NYCPHP Meetup

[Justin Dearing]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 12:42 PM, David Krings <ramons at gmx.net> wrote:
> Justin Dearing wrote:
>
>> 3) It has to handle non object code and smarty templates. Most of my
>> code is contained in classes, but I have a file of functions that are
>
> Huh? Aren't you supposed to make those diagrams before you write code? This
> is how they teach it in school and so far I met only one developer who does
> that (isn't me). His code is flawless most of the time.

Well there are tools for doing it either way at least in other
languages. There's a special visio/visual studio 2003 combination
where you can diagram your database/object model and your data center.
it generates your classes, method stubs, and database for you. Most of
that functionality still exists. For the reverse, in the land if .NET,
you can make code diagrams in Visual Studio out of your classes.

I do think the idea of drawing out your basic code and filling in the
functionality is beneficial, especially if there is some sort of ORM
tool involved so you draw your database schema and data access classes
simultaneously. I think a better approach is to write out your schema
in some sort of meta language. One place where this occurs is a
application called Andromeda.  http://sourceforge.net/projects/andro I
happen to have made a few commits with regards to windows
functionality to this app, but I've to write a real application with
it. The schema file will even generate your security model and basic
CRUD screens.

Now regardless of what should happen in real life when you want to get
real work done, I'm giving a presentation where I am demonstrating
specific language features and specific API's. This means I'm writing
code by hand, verbosely commenting it and looking to diagram it after
the fact. I even tell people not to use this code in my presentation.

>> not in a static class and I'd like to to diagram the scripts in the
>> webroot. I also don't want it to compile the smarty templates into PHP
>> and diagram them.
>
> The only application I ever saw for this task is this one:
> http://www.vista-files.org/programs/cad-kas-gbr/c-delphi-basic-code-2-flowchart.html
> It will cost you, which is something you may not have planned on.

I shall check it out, but the screenshot seems to be the opposite
level of verbosity as Donald's suggestion. Donalds suggestion tracked
files, this one tracks almost at the level of lines of code. Ideally,
I want a list of classes, function, and their parameter types, both
explicitly stated where php allows, and the rest infered from the
@param and @return tags in the php documentation blocks. Since that
probably doesn't exist I'll use Donald'd suggestion . That will also
force me to talk about the slide instead of repeating the slide.

>> 4) (Unrelated) Does anyone know of a tool for diagramming MS SQL
>> databases? Visio's "Reverse engineer database" is ok, Sql management
>> studio database diagrams are slightly better, but lack view support.
>> Neither will diagram stored procs or functions, even though Visio
>> claims it will. if anyone has a closed source tool that does this, I
>> have a small open source database (will be released with the app after
>> I give my presentation) and I can email you a small MDF or the sql
>> schema. if you can get me a schema diagram appropriately sized for a
>> powerpoint slide.
>
> I work with some MSSQL gurus...I'll ask them.

Thanks