[Uml-devel] Bug reports

[P. Fleury]

Hello,

I am using Umbrello quite a lot these days, and I have my little piece 
of paper always ready to scribble down what I see (bugs, enhancements, etc).
My question is simple: shall I put these in the bug report system at sf 
? I have written them here, so you may tell me if it's worth the trouble 
to go ahead reporting bugs.

My concerns are that they are things in the current CVS (I build it 
every second day or so), so maybe not very appropriate for the bug 
report as it will be difficult to reproduce if the source I have used is 
not exactly the same as yours.

Also, a good sign for this software, my reports are mainly 
usability/aesthetics, which means the underlying software is quite 
stable :-)

--Pascal


General stuff
==========
- the width of the column with the UML list and the documentation is not 
saved. At each restart, I have to adjust it again, as it is too thin for 
my taste.
- when exporting a diagram as PNG, for example, there is no check for 
overwriting an existing file. It just does it. (Well, that was what I 
wanted, just nitoced the absence of the little dialog I was expecting)
- exporting a diagram as image should auto-crop the resulting image to 
the elements of the diagram. Currently, it does only half-a-crop, i.e. 
computing the lower-most and right-most point, but starting at (0;0). If 
my diagram is not exactly on the top-left of the canvas, I get a white 
border.

Sequence diagrams (but may apply to others)
=================================
- when using "New operation" on an association, it should also 
automatically select this as the operation for the association. 
Currently, you have to do "New operation", then "Select operation"
- When you draw an association from one object to another, and you miss 
the target object, the visual feedback indicating "you are drawing an 
association" (the dashed line) dissapears, but the program is still in 
"connecting mode". So if you click then on a vertical line, the 
association magically appears.
- vertical lines are almost impossible to extend. There is no feedback 
for knowing when your mouse pointer is over the end of the line, and 
most of the time, when you click, you get the "area select" behavior. A 
visual feedback should be provided
- when selecting an object, you have "delete" and "cut". Besides the 
fact that "cut" does not do anything visible, these two points should 
not be there. I would prefer "cut", as it is clearer that it will be 
removed from the diagram only (not from the model).
- same behavior in the UML list of objects, where "cut" and "delete" are 
present. However, there I would prefer "delete".

* Possible enhancements:
- when creating associations, let the user select a mode where it will 
set sequence numbers automatically. Either in order of creation, or 
"top-down", as in sequence diagrams time is vertical.
- when drawing a new association, currently you get the dashed line from 
the origin to the mouse pointer. then, depending where you click, it 
will adjust the arrow to the constraints of the diagram. I would prefer 
that at any location of the mouse pointer, you would get the association 
"as it would be if you clicked there", instead of having the line from 
the start position to the current mouse pointer location. (ask me again 
if that was not clear)
- when selecting an operation for an association, instead of popping up 
a dialog, the operations could be put in the popup menu, making the 
selection easier. The popup menu is a context-dependent menu anyway, so 
it would be easy to grasp.
- let me modify the operations signature as it appears on the text of 
associations. If I use full signature (needed for code generation), then 
typically the text gets too long on the association links.

Collaboration diagrams
=================
- when you have assigned a sequence number to an association, then you 
select "set sequence number" and change it, you have to deselect the 
object to actually see the change in the diagram (update it not done 
automatically)
- association text position relative to its link is fine on screen, but 
not preserved when exporting diagram as image