[Uml-devel] A few questions (long)

[Jonathan Riddell]

On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 08:17:39PM +0100, BARTKO, Zoltan wrote:

> this message is long. I warned you.

Crivvens.

> As I have mentionned the other day, I am willing to do a documentation
> generator for Umbrello, something like SoDA for Rational Rose (yes, Andy, I
> know, you told me SoDA sucked). So I had to review what could be documented
> and I have now a few questions/observations:
> 
> Before I start: I am using Umbrello (CVS:18.11.2003) on KDE 3.1.93
> (CVS:28.10.2003)
> 
> - what is an attribute/operation/template stereotype good for?

Well it's in the UML standard so it must be good.

Like other stereotypes it's just a label to say that the below
attributes/operations/templates have a property which can't otherwise
be defined.

> - Umbrello allows circular dependencies and generalizations (e.g. wishlist:
> walk-through the associations to avoid circular associations)

Yes.

> - If I am a package or a class, I can make myself depend on myself, e.g.
> draw a dependency to self.

Maybe a class can depend on itself, it can have other assoiations to
itself.  Not sure.  Should probably be turned off for packages.

> - multiple stereotypes of the same name (class attributes, class operations,
> class templates)

I don't understand this one, it allows two stereotypes with the same name.

> - with interfaces it doesn't even suggest a unique name

Works for me.  I get new_interface then new_interface_1 etc.  How are
you creating the interfaces?

> - datatypes: I can create associations
> (dependency/association/uniassociation) but I can't see the list in the
> properties

Yes

> - could the role settings page be disabled for generalizations and show only
> "general"? or at least disable the widgets in it?

Yes, I think so.

> - could the name of the association be displayed in the respective lists of
> associations?

Yes

> - Offer a few predefined versions of multiplicity:1,0..*, 1..*

Yes, may already be a wishlist entry for this I can't remember.

> - I have a dependency. A - - - > B. Now: I cant set the multiplicity on the
> side of RoleA, but I can set the changeability of RoleA. I can set the
> multiplicity of RoleB, but I think it should be setable on side A, not B.
> However, I may be wrong.

Maybe I should read up more on what a dependency is.

> - Having an association connected to a template looks bad (try it yourself)

True.  I guess the canvas items could have details stored of an
(invisible) box which is the outline that the associations should
attach to rather than them attaching to the actual canvas items
border.  Other UML drawing programs have the same problem in my experience.

> - If I create associations to myself, something changes in the class, its
> dimensions change, but the points where the association line breaks don't
> move.

Do you mean when adding an operation to a class so it's size changes?  Yes.

> - I could fancy Umbrello giving unique names to states, same with activities
> of states.

I think the reasoning might have been that you could have states with
the same name.  Also it might be more technically difficult to check
because states arn't stored as internal objects, only canvas objects
(probably an easy way around that though).  Yes.

> - It would also be worth a thought to create an activity diagram for a
> particular state (and throw all activities defined in the state one after
> the other vertically or horizontally (needs no autolayout magic)

I don't quite understand this.  

> - I create a sequence diagram, drag in a few classes, connect with messages.
> I want to select an operation, but my class has none. So I create one (in
> the listview). Now, I try to tell Umbrello to select an operation from the
> existing ones, nothing is in the list.

Works for me, are you sure you're making the operation in the class
the message is pointing /to/?  (I've made that mistake before.)

> - What about the lists of associations and actors?

What about them?

> - can anyone explain me the use of the following: Actor < - - - - - Use
> Case, e.g. a use case depending on an actor? Umbrello allows this.

Yes, I suspect this is daft.

> - I have a strange window caption. It says
> "#\!home\!bartkozoltan\!file:\!bartkozoltan\!umbrello.xml#" (without the
> quotes)

I havn't had that, can you recreate it?

> - Deployment diagrams: what use is to have objects (a.k.a. classes) in them,
> if I can't connect any association type... And the caption seems to be cut
> off at both ends a little.

Yes, I guess they should be allowed to be associated with components,
I should look at up.

> Now, I have a list of what could be documented, on condition we want extra
> verbose documentation (sure, there will be switches that would limit the
> documentation length). So if anyone finds anything to add or change, here
> goes the list:

Looks like an exhaustive list to me.

> Thanks for reading this far.

You can write yourself a bit for
http://uml.sourceforge.net/developers.php if you want.

Thanks

Jonathan Riddell