I have to admit that I am lured into the pocket size form factor used by O’Reilly and others. The cute baby animals on the cover, like the gorilla on the front of the “UML 2.0 – Pocket Reference“ is just fun. I also have “The Elements of UML Style“ in the same easy to consume and not really pocket sized size. Parts of this review also apply to both pocket books, but the majority is about the UML 2.0 – Pocket Reference.
If you do actually end up bringing this “pocket” reference around with you then great, but consider when will you actually use it. While you are walking around the park thinking about UML and all of its confusing details? This book only covers syntax and usage, not really semantics which is where most people struggle anyhow, as the semantics and detailed syntax consume over 1000 pages. You could bring it to meetings and wow people with perfect diagrams. Again, this book might help with that, but how often are you drawing a diagram on the white board and everyone is confused because you lines are not specific enough, or the shape is just not right. This does not happen because the people in the meeting have the context of the conversation and thus do not need perfection, the drawing is just a tool to move the conversation forward not get hung up on syntax, semantic maybe, but this book won’t help with that beyond the bare surface.
