Let's use the (new today!!!) Amazon "Search Inside The Book" feature, to give you a link right to the page I'm talking about (and let's use tinyurl.com, to make it more palatable/clickable)):
---- http://tinyurl.com/2fdqk (See the Page in the Book!)
Also at: http://snipurl.com/webml_book
Now, I scarcely know what "the relational calculus" really means, actually, but, I do know when something's supposed to be "simple and elegant," so that works for me.
At any rate, even I, non-Adam Bosworth that I am, can appreciate how this books' contents just flow: the ideas stack up and just keep making sense, chapter after chapter. You get a feeling you know where to put things, even pretty abstract things. Nice.
With the tool, just following along their tutorial, I'm able to create what is under the hood a somewhat involved Struts application (though it's older Struts - don't know the number exactly, 1.1 (?)). Interesting. (You can do .NET too.)
Don't just take my word for it. Here's another (glowing) opinion, seen on the WebML "Community" board: THIS book is probably one of the BEST technical books I've ever picked up... (and it gets better... ;^)
What I don't yet understand is why there are NO Reader Reviews up on Amazon for this title. Hmmmm. And in bookstores, I find it sort of mis-shelved, over with books with the word "Design" in them (near CSS and site architecture and such). So, I hope it's getting around and getting known. May have to log in to Amazon and put up a review of my own, when I'm better prepared.
From the WebRatio product page:
"COMPLEXITY MADE SIMPLE"
"THE UML OF THE WEB"
"DEVELOPMENT PROCESS RESHAPED"
"SIMPLICITY NOT SIMPLIFICATION"
and finally
"SIMPLICITY IS COMPLEXITY RESOLVED.
TO ACHIEVE SIMPLICITY WE MASTERED COMPLEXITY"
You can tell they're pretty excited. But, they have reason to be!
More to follow.
Wm.
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fwiw: here's that tiny URL in all its non-tiny glory:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1558608435/ref=sib_vae_pg_6?%5Fencoding=UTF8&keywords=relational%20calculus&p=S008&twc=1&checkSum=kvwd00gcHud0ts%2FwazcCG%2FCxsldcKHYBLYtQDZloBSo%3D#reader-link See The Page Inside The Book