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Was wondering what the easiest way to create a UML diagram for a c++ program would be? I saw some threads about a java plugin that would create the UML diagram for you, was wondering if there was one like it for C++ (using cygwin on windows).
If not any good freeware programs? I have visio I was just seeing if there were other alternatives (even used mspaint before :P)
Thanks :)
Pen and paper. Actually a pencil with an eraser might be better than a pen. No, seriously, it'll be much easier than using a program.
For anyone who is looking for something similar I recommend StarUML.
Simply install it, go to the tools tab, c++, reverse engineer and follow the options.
Worked better than expected :)
If its a project then Enterprise Architect can help. And Dox. UML Studio
But, you can just do it manually.
I'm looking for a diagramming software that would produce good looking output. It doesn't need to support everything (or even much) from UML, is doesn't need to have code engineering functions or anything, it just needs to produce visually interesting output.
Here is a couple of samples of products that I consider ugly / not good enough: Visio with default UML stencils (didn't find better looking ones), Enterprise Architect, Dia, ArgoUML and many other "professional" UML tools.
A couple of visually compelling tools that I considered (but found issues with):
Visual Studio class diagrams - just for .NET classes but the output is miles better than what UML tools typically produce
NClass - similar to VS's class diagrams but I could not find the "pretty", blue skin anywhere
yuml.me - very nice but lacking some advanced layout options. I have to say that I find their style almost ideal for high-level diagrams - they look sketchy which is good.
Balsamiq - I think Joel used this for hginit.com and I liked it. However, it's not suited for creating software diagrams so I can imagine it would be quite a lot of work
MS Word has actually quite a good graphics engine but I'd rather leave this as a choice of the last resort
I'd be grateful for any good tips.
yEd is a powerful desktop application that can be used to quickly and effectively generate high-quality diagrams
Take a look at this, a web app for creating UML diagrams!
Architexa allows you to create easily manageable UML style class, sequence, and layered diagrams from within the Eclipse IDE. It also helps speed up the process by allowing you to add items straight from your codebase.
Visio 2013 has quite some nice designs, even sketch-like layouts that are my favorites. Here's an example:
Visio seems to be the closest match for what I'm looking, something between vector editor and a software diagramming tool with decent formatting and layout options. Not optimal on many levels but the most flexible tool I tried so far.
I make (and teach people to make - I have a training module for that) very pretty Diagrams with Sparx Enterprise Architect. However I always teach people to make effective, succinct Diagrams fist, and then improve their presentation - trying to modify a diagram that has been "beautified" is unproductive.
This is definitely a hard question:) There are many tools, however the most beautiful UML diagrams are saw were made using vector graphics editor...
It also depends on what do you expect from a tool producing nice diagrams... Pretty stencils? Good layouting algorithm?
Tools which I find more or less usable are MagicDraw for the grid, BOUML for simplicity and either Papyrus or Moskitt, whichever had some layouting heuristing trying not to put classes which were made to be close too much aside.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate includes the following UML diagrams: class, sequence, component, use case, and activity. You can also generate sequence diagrams and dependency graphs from code.
For examples of how these diagrams look, see their descriptions under Developing Models for Software Design. If you can get the Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack, you can create UML class diagrams from code.
You can download the trial version of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate here. If you have an MSDN subscription, you can get the feature pack here.
Visual Studio 2010 (Ultimate) is good for UML in .NET, but it is only available to MSDN subscribers. If you are looking for another better one, I would recommend you to try Visual Paradigm.
draw.io is good, they also have a desktop application (Electron)
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How can I make an Application look nice and not like an amateur pulled it together?
I mean graphic-wise.
Is there some sort of book you can read regarding beautiful program layouts, etc?
I put this in Community Wiki so please feel free to leave your opinions that way we can all learn. :D
Edit: Oh my god. I completely forgot to mention what kind of program. I mean desktop applications. Not web applications. :D
Find a graphic designer.
I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm just sayin'. I fancy myself a pretty good developer, but I am at stick-figure level when it comes to graphic design.
