[Uml-devel] Suggestions

[Jörg Walter]

On Tuesday 29 October 2002 17:06, Jonathan Riddell wrote:

> > - the "operations" page in the "concept" properties is very confusing -
> >   there should be "add", "edit" and "remove" buttons as is usual for a
> >   well-behaved editable list; this applies to other locations as well;
> >   the context menu is too obscure for new users
>
> Is this a problems with the buttons that have been recently added or a
> problem that there are no buttons (which is no longer the case)?

In 1.1beta2 there are no buttons for "Add" etc. - if there are now, all is 
fine.

> > - abstract class names should use italic font
>
> They are, n'est pas?

I had to set italic font manually. Abstract _methods_, however, were 
automatically italic as expected.
(It is arguable if classes with abstract methods should be automatically 
abstract, but since my books use non-abstract class names with abstract 
methods, this seems to be okay)

> > - can't delete control points for association lines (+)
>
> Double click on them, same as creating them.

Fascinating... probably the "too narrow sensitive area" problem again.

> > - Object diagrams are not possible with the current "concept" and
> >   "association" tools; object and assoc names are underlined, and
> >   the class name may optionally be specified for objects
>
> They are, make sure you're using a concept diagram.

Wow. "Collaboration diagram" is a not so obvious translation from the german 
term... thanks :-)

> > - "concept" boxes should have separation lines optional if the
> >   operations or attributes sections are empty (+)
>
> You can choose to show or not the operations and attributes (right click
> option or in properties)

Okay, found it. It wasn't obvious to me that these checkboxes will also remove 
the lines... which is quite logical on the second thought.

> > - derived attibutes and associations (name preceded by a "/")
>
> Don't think I've ever heard of those, I should look into it.

They're basically regular attributes and associations, but marking them as 
derived (prefixed by "/") says they can be calculated from some other 
attributes/associations. It specifically does not say how they will be 
implemented, if they will be calculated each time or if they are stored.

An example from my course:
+--------------+
|   Timespan   |
+--------------+
| start        |
| end          |
| / duration   |
+--------------+

This does say that duration is not really new information. It may or may not 
be stored. The implementor is also free to store start and duration and to 
calculate end each time it is needed. Or any other combination. 

> > - in-place editing of labels would be cool - doubleclick and edit
> > in-place
>
> Anyone know if this might be possible?  I suspect it would be very
> difficult with a QCanvasItem.

Shouldn't it work if you just slap a absolutely positioned QLineEdit at that 
place? I think it should just appear. Scrolling must be handled manually, of 
course.

> > - crash: load the attached .xmi file, grab the class, drag it around a
> >   while, be sure to move the mouse outside of the umbrello window;
> >   sometimes "only" the associations are messed up, sometimes it crashes
> >   with a SIGFPE; the backtrace doesn't show anything useful
>
> That's a nasty one, I managed to re-create it but only the once.  Will
> look into.

If you can recreate the messed up lines, I would believe it is enough - SIGFPE 
near some totally wrong geometry sounds like they are related.

> The code generator (export) is extendable and new languages should be
> fairly easy, infact it's mostly copy and paste from another code generator
> as far as I can tell (hmm).  It's well documented (because Luis' a star)

Yes I already looked into it. Really a nice thing. Makes starting to dig real 
easy.

Now, finally, some more remarks that hit me since my last mail: (again, 
1.1beta2)

Bugs:

- PNG export is off-by-one, last row of pixels is missing (try saving just a
  class with no other elements below it)

Usability:

- Propertied of diagrams are only available via the context menu. This can be
  a nice shortcut, but is annoying for the new user trying to get an overview
  of the possibilities.
- Diagram properties are too local - if I turn on show grid and snap grid, it
  is reasonable to assume that I want them in new diagrams as well.
- Label positioning flaky - after loading, they are back at whatever position
  umbrello chose for them instead of where they might have been dragged. The
  default position just won't fit always.
- Association starts/ends again: it is difficult to order association lines
  the way you want when you have several ones on a side. Currently, the only
  dependable way is to delete and recreate them left-to-right.

By the way, in the meantime I finished my first homework in umbrella and must 
say that it really works well. The quirks I described make work a bit slower 
but overall it is a real alternative to commerial and those semi-commercial 
modelers out there. And I am glad that it is - I feel yucky when using 
non-free (as in speech) software.

-- 
CU
  Joerg

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