Reviews for Doing Hard Time: Developing Real-Time Systems with UML, Objects, Frameworks and Patterns [With CD-Rom]

1. Good both in theory and practice

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2003

   'Doing Hard Time' gives good coverage of common real time scenarios and problems with a lot of useful examples on how to model them using UML. I can actually use 'Doing Hard Time' to solve my real work problems. Thread synchronisation, resource sharing, schedulability are all covered. In fact, this book makes a reasonably good work on real time embedded systems without the UML-related stuff.
   Regarding the sections on Analysis and ROPES, may I suggest that you read them and then plough your own furrow. I do not necessarily imply that the discussion is of no value, but I do I believe there is no substitute for real practice in these areas.
   Mr. Douglass did manage to buck the trend by almost convincing me that UML Patterns have a use beyond merely demonstrating the intellectual supremacy of UML and its champions.
   One residual hangover from the companion book 'Real Time UML' is the Rhapsody-specific slant, particularly in the section on statecharts. Pseudostates, IS_IN(), sendAction, orthogonal regions etc. do not appear in other commonly used modelling products; Rational Rose for example. Having said this, you do get a free Rhapsody CD to play with; this mitigates the pain of these specialisations to some extent.
   'Doing Hard Time' is a big and comprehensive book. I more or less agree with the Synopsis to the effect that this is destined to become a reference work.
   Anyone proficient in UML and embedded systems design at intermediate level will probably find 'Doing Hard Time' useful and interesting.

   Steven Whittard-Swift, Real Time UML Modeller.

2. as the title suggests -

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2001

   This is not a book for the novice, if your just starting out using or learning UML you would advised to read some of the 'lighter' publications on the subject, "Stevens, Pooley - Using UML" strikes a good balance between describing many of the key concepts without getting too heavy. Having said that if you are a real-time/embedded developer looking to use or already use UML and OO techniques you will be hard pressed to find a better (or bigger) book on the subject. Due to the nature of UML no one book can cover everything, although many books seem to try so don't expect this to be first and last book you will ever need on the subject, but then this is not purely a book about UML. It is a very useful if rather heavy (in more than one way) volume that does a fair job of explaining the utilisation of UML techniques in the highly specialised arena of Real-Time environments. Also check out a possible companion book "Real-Time UML: Developing Efficient Objects for Embedded Systems", it's a bit lighter.