The "Unified Modeling Language User Guide" is the first of two UML works written by the creators of UML. This book will introduce the core 80% of UML, approaching it in a layered fashion and providing numerous examples of its application. The title is suitable for developers unfamiliar with UML or with modeling in general.
Grady Booch is an American software engineer, best known for developing the Unified Modeling Language (UML) with Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh. He is recognized internationally for his innovative work in software architecture, software engineering, and collaborative development environments.
UML is just about the driest of all dry topics, even for technical people. It shouldn't really be a surprise that this isn't a real page-turner.
I picked up this book because it was recommended in another book on design patterns and I wanted a deeper understanding of UML. It is a good reference and I'd recommend as such it to anyone who needs to add more formality to a software design process. I particularly like the fact that the author focuses on providing the appropriate level of detail (not too much, not too little) where other UML books seem to treat UML as the Universal Answer To All Design Problems.
The book is very structured and almost all the chapters have the same sub-sections, which would make it more useful as a reference tool. On the other hand there are a couple of chapters (on state machines and state diagrams) which are almost the same and I have to wonder why there are two different chapters.
Overall, I'd say this is a useful reference, but I'll not recommend anyone read it straight through.
1er volet de la trilogie UML. Cet ouvrage de bonne facture (couverture rigide, impression bicolore !) présente les différents concepts d'UML, ainsi que les diagrammes associés. Les éléments les plus importants de la notations (tels que les classes) sont partagés en 2 chapitres : Notions de bases et concepts avancés. Lecture agréable, aussi bien par le style que grâce au partitionnement en de nombreux chapitres de taille raisonnable. Ce n'est pas un manuel d'initiation destiné aux néophytes en modélisation. Pour ceux ci, le livre pourra paraître trop complexe du fait de son exhaustivité, dans ce cas un ouvrage tel que celui de Pierre-Alain Muller sera plus approprié.