[Uml-devel] u2 user interface

[Sebastian Stein]

Andrew Sutton <ansutton at kent.edu> [030324 19:55]:
> so. any feedback on that? otherwise, that's probably the direction i'm 
> dragging this thing.

I don't like tree views very much. I think they get very complicated if you
have more then 3 levels.

You mentioned the Outlook bar. Well, I think in Outlook you only have 3
levels of information. For example click on Contacts. It will show a list of
all your contacts in the main widget. Then you have to
select the person. The view in the main widget is replaced with information
about the person. Now you can select categories of information (general,
phone, adress, email) and view all information about this category for the
given contact. I think there are no more levels below.

The interesting question would be, if we as well have only 3 levels of
information.

Let's say there is a "Use Case" button in the bar. You click on it. The main
widget changes. What do you expect to see? I think a list of all objects
related to the use case view would be logic. So a list with all:

acteurs
use cases
maybe associations
use case diagrams

Clicking on a acteur, use case or association object would result in the
property window to be shown.

Clicking the use case diagram would remove the list and show the diagram.

You could provide a back and forward button in the toolbar to get back to
the list from the diagram. (something like in a browser)

I think this could work well, but only if you have not more then 3
information levels.

Maybe there could be a completly other approach. I mean in structured
analysis you first draw a context diagram. Then you can zoom in and get data
flow diagrams. Clicking on a function could show another DFD or the actual
code. You could go deeper and deeper. Clicking on a storage could result in
getting in a ERM.

Maybe there is something like this in UML. Couldn't we identify a top level
view of the whole system? And than providing navigation to get deeper into
the system?

If I'm right, I think the UML model is just like a cube. You can have
different views on this cube by rotating it. You can zoom in and zoom out
and make slices. So it is only a question of navigation.

I'm not sure how to do it at all. But please (to all) give some input,
because it is a very important point at the moment. And please don't start
codeing now...

Steinchen
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Umbrello UML Modeller
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