[Uml-devel] A 2.0 GUI/Association idea

[Andrew Sutton]

On Thursday 23 January 2003 8:09 am, Tsuraan wrote:
> On Thursday 23 January 2003 03:07 am, BARTKO, Zoltan wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I have an idea about the behavior of associations for 2.0. I would like
> > to know your opinion:
> >
> > In ArgoUML (http://argouml.tigris.org) the objects are connected with
> > associations that (e.g. it's endpoints) are allowed to move freely along
> > the borders of the object (I know, this is a very brief description, but
> > no description can replace experience). This is good, if you create
> > anchor points in the association and move the object. If you do so, it is
> > very probable that you won't have to change the anchor points' locations
> > to maintain the original angles between the segments of the association.
> >
> > The current 1.1 association behaviour is, AFAIK, split the edge of the
> > object, to which the associations are connected to, into equal parts and
> > maintain this behaviour if whatever happens. This means, that by adding a
> > few attributes to the diagram I am obliged to "pull the strings apart"
> > again, if I like 90 deg. angles - which I do.
>
> I had an idea along this line: is there any reason that Umbrello doesn't
> use splines rather than just lines for its arrows?  They tend to look
> nicer, and they can more easily steer around other objects, so you won't
> get lines going under (over?) other objects.  Just an asthetic idea, but it
> might be worth thinking about.

on this topic, we need to break down what we know we're talking about.
	- elements (classes, objects, use cases, etc.)
	- relationships (lines)
and there are really two or three different things that we're concerned with:
	- connecting relationships to elements
	- allowing relationships to avoid objects
	- allowing relationships to "bridge" other relationships

IIRC MS visio uses anchor points for its uml implementation, and that would be 
perfectly acceptable to me. i actually quite like the idea. although, if we 
use SVG, maybe we can find something better.

as for splines (curved lines?), i don't think that would add any aesthetics to 
a design. when we really get into layouts, it might not hurt to do some 
research on the topic. i'll take a look around and see what i can't come up 
with.

andy