Coming from a Software background, I don't really see how DOORS is classed as an Object Orientated product. Any Object Orientated product is evident from the API or Language used to interface to it. DXL is clunky and clumsy at best. I don't see any Object Orientated functions, and where it comes close to using some kind of meaningful syntax such as m.name (m dot name), the list of available options is generally not given.
Further, most of the examples dont work out of the help files. Some of the functions aren't even in the help files and when you do find a useful command, the helpfiles are basic. which leaves people to come to forums such as these. I am very surprised that whenever I read about DOORS, it is always praised. Given that the licence costs thousands of dollars/pounds, I am astounded that you dont even get a decent editor for DXL, let alone line numbers!! Everyone submits their editor preferences like Notepad++, crimson etc, as if this should be accepted. Worse yet, is there is no debugger at all. Use of print statements is accepted throughout the community (dont tell me about sodlus - i already know!) When paying thousands for a product, I would expect the functionality to be more rich. An editor which is no more than a "textbox" with a results box which you cant even resize is something like a school project editor. Launching the Helpfile which doesnt actually work, is accepted. Why isn't the community complaining about the lack of features, and lack of functions, better helpfiles, more richer DXL lanuage etc. Why am I able to download a PDF from a url in Visual C++, C# or VB in less than a few lines, but it is almost unheard of in DXL. How can a product get to 9.6+ yet be missing a whole host of features.
amoghul - Sat Nov 08 16:24:09 EST 2014 |
Re: Where exactly is the OO in DOORS?
The "OO" is more historical than correct.
When DOORS was first released in the early 90's, Object Oriented Analysis & Design was in it's early days and as I recall, DOORS claimed to be Object Oriented because child objects inherited some of the behaviour of their parent objects and so on. A loose claim I know, but DOORS would not be the first tool vendor to make loose claims e.g. look at the industry built around the Agile manifesto and some of the less than Agile consultancy & development products on the market. Also, DOORS was originally targeted for the big Systems Design & Integration domains of Aerospace, Defense etc, and over the years industries such as Telecomminications and Intelligent Transport have found themselves also dealing with large scale systems design and integration and have, to some limited extent, adopted DOORS as a defacto requirements management tool standard. To this day I believe that this is still where most of the licenses are located,
Yes, DOORS is clunky from a user interface and experience point of view. However, for me, it contains some functionality that I am yet to see in many of the competitor tools - particularly it's change tracking functions which have saved my sanity on many occassions. Good point about the DXL editor, a common complaint. The Sodius DXL editor and debugger should be integrated into DOORS (and no, I don't have any shares or stock options in Sodius!!).
Goodness knows we have tried to get the three vendors who have owned this tool over the years to get a move on with modernising DOORS. And this is where I think the IBM DOORS New Generation (DOORS NG) product comes into play - this is IBM's attempt to modernise DOORS into a web delivered tool plugged into a common delivery platform that can integrate with other IBM tools. The last time I looked at DOORS NG it seemed to be heading in the right direction, albeit very slowly. It will take some time before it replicates all of the good functions of what is now known as DOORS Classic.
Paul Miller |