Hello! For my first real blog, I like to talk about an entirely different blog I read written by Fredrik Klingenberg, titled “UML Sequence Diagrams“. For one of my classes where we talk about software design processes, UML diagrams were something that was taught to us very early on, and I got the impression that they would be something I would see a lot of for the rest of my career. As such, I wanted to find a blog that could give me an idea of how they would be realistically applied, and after some digging I found this. 

In the blog, he talks about not only what the diagrams are and how to construct them, but more importantly how to actually use them in a day-to-day basis. Firstly, if you are unfamiliar, a UML Diagram is a graphical tool used to visualize the structure and behavior of a software system. Think of it sort of as the visual equivalent of pseudocode, if you shifted the focus to more of an overview of the entire project. Visualizing the codebase in this manner isn’t an exact science, for instance you decide how much detail you want to include; something that changes depending on your reason for making one. As such, you may end up having to put more effort into making one than you originally wanted to which could offset the benefits you get from doing so. Fredrik provides insight for how he balances things out by explaining how these diagrams should be developed in tandem with the code, and how this can be done more easily.

To do this, he talks about using a tool called Mermaid, which is effectively a way to create a diagram from pseudocode. It’s very similar to a tool we were taught to use in class, called PlantUML, the key difference is that Mermaid is simpler, but faster. These “diagram as code” tools can also be version controlled which helps with keeping them updated as the code changes. 

I chose this blog specifically because it shows an anecdotal perspective of how UML is used in the real world; my main takeaways are that completeness isn’t necessarily the main priority of them, rather they need to be able to communicate (effectively but also quickly) the code, how it works, and it’s reason for existing. Shifting your priorities like this allows you to make them more quickly, which in my opinion makes them more realistic to not only create, but actively update as the project develops. Moving forward I definitely think that adopting this approach is a good idea, and probably something I will start doing.

From the blog Joshua's Blog by Joshua D. and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 Hello! For my first real blog, I like to talk about an entirely different blog I read written by Fredrik Klingenberg, titled “UML Sequence Diagrams“. For one of my classes where we talk about software design processes, UML diagrams were something that was taught to us very early on, and I got the impression that they would be something I would see a lot of for the rest of my career. As such, I wanted to find a blog that could give me an idea of how they would be realistically applied, and after some digging I found this. 

In the blog, he talks about not only what the diagrams are and how to construct them, but more importantly how to actually use them in a day-to-day basis. Firstly, if you are unfamiliar, a UML Diagram is a graphical tool used to visualize the structure and behavior of a software system. Think of it sort of as the visual equivalent of pseudocode, if you shifted the focus to more of an overview of the entire project. Visualizing the codebase in this manner isn’t an exact science, for instance you decide how much detail you want to include; something that changes depending on your reason for making one. As such, you may end up having to put more effort into making one than you originally wanted to which could offset the benefits you get from doing so. Fredrik provides insight for how he balances things out by explaining how these diagrams should be developed in tandem with the code, and how this can be done more easily.

To do this, he talks about using a tool called Mermaid, which is effectively a way to create a diagram from pseudocode. It’s very similar to a tool we were taught to use in class, called PlantUML, the key difference is that Mermaid is simpler, but faster. These “diagram as code” tools can also be version controlled which helps with keeping them updated as the code changes. 

I chose this blog specifically because it shows an anecdotal perspective of how UML is used in the real world; my main takeaways are that completeness isn’t necessarily the main priority of them, rather they need to be able to communicate (effectively but also quickly) the code, how it works, and it’s reason for existing. Shifting your priorities like this allows you to make them more quickly, which in my opinion makes them more realistic to not only create, but actively update as the project develops. Moving forward I definitely think that adopting this approach is a good idea, and probably something I will start doing.

From the blog Joshua's Blog by Joshua D. and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 Hello! For my first real blog, I like to talk about an entirely different blog I read written by Fredrik Klingenberg, titled “UML Sequence Diagrams“. For one of my classes where we talk about software design processes, UML diagrams were something that was taught to us very early on, and I got the impression that they would be something I would see a lot of for the rest of my career. As such, I wanted to find a blog that could give me an idea of how they would be realistically applied, and after some digging I found this. 

