[Uml-devel] Future features

[Luis De la Parra Blum]

On Monday 14 October 2002 16:30, tomas.walch at se.transport.bombardier.com 
wrote:

> 1. File format and large projects
> The move to XMI was certainly good, but the current file format still has
> one great disadvantage: it saves everything in just one file. This makes it
> hard to use umbrello for larger scale projects involving more than one
> developer. Essential for these kinds of projects is the possibility for
> different people to similtaneously work on different parts of a model, and
> to easily merge this work (using a cm tool or not). Merging the whole model
> all the time and keeping the versions in order would be hard enough to make
> project managers decide on another tool.
>

**Yes, moving to XML was a *big* step in the right direction, but of course 
there still a lot to improve.
First of all, the XML format of Umbrello (aka UML Modeller) is not 100% XMI  
(the "official" file format), but its close.

**Another big problem is that the XMI specification currently does not mention 
diagrams at all!!  its only for saving models (classes, the relationships 
between them, etc), but not diagrams. It contains no information related to 
position of widgets, color,size, etc.... thats why the different programs for 
modelling out there are not compatible, altough they all claim to be XMI!

**goods news is, that sometime soon, the OMG should release the new 
specification of XMI, which will fix this problems. its going to use (so the 
rumor says) SVG for the diagrams, so now all XMI based modellers should be 
able to exchange models and diagrams (with the current version you can only 
exchange models, not diagrams)

**Doing "big projects"  in collaboration, is a very interesting idea, however, 
I dont see how splitting the file into several files would solve the problems 
associated with concurrent work.
The OMG says something about a Corba-based repository.... maybe it would be 
worth it to look at this, altough it wouldnt be easy, maybe its the right 
thing to do.

**Adding CVS would *definetly* be a good idea!!


> My suggested solutions is this:
> - Visualization info is saved into a separate file for each diagram
> - Model data info is saved in a separate file for each package
> - A project file is used to keep track of the included files. (like so many
> IDE:s)

Yes, a "project" file would be useful, but only to store info about the 
position of "tool bars", and some user settings which dont belong in the 
model. all other info should be in the model, and should be portable across 
different systems (at least so goes the story=)

> 2. Interface
> I think a MDI interface would look nicer and more professional, with the
> listview as a dockwindow. The documentation window could be replaced with a
> tabbed dockwindow providing fast access to all the properties of the
> selected item. I think one needs too much right clicking today.

yes.. all this are features that we need to consider for next version... when 
we can get this one done. =)
I also think the program needs a very deep reestructuring, which will certanly 
breake many things, but I think now is not the moment to talk about such 
changes....