whoa..that's explain why deitel java book discuss UML too, better get back to those UML topics after i finish the book :s

UML is good for sketching, but that's about it... It in no way helps to raise the level of abstraction, and therefore, does not help to improve development... DSM does that.

i am sorry for bumping the thread but i think it is better that i bump this one than to start a new and closely related thread.

i have read some up on UML tools and i get the impression that the tools can also generate some code. in fact wikipedia says that automatic code generation is now a standard or accepted practice in some areas.

firstly let me say that i have never used uml tools and i am only beginning to learn uml myself although i do understand a lot of it.

what i would like to know is how usefull is it for code generation. how far can it go to replace the programmer? it cannot replace the software engineer since the engineer specifies the high level logic. but remember that 4th gl and 3rd gl languages generate low level code so how far are we from the day that the uml diagrams generated by the software engineer replaces the programmer and generates the 4th generation code itself?

Code generation sucks. The only people who believe some generator will ever replace programmers are the people who sell BPEL like tools.
I've been hearing that within 5 years there will be no need for programmers for at least the last 15 years, and from people who've been in the industry longer I hear it's been said for probably as long as people have been writing software.

4GL (which you probable refer to) languages have fallen almost completely by the wayside, as they were utterly incapable of making true even the least sweeping of their promises.
Instead they led to very poorly constructed code which was impossible to maintain and performed abysmally.