In the blog, he talks about not only what the diagrams are and how to construct them, but more importantly how to actually use them in a day-to-day basis. Firstly, if you are unfamiliar, a UML Diagram is a graphical tool used to visualize the structure and behavior of a software system. Think of it sort of as the visual equivalent of pseudocode, if you shifted the focus to more of an overview of the entire project. Visualizing the codebase in this manner isn’t an exact science, for instance you decide how much detail you want to include; something that changes depending on your reason for making one. As such, you may end up having to put more effort into making one than you originally wanted to which could offset the benefits you get from doing so. Fredrik provides insight for how he balances things out by explaining how these diagrams should be developed in tandem with the code, and how this can be done more easily.

To do this, he talks about using a tool called Mermaid, which is effectively a way to create a diagram from pseudocode. It’s very similar to a tool we were taught to use in class, called PlantUML, the key difference is that Mermaid is simpler, but faster. These “diagram as code” tools can also be version controlled which helps with keeping them updated as the code changes. 

I chose this blog specifically because it shows an anecdotal perspective of how UML is used in the real world; my main takeaways are that completeness isn’t necessarily the main priority of them, rather they need to be able to communicate (effectively but also quickly) the code, how it works, and it’s reason for existing. Shifting your priorities like this allows you to make them more quickly, which in my opinion makes them more realistic to not only create, but actively update as the project develops. Moving forward I definitely think that adopting this approach is a good idea, and probably something I will start doing.

From the blog Joshua's Blog by Joshua D. and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 Hello! For my first real blog, I like to talk about an entirely different blog I read written by Fredrik Klingenberg, titled “UML Sequence Diagrams“. For one of my classes where we talk about software design processes, UML diagrams were something that was taught to us very early on, and I got the impression that they would be something I would see a lot of for the rest of my career. As such, I wanted to find a blog that could give me an idea of how they would be realistically applied, and after some digging I found this. 

In the blog, he talks about not only what the diagrams are and how to construct them, but more importantly how to actually use them in a day-to-day basis. Firstly, if you are unfamiliar, a UML Diagram is a graphical tool used to visualize the structure and behavior of a software system. Think of it sort of as the visual equivalent of pseudocode, if you shifted the focus to more of an overview of the entire project. Visualizing the codebase in this manner isn’t an exact science, for instance you decide how much detail you want to include; something that changes depending on your reason for making one. As such, you may end up having to put more effort into making one than you originally wanted to which could offset the benefits you get from doing so. Fredrik provides insight for how he balances things out by explaining how these diagrams should be developed in tandem with the code, and how this can be done more easily.

To do this, he talks about using a tool called Mermaid, which is effectively a way to create a diagram from pseudocode. It’s very similar to a tool we were taught to use in class, called PlantUML, the key difference is that Mermaid is simpler, but faster. These “diagram as code” tools can also be version controlled which helps with keeping them updated as the code changes. 

I chose this blog specifically because it shows an anecdotal perspective of how UML is used in the real world; my main takeaways are that completeness isn’t necessarily the main priority of them, rather they need to be able to communicate (effectively but also quickly) the code, how it works, and it’s reason for existing. Shifting your priorities like this allows you to make them more quickly, which in my opinion makes them more realistic to not only create, but actively update as the project develops. Moving forward I definitely think that adopting this approach is a good idea, and probably something I will start doing.

From the blog Joshua's Blog by Joshua D. and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

 Hello! For my first real blog, I like to talk about an entirely different blog I read written by Fredrik Klingenberg, titled “UML Sequence Diagrams“. For one of my classes where we talk about software design processes, UML diagrams were something that was taught to us very early on, and I got the impression that they would be something I would see a lot of for the rest of my career. As such, I wanted to find a blog that could give me an idea of how they would be realistically applied, and after some digging I found this. 

