[Uml-devel] Review / Redesign of Umbrello

[tomas.walch at se.transport.bombardier.com]

I totally and utterly agree with Luis - the current code base is a dead end, and
it would be a mistake to try and press more functionality into it. And this time
we should start with a general design discussion and how to break down the
system; which interfaces should there be and what dependecies and the like.


>*the whole diagraming code:  I think having a UMLWidget and a UMLWidgetData
>makes no sense (and is ugly) --> The UMLWidget should manage all the "visual
>representation of an object" and the UMLObject should manage the "real
>thing". a UMLWidget is a view of a UMLObject.

Correct. The separation of UMLWidget and a UMLWidgetData was IMHO made by
someone trying to "be smart", it's completely unnecessary and gets the whole
idea of model-view separation all wrong.

>*(the associations are included in the diagraming code)

>*maybe review the representation we have of the umlobjects themselves and
>decide if we want to stay this way, use classes from libuml, or make
>something else

The UML metamodel is already there in the standard so of course we should build
a new domain model based on this (as they've already made most of the work by
defining the metamodel!). And since Umbrello is a KDE program I think it should
be a Qt implementation, where everything in the model is dynamically available
from a single "UMLModel *" through the Qt metaobject system. It's completely
doable.

>s you see, I am suggesting to review most of the code, so I hope not to make
>the others angry, but I think it would be nice to make a clear design first
>and then start coding and not just start pumping features into the existing
>code base  (that's what happend to MS Office -> they just kept adding and
>adding features without solving first some basic problems, and now the thing
>is sooooo big that there is no way they are going to throw away that code and
>start over again)

I'm not angry, I'm inspired :-)

>I am attaching a diagram I made a couple of days ago... it is of course not
>complete, but its a start of how I imagine the new design could be (it
>includes now mostly only the diagramming stuff, and not even that is
>complete)

Any model is a good start for discussions, and the most important discussion
right now is IMO the one I mentioned above. To the project admins: Wouldn't it
be a good idea to start a new list for all discussions about the next major
release?

/Tomas Walch