General UML question

[andro]

EA lets (and I guess other tools do the same) to place on a diagram elements of any kind, regardless what the diagram's type is. For example you may draw a class diagram on a use case diagram. What's the point of assigning a diagram its type then?
andro

[thomaskilian]

Andro,
the point is that you get a different set of tools depending on the diagrams type. Since you have really tons of different symbols, this makes work a lot easier.

Cheers,

Thomas

[andro]

Well, the point is good enough, I guess. Thank you very much.

I hope you don't mind another question: why is it possible to link an actor to an object with an "include" link? This, for all I know, which I admit is not much, doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't the tool forbid such a link? Or, if there is any sense in it, could you point it out?

Regards,
andro.

[Bruno.Cossi]

Hi Thomas,

that is truth, but I guess the question is why to even allow placing, for example, an actor onto aa Statechart Diagram. Rose does not allow that and it probably does make sense.

Bruno

Andro,
the point is that you get a different set of tools depending on the diagrams type. Since you have really tons of different symbols, this makes work a lot easier.

Cheers,

Thomas

[thomaskilian]

Hi Bruno,
yes, you are right. But for simplicity: for that price I don't mind that EA lets the user do nonsense . Most likely if you disallow doing what andro says some guy will come and complain: I can't do this and I really need it, because... Actually I remeber some circumstances where Rose did not allow to do something (can't remember the details - something belonging to Actors and Classes...) and I was angry about that  :-/

Cheers,

Thomas

[sargasso]

You know, the funny thing is, sometimes I curse EA for allowing free use of any association type anywhere, other times I reckon it is one of EA's best features!

But I was thinking that maybe what I really want is some way of switching UML standards conformance on and off.

I know there is an option "Enforce Strict UML syntax" in the diagram options section, but it isn't really strict.

Secondly, the rules that are applied should be configurable! (Like the code gen templates), that way local nuances could be accomodated such as relaxing some of the rules for web app modelling etc.

Bruce

[Bruno.Cossi]

Hi Thomas,

oh I agree, I have no problem with the tool letting me do things I should not be doing - it is better than if the tool did not let me do something that I need.
The only time when I can see an issue with this is when exporting the diagrams from EA and importing them to another tool - but then again, there will always be issues due to the fact that EA supports many more types of objects than most of other tools.

Bruno

Hi Bruno,
yes, you are right. But for simplicity: for that price I don't mind that EA lets the user do nonsense . Most likely if you disallow doing what andro says some guy will come and complain: I can't do this and I really need it, because... Actually I remeber some circumstances where Rose did not allow to do something (can't remember the details - something belonging to Actors and Classes...) and I was angry about that  :-/

Cheers,

Thomas

[MichaelHanson]

I think the fact that EA lets you use any element anywhere and associate anything to anything is in keeping with UML.

UML does not really state rules for enforcing what type of association can exist between model elements, it really states the meaining and semantics of certain associations between elements.  So really EA is more conformant with UML than the rest of the tools.

I have used most of the leading tools, and one of the reasons I discarded them all for EA (when given a choice) is because most of the other tools try to impose their own interpretation of UML on us.

I like being able to do things that don't necessarillyy fit with the common interpretation of UML, because I frequently work in shops where UML is new, and the teams don't understand some of the more esoteric notation, so I "customise" to make it easier for my teams to understand.

EA is the only tool that let's me do that.