In the blog, he talks about not only what the diagrams are and how to construct them, but more importantly how to actually use them in a day-to-day basis. Firstly, if you are unfamiliar, a UML Diagram is a graphical tool used to visualize the structure and behavior of a software system. Think of it sort of as the visual equivalent of pseudocode, if you shifted the focus to more of an overview of the entire project. Visualizing the codebase in this manner isn’t an exact science, for instance you decide how much detail you want to include; something that changes depending on your reason for making one. As such, you may end up having to put more effort into making one than you originally wanted to which could offset the benefits you get from doing so. Fredrik provides insight for how he balances things out by explaining how these diagrams should be developed in tandem with the code, and how this can be done more easily.

To do this, he talks about using a tool called Mermaid, which is effectively a way to create a diagram from pseudocode. It’s very similar to a tool we were taught to use in class, called PlantUML, the key difference is that Mermaid is simpler, but faster. These “diagram as code” tools can also be version controlled which helps with keeping them updated as the code changes. 

I chose this blog specifically because it shows an anecdotal perspective of how UML is used in the real world; my main takeaways are that completeness isn’t necessarily the main priority of them, rather they need to be able to communicate (effectively but also quickly) the code, how it works, and it’s reason for existing. Shifting your priorities like this allows you to make them more quickly, which in my opinion makes them more realistic to not only create, but actively update as the project develops. Moving forward I definitely think that adopting this approach is a good idea, and probably something I will start doing.

From the blog Joshua's Blog by Joshua D. and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I had seen UML diagrams in previous classes, but honestly had no idea it was a language. And I also had no idea I could create my own. Working with UML diagrams in class as well as for homework has been an interesting challenge since it is a language I’ve never seen before. I searched for blogs related to UML and stumbled upon a blog by Suneel Kumar from Medium called, “Understanding UML: The Unified Modeling Language”. It provided me with a much better understanding of UML and how it can be applied to ease the process of designing code.

Unified Modeling Language

Unified Modeling Language, UML for short, is a standardized visual language used to design, document, and communicate complex systems. The creation of the language is credited to Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson, and James Rumbaugh, who are collectively known as “the Three Amigos”. The three already had their own separate methods: Booch method, Object-Oriented Software Engineering, and Object Modeling Technique. They were combined to create the unified approach. The first version of UML was made in 1997, and the current version, 2.5.1, was made in 2021.

Diagram types

UML has many diagrams designed for different purposes. The different types of diagrams are categorized into two groups, Structural and Behavioral diagrams. Structural diagrams represent the static aspects of the system, while behavioral diagrams represent the dynamic aspects of the system. An example of a structural diagram would be a class diagram. Class diagrams are the UML diagrams that I’ve been most familiar with. It shows the classes in a system, as well as attributes, operations, and relationships between objects. Here is an example of what one would look like:

An example of a behavioral diagram would be a use case diagram. Use case diagrams capture the functional requirements of a system and show the interactions between the user and the system. It would look a little something like this:

Relationships

We touched on the relationships that UML uses a little bit in class, but the blog gave me a clearer explanation of what each one meant.

Association represents a relationship between classes and is generally shown as a simple line. As seen in the diagram below, Person and Car have a relationship since Person must drive the Car. This is shown with a simple line.

Aggregation is a specialized form of association that represents a “whole-part/has-a” relationship. In the diagram below, there is a line with an open “diamond” between Department and Employee. The open “diamond” is on the Department side and indicates that the Department is made up of Employees, but Employees can exist independently of a Department. 

Composition is a stronger form of aggregation where the parts cannot exist without the whole. In the following example, house and room are related and there is a filled in diamond on the House side. This represents the relationship as a Room cannot exist without a House.

Inheritance represents an “is-a” relationship. Child classes point to the parent class with a hollow triangle at the end of the line. In the following example, Car and Truck are both types of Vehicle, and is shown with a hollow triangle pointing to vehicle

And realization is often used to show that a class implements an interface. In this example Shape points to Drawable, which is labeled as an interface.

