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General Board / EA vs Altova UModel + other CASE tools evaluation
« on: June 19, 2007, 02:24:00 pm »
Well, just thought I'd update and centralize my previous evaluations of EA from other topics since after more than a week of treacherous evaluations of CASE tools below the $1000 range, I'm beat but glad to say that I did not choose EA.
The CASE tools i evaluated were: MagicDraw 12.5 prof, EA, Metamill, ModelMaker, Visual UML, Visual Paradigm, UMLStudio, Visio, StarUML, Artiso Visual Case, MicroGold WithClass, and maybe some others. My main perspective was that of a System Architect for C# .NET base without much focus on Requirements Gathering or DB Modeling and more so on code engineering, IDE learning curve and dynamic modeling.
Some of the main reasons i didn't choose EA are:
- it has really poor UI features
- it is a burden to organize all those elements in the project browser. There is no Diagrams Window??
- at least the diagram elements should be contained within the diagram node itself, and it is plain messy to organize model elements.
- the undo is only scoped for the diagram editing and extremely limited and unpredictable even in that. There is Redo in the new beta it seems, but i doubt it will be any big step.
- hyperlinks are almost non-existent.
- partial classes are not handled well in code engineering.
On the plus side, it does serve as a great affordable UML tool for requirements analysts and has a bunch of handy features built in such as the DB stuff, baselines, debugger, XMI, etc. which is great for solo or small group of developers whose main interest is class and static diagrams and not as much dynamic modelling. But for system architects, it is not. I was initially impressed by its simplicity, price and huge fan following but it just has an unstable feel to it.
So which tool did I pick finally? Altova UModel 2007..having used XMLSpy, i'm confident that this UML offering will grow to the same brilliance and popularity as EA even though at this stage it needs some facelift, but its features are amazing and seems quite stable so far..and the price..$129 + $32 maintenance.
Some of the great features of it are:
- a stable IDE just as XMLSpy
- Undo and Redo which include the scope of all activities within the IDE and not just diagram editing
- Big Plus: great code generation features that support enums, partial classes and nested types
- disciplined UML diagramming
- abiltity to easily reference C# code libraries and other projects
- great document generation
- intuitive UI without a bunch of unnecessary stuff
- great hyperlinking abilities and elegant organization and containment of project elements
- fast, slick, lightweight and stable
- XMI
- comprehensive help and samples
The other close contenders in order:
ModelMaker (lots of holes in code engineering), MagicDraw (unmatched functionality and stability but pricing and java are major drawbacks, i'd love to see the design model of this piece of art), Visual Paradigm (offers ability to generate code from state diagrams and lots of features but seems quite unstable and untested), Metamill (great lightweight tool but lacks a whole lot of features)
If anyone has any opinions about UModel 2007, please do share.
Thanks
The CASE tools i evaluated were: MagicDraw 12.5 prof, EA, Metamill, ModelMaker, Visual UML, Visual Paradigm, UMLStudio, Visio, StarUML, Artiso Visual Case, MicroGold WithClass, and maybe some others. My main perspective was that of a System Architect for C# .NET base without much focus on Requirements Gathering or DB Modeling and more so on code engineering, IDE learning curve and dynamic modeling.
Some of the main reasons i didn't choose EA are:
- it has really poor UI features
- it is a burden to organize all those elements in the project browser. There is no Diagrams Window??
- at least the diagram elements should be contained within the diagram node itself, and it is plain messy to organize model elements.
- the undo is only scoped for the diagram editing and extremely limited and unpredictable even in that. There is Redo in the new beta it seems, but i doubt it will be any big step.
- hyperlinks are almost non-existent.
- partial classes are not handled well in code engineering.
On the plus side, it does serve as a great affordable UML tool for requirements analysts and has a bunch of handy features built in such as the DB stuff, baselines, debugger, XMI, etc. which is great for solo or small group of developers whose main interest is class and static diagrams and not as much dynamic modelling. But for system architects, it is not. I was initially impressed by its simplicity, price and huge fan following but it just has an unstable feel to it.
So which tool did I pick finally? Altova UModel 2007..having used XMLSpy, i'm confident that this UML offering will grow to the same brilliance and popularity as EA even though at this stage it needs some facelift, but its features are amazing and seems quite stable so far..and the price..$129 + $32 maintenance.
Some of the great features of it are:
- a stable IDE just as XMLSpy
- Undo and Redo which include the scope of all activities within the IDE and not just diagram editing
- Big Plus: great code generation features that support enums, partial classes and nested types
- disciplined UML diagramming
- abiltity to easily reference C# code libraries and other projects
- great document generation
- intuitive UI without a bunch of unnecessary stuff
- great hyperlinking abilities and elegant organization and containment of project elements
- fast, slick, lightweight and stable
- XMI
- comprehensive help and samples
The other close contenders in order:
ModelMaker (lots of holes in code engineering), MagicDraw (unmatched functionality and stability but pricing and java are major drawbacks, i'd love to see the design model of this piece of art), Visual Paradigm (offers ability to generate code from state diagrams and lots of features but seems quite unstable and untested), Metamill (great lightweight tool but lacks a whole lot of features)
If anyone has any opinions about UModel 2007, please do share.
Thanks