The skills (and the tools) for good graphic design are fundamentally different than the skills of a developer.
Three things:
Hire a designers that knows the business models and customers; unless you are good at it yourself
To help you provide meaningful feedback to the designer, read a book like
I like Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug
Study many good Apps that have had success in the business of interest to you. Be inspired (aka copy) good ideas from them and mix in your own ideas. A prime example is how Google search "inspired" Microsoft's Bing
The following terms are really important when it comes to the look and feel of an application
User Interface Design
This talks about how the application has uniform soft colors, similarly sized controls, smooth fonts, appropriate groupings of data elements, etc.
User Experience
This is a much more difficult thing to attain. This is how intuitive the application is "Are you sure?" and "Are you Really sure?" message boxes, doing away with pop-up's and dialog boxes, auto-save, the flow from one stage to another, accuracy of data saves, and a host of other things that make the user experience truly amazing.
You cannot have good UX without good UI, but it is definitely possible to have a good UI without a good UX.
Just keep redoing it. Seriously, take all outside criticism. Ask them to be specific. If you're doing web work look at as many websites as you can. Sometimes, depending on the creator, you can email the website to ask why they did what they did and get a response. If you're doing desktop find a library you enjoy that can look good (not Swing, hate me if you want.) Then create, destroy, create, destroy, and so on until you're happy.
The biggest issue I think people have is learning to just throw away a component which isn't working for you.
I have found that going through the various desktop design guides can be pretty useful.
Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines
Apple Human Interface Guidelines
Gnome Human Interface Guides
I don't think any of them can be considered as being "correct", but they will give you a good baseline idea as to what is expected in general as far as basic theory such as alignment, spacing and widget layout goes.
I recommend reading the AskTog site:
Bruce Tognazzini... ...founded the Apple Human Interface Group and acted as Apple's Human Interface Evangelist.
There's been some great stuff in the past, like how making buttons bigger is directly proportionate to their likelihood of being clicked, how mouse movement impacted design, etc.
But if you're not into learning - by all means, find a professional designer.
For Looks: Follow you platform's Human Interface Guidelines. Use the Golden Mean to please the eye. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.
For Behavior: Watch the users use your application. Don't help them, don't correct them. Stand behind a two-way mirror if you can. You'll quickly find lots of places where your UI could use a tune-up.
I do try very hard to convince my users of the beauty of a command line interface.
Besides that, I think there is nothing better than "hallway testing". You can always hire an expert for GUI design though.
I really like the book Designing Interfaces. It presents many UI design patterns and when they are appropriate to use. It won't teach you how to make things "pretty", but it can help greatly in making your application intuitive and easy for a user to grasp. It also presents the patterns in a platform agnostic way.
There's lots of books out there are graphic design, interface design, web application design, css design, etc.
General rules:
think in terms of grids
don't fear white space
keep it simple
understand hierarchy
understand basic color theory
hire a user interface designer
Keep your coding work out of the design work, and do your mockups in photoshop or something similar before trying to implement them. Good coding and good visual UI design can be directly opposed to each other very often - what looks good on the outside takes some backend work that that most coders think is monstrous, and good UIs often require custom behavior where using standardized libraries might seem to make more sense from an engineering perspective. Having a target for the functional UI will help you to push yourself beyond the "good enough" results you might get if you let what your libraries do by default determine what the site or application will look like.
First of all, usability should always be priority #1 and should drive your design:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997577.aspx
http://www.bucketsoft.com/blog/post/is-usability-standard-changing.aspx
However, that doesn't mean your application has to be ugly. And I disagree with those who say "you either have it or you don't." I think almost anyone can develop basic design skills if they put their mind to it. The very fact that you're asking about it proves that you're interested, which is a big step towards learning. And indeed even as a developer it helps to at least have a good sense for what looks good and how to make an engaging user interface. And if it's important you can always hire a professional designer later to take it to the next level.