From the blog Blog del William by William Cordor and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello everyone,

This week’s blog topic will be about Object Oriented Programming. I chose this topic as it is a fundamental knowledge that every programmer should know and this blog does an amazing job at explaining to new programmers while also giving good advice for experienced developers. I would say I am in the middle ground of that spectrum so this was the perfect resource for me to strengthen my understanding of Object Oriented Programming and its concepts.  

The author starts the blog by first explaining and introducing Object Oriented Programming to readers who are not familiar with it and he also lists the topics that this blog will cover giving you a great idea of the structure of the blog and also what is he going over. He explains how Object Oriented Programming revolves around two key building blocks which are classes and objects. He then shows how they work together when writing code. This is another thing that I like about this blog is that he often explains something and provides images and examples to simply it even more, thus making it easier to understand. What was a nice addition to this blog was the section where he started talking about the origin of Object Oriented Programming. This shows us how it was not created overnight, but it took years of hard work and dedication to create sucha  great innaviation. Knowing the context of how it started it also makes me appreciate the significance that OOP has. Another good point that I have to give to the author is how he compared it to procedural programming. It is kinda hard to understand why certain approaches are picked and by giving us this comparison between the two it makes it a lot easier when to use OOP. My favorite section was definitely where he talked about the four pillars of Object Oriented Programming which were inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, and abstraction. The explanation for each one of them were concise, and meaningful examples were provide clarifying any questions that readers may have had. The author also gives great analogies and I appreciate this a lot as it makes understanding the concepts a lot easier. My favorite example of this is when he was going over Abstraction, “Abstraction is like a laptop’s user interface. When you use a laptop, you interact with the interface (e.g., the keyboard, trackpad, and screen) without needing to know about the underlying hardware (e.g., the Processor, RAM, and Hard Disk).” 

In conclusion this blog turned out to be very beneficial for me, and I hope the same for whoever is reading this. His blog was very informative without being overwhelming and this allowed me to strengthen my foundation of Object Oriented Programming

Source:
https://www.designgurus.io/blog/object-oriented-programming-oop

From the blog Elio's Blog by Elio Ngjelo and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I found an article that discusses the pros and cons of Java in 2025. This caught my attention because Java is the language I have used in most of my classes. Object-oriented programming is also what we are discussing in CS-343. Java seems to be pretty versatile, and is fairly straight forward. I was interested to see in more depth what it has to offer and what it might not be so good with.

The article begins with an overview of Java as a whole. It discusses Java’s wide usage for a variety of different projects and its user friendly features that make it so widely liked. It quickly goes into the benefits of using Java. The author lists four main pros for the language: a straightforward learning process, object-oriented programming, heightened security, and platform independence. It is also mentioned how its simplicity makes it perfect for both beginners and more experienced programmers. For each main pro, the article goes into deeper detail to explain further what these benefits really mean for Java. Some interesting points in these explanations were the security features and the use of JVM (Java Virtual Machine). However, there are also the cons that come with it. The main cons listed here were performance constraints, licensing expenses, and GUI development complications. Similarly to the pros, these cons are then explained in more depth. The article’s last main section gives examples of ideal use cases for Java and some that are not so ideal. Web applications, mobile app, cloud computing and big data projects were listed as ideal use cases, where complex desktop GUI’s and alternative languages being more fitting for certain tasks were listed as times you may not want to use Java.

I found this article to be fairly interesting. Java is a language that I already knew a decent amount about, but it was interesting to learn more about it. As we learn more about Java and object-oriented programming, it is nice to know the benefits and what its strengths are. I also found it interesting that big data projects were listed as something Java works well with. Typically, R and Python are the languages most associated with data, but tools like Hadoop make it fitting for processing large amounts of data which may not be obvious to someone new to the language. Overall, it seems like Java has many benefits, and the cons seem to be minimal. I look forward to learning more about Java as I continue to use it!

https://www.netguru.com/blog/java-pros-and-cons

From the blog CS@Worcester – Auger CS by Joseph Auger and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.