Summary of topics

[Tjerk]

Hi Geoff and others,

During the last month I've been working with EA and I think it does a very good job for our project. To be able to optimally use EA I'd like to (re-) post many questions / remarks. I hope this post enables you guys to improve the tool even more.

UML modelling
There are two topics I want to discuss, drawing and modelling consistancy. First drawing:

• The iteration box in sequence diagrams locks access to the items under it, have to move the block away to get access.
  
• System boundary (toolbar) and boundary (from Use Case explorer bar) behave different. Last one is inconsistant in use (try selecting items within boundary).
  

Then consistancy:

• I would like to be able to use multiple interface classes (with their methods) within a component, not only directly methods.
  
• Default con- and destructors are not generated as methods in the model, but are when code generating. Please include these methods directly with the creation of a class.
  
• Relations do not result in member attributes in the classes. I prefer the creation of (visible) attributes for such relations.
  
• When assigning roles to relations, the attributes are not actually related to the roles. Selecting an attribute for a role, still allows me to change the role settings without affecting the attribute (so the role could be public, while the attribute is private). Seems inconsistant to me.
  
• I can only assign one attribute for source or target role. While e.g. reverse engineering generates more roles. Then, only one role be edited properly.
  

Replicas
I do not trust using replicas with EA. We had a couple of moments where we lost requirements after synchronising. If other users have the same problem, please help EA and locate the exact problem context. I, for the moment, do not have the time to look into this.
Furthermore, if there are conflicts when syncing, it is hard to tell what goes wrong and what the available resolving decisions result in. Would like the following:

• When telling user that sync is completed, report whether or not there are conflicts.
  
• More details on the conflicts when resolving them. At this moment it is sometimes hard to see the difference due to the "one line comparison" restriction.
  
• A possibility to select multiple conflicts to reject or accept.
  
• An identification of the current EAP file and conflicting EAP file would be nice on the Resolve Synchr. Errors screen.
  
• Is there a possibility to have the database items (table names, rowIDs) clarified (name instead of ID, EA name instead of table name)?
  

RTF generation

• Would be nice if the relationship matrix could be exported to an RTF table / document (insert as an RTF item in resources).
  
• Add "generate all" for "RTF documents" in resources.
  
• Embed image in document option results in picture over text (wrong layout).
  

Code generation
I personally think that C++ (haven't used others yet) code generation is still inmature in EA.

• It is possible to assign initial values to attributes, but this information is not used in e.g. the constructor. Would like that option.
  
• As others have indicated, the relations are not always generated correctly (see also my comment on UML modelling).
  
• Would like an additional tab on the class details dialog for additional .h code and additional .cpp file code (now only available in code generation dialog).
  
• Would like an additional tab on the method details dialog for code (next to behaviour).
  

Comment generation
See "Roundtrip engineering of C++ comments" thread in forum.

Tool
Framework / spelling:

• Locate object icon is different for the right-click menu in project browser and the Projectbar toolbar. Also, the hints are not quite clear (propose: objectname / detail search).
  
• How can I change the language used for spell-checking?
  
• Are words added in a user dictionary language depending?
  
• The cancel button in the "correct phrase" window does not pause or stop spell-checking. When more spelling errors occur, it is therefore not (easily) possible to stop the spelling checker (by pressing the cancel in the main spelling checker window). Can you make the spelling checker pause after a cancel in the "correct phrase" window?
  

So far my summary  . If you need additional info, please email me.

Greetings,
Tjerk