There are a few fundamental details to design work that have helped me:
1.) Use colors wisely. Dull colors are not bad but they can make the design look boring and uninspired by themselves. If you add exciting, more saturated colors sparingly you can emphasize the more important elements. This will not only improve the look, but it can even be used to improve the usability by bringing attention to elements that you don't want your users to miss. Again, if you overdo this it's kind of like highlighting everything in your physics book. If you do it everywhere, it loses its meaning. I wrote more about colors and contrast in my answer here.
2.) Use white space wisely. This is huge. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a website or a Windows app -- a cluttered application is an ugly one. There is a good article about this relating to web design, but the same basic rules would apply to a desktop app.
3.) Fear not the big fonts. Another means for providing emphasis -- the big font. When combined with proper whitespace, a call-to-action written in great big words can be a powerful thing visually.
Come to think of it, all of these suggestions relate to creating emphasis.
There are a lot of sites that offer tips on Graphical User Interface (GUI) design. Google for "GUI design guidelines" and you'll find some. While these tips might not make your application look 'beautiful' they can make it look professionally designed. If you want beautiful graphics you might need to get some help from a graphic artist.
Check here for a good list of books on GUI design.
I really like this book, from Joel Spolsky:
[http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B001O9LB86/ref=nosim/betteraddons-20]
General guidelines we use:
Make getting around easy: use a toolbar or side menu to access different parts of the application.
Make viewing information as easy as possible, and in different formats.
Make changing information as consistent as possible. I.e., put New, Edit, and Save buttons in the same place.
Make the most common action the easiest.
Specific guidelines we use:
Use the same or similar font across the application. Vary by size or bold to catch attention.
Use color backgrounds to group and separate types of information.
Put the most relevant information together and make the most commonly used button larger than the rest.
Don't use a drop-down control where there are only only a few options. Use a list control big enough that one doesn't have to scroll or use a radio-button.
Adding some white space can actually make it easier to read the screen or report.
Has anyone got any tips for the programmer who has no budget, or is working on a project at home for fun? We can't hire a designer, but we'd like to make a bit of an effort to get our applications looking less home-built.
I suggest showing a screenshot of your creation to family and friends. You'll hate their suggestions because they will differ from yours, of course. But it can help.
Research apps that are similar, AND some that are not, then pinch one small idea from each one!
Hire an expert. Design is something you either have or you don't. It sounds like you (just like me) are in the "don't" category :)
It'll give you an idea of where my head is at that my answer to "How do you normally make a program look beautiful?" starts with:
Short methods
Appropriate whitespace
Consistent naming conventions
Consistent formatting conventions
It's probably not a good idea to ask me what I think makes for a good UI.
I wanted to know what tools (preferably free) can be used to layout a collection of objects and their relationship - simple relationship like members referring each other, inheritance, attributes et.al. I would prefer a tool with which I can create and update the diagram as quickly as possible.
I'm not familiar with UML, but it's probably what I'm asking about.
Mock4U
alt text http://typo3.webetiser.com/fileadmin/sites/RainerEschen/downloads/mock4u/class-diagram.png
Take a look at this page on AlternativeTo, there's a lot of different options listed. Among them:
Microsoft Visio
Inkscape
Dia
OmniGraffle
OpenOffice Draw
Creately
etc.
Umlet
http://www.umlet.com/
You also have StarUML, wich is open source and similar to Rational Rose, only a bit simpler.
ArgoUML is a good free tool.
I really like Dia. It even has a Portable edition!
It's small, fast, cross OS, simple to use, and has a lot of built in elements (specially for UML modelling).
The only problem I can foresee for you is that it follows The GIMP's GUI design (separated window for the toolbox). I happen to like it, but many people hate it.
Keep in mind that this screenshots are quite old:
(source: gnome.org) !
It also can be scripted with Python.
I'm thinking about creating a small language that is very easy to type on a mobile phone (J2ME),
What is the more appropriate language to implement in order to run it inside a mobile phone (j2me always)? Appropriate meaning, small/easy syntax, easy to type in a mobile phone.
