EA has a standard set of colours to use as defined in
Tools|Options|Standard Colors.
If one makes extensive use of colours for element stereotyping, this can cause problems due to its "one-size-fits-all" approach. For certain combinations of fill colours, the text in the compartment may be impossible to read.
Eventually, EA will need to allow us to vary the rendering of individual features (Attributes, Operations etc). Such functionality has been available with Embarcadero ER/Studio for many years. However, in the interim,
we will need some mechanism to allow better viewing of vertexes (shapes).
You CAN vary both the fill and the font colours for the "Head" compartment (the one at the top). As a consequence, it is the modeller's responsibility to ensure that the combinations are legible in the various contexts (CRT, LCD, Colour Paper B+W paper etc).
My suggestion is to add a checkbox to the
Standard Colors dialog to restrict the stereotype colouring to the Head Compartment. This would allow the standard colours to be universally applied to the rest of the vertex.
A
better solution would be to enlarge the shape rendering and place a small "sliver" of fill colour around the outer edge of the shape (still filling the Head compartment). The bulk of the fill would still use the standard colours.
It may well be the case that in order to implement individual rendering of features, the
latter scheme may be needed.
Thoughts? Votes?
Paolo
[size=0]©2007 Paolo Cantoni, -Semantica-[/size]
