UML was, in some sense, an expression of a certain kind of politics: ------------- "And there is an explicitly political idea that drove OOP to its peak in the 1990s: the idea of outsourcing. The idea of outsourcing software development rested on some assumptions about how software development should work, in particular the idea of the “genius” architect, backed by an army of morons who act as secretaries, taking dic…
I think everything you say is true except the jab at java, which is also true, but not all the truth... Besides, during the 90s the idea seemed to be that that the next step after the outsourcing was actually no programmers at all. UML and 4gl systems would handle all the complexities and laymen domain experts could just define all bread and butter administrative systems they like - no expensive and socially awkward…
Lest someone think this is an exaggeration, no, this was literally the conversation at the highest levels of some companies. A relative told me to reconsider going after a comp sci degree in 1995 because within ten years the computers would be programming themselves. There were presentations at their workplace about it.
My first "real" job was programming customizations hacked on top of a 4gl tool - injecting JavaScript into pages through an improperly sanitized widget! After the whole application was rewritten in the 4gl tool, it never lived up to its promise.