Is it lisp? Some sort of Basic/Python/Ruby (I think not...)? Or another new (can you propose a new syntax?)?
I am the author of just such a language: Hecl, at http://www.hecl.org . In order to make quite applications easier, I also created a site where you can build simple apps through a web interface: http://www.heclbuilder.com . I also wrote an article discussing the implementation of the language:
http://www.welton.it/articles/hecl_implementation
Other languages that are worth looking at include Lua, and Javascript, both of which have mobile implementations.
If you include editor support (nesting structures, indented display, balancing, ...) then some form of LISP would be relatively straightforward to implement and use. I've seen screenshots (but can't find them now) of a LISP-based language for live interactive-performance programming. It used indented, shaded rectangular areas on the screen (instead of parentheses) to show nesting of structure.
I would think the design of the editor would be the biggest consideration, not the language. For instance, supporting some kind of "intellisense"-like autocompletion would be vital for saving thumbstrokes. Some kind of language sensitivity in the editor would help a lot too. For instance, when a C user types "for" the autocomplete should show an option for filling out the syntax of a loop:
for (;;) {
}
You might want to look into Hecl: http://www.hecl.org/
I'm not sure what's easy to type on a mobile phone, but the language I know with the most computing power per character is APL. As a source of syntactic or design ideas, you might prefer its modern successor, the J programming language.
On a mobile phone, you should also consider languages like Scratch (smalltalk), because the non-typing interface would be easy to use.
Also on the smartphones with drag&drop capability, it would be something good.
On the other hand, the IDE would be a lot heavier on CPU & other resources.
Forth is usually considered a legitimate contender for these kinds of requirements. And it's about as terse as can be imagined. Extensible, small and malleable. Built-in small screen editor, too.
If you want super-compact, try nano-False http://www.aldweb.com/pages/winikoff/#false
It isn't very usable, although more so than the deliberately painful Brainfuck and Whitepace. Think of it as Forth with the easy syntax made more concise ;-)
I found Quartus Forth reasonably easy to use, provided you can think in stacks, and with more Intellisense support for the API it would have been much more productive. For prototyping little algorithms on the Palm I preferred Plua or Lispme. The LispMe environment is worth studying anyway because it provided good use of lists for finding keywords and so eased GUI programming
The big decision you have to make is whether you expect users to just use a phone numeric keypad or be able to type in reasonable approximations to a full keyboard. One of the huge benefits of the Palm was the high-quality full-size folding keyboards which I sadly miss (and hope someone makes an iPhone accessory to connect). If you don't have a full keyboard, make use of selectors for verbs so they can use picking actions rather than having to type in words. Consider the amount of code typed in traditional code for the framework classes and methods compared to the user code.
When I go about dreaming about a language, I think about what features are important to me at the time I'm dreaming. Only once you figure out what features are important to you can you come up with the best answer to what syntax. For example, if you want named parameters, it greatly influences your design choice about how method calls look (a la Objective-C or Python).
Designing a language can be a really fun task. I encourage you to step back and ask yourself "Do I really like how this is done in X?" (substituting some language name). If that's something you've always loved, steal it. If not, look elsewhere. Create your ultimate mashup of what you love, and leave out what you hate!
Lisp would be difficult to type because of all the ()s, although joel.neely's answer demonstrates one way of working around that problem.
So if you want to use an existing language you might want to look at which ones use least unusual characters.
Then there's the screen size issue. The more verbose the language the less code you're going to be able to fit onto the screen at once. What kind of devices are you aiming at? Smartphones with big screens (a limited audience) or 240x240 pixel feature phones?
Bear in mind that the interpreter/VM for your language will have to fit into a small amount of memory and performance may not be very good.
Brainfuck has only 8 characters -- very easy to type in on a mobile phone.
Of course, understanding and doing stuff with it... not so easy. But it satisfies the requirement....
Basic is very easy.
I would stay away from lisp. Unless you want to give your mobile users a headache on top of the headache they have from radio waves.