Messages

1

General Board / Re: Alternatives to RUP

« on: September 24, 2002, 06:42:20 am »

You could just say the url is http://www.members.aol.com/c-ockburn/ and add "Delete the hyphen" to the end of the post?

2

General Board / Re: Linking Use Case pathways to Activity Diagrams

« on: September 10, 2002, 02:50:04 am »

No need to be sarcastic mate.

But yes, I will upgrade to EA very latest version should we buy it. As I've said we're only trialing Visio (with the 30 day trial free from MS), and I believe I can make a valid assesment of that compared to EA 2.5 as currently it does everything I need.

Certainly the extra features may or may not be useful, but I believe in supporting companies and purchasing their software whenever possible.

The only thing that will lean me towards MS is if it does everything I need better than EA does. While some have said Visio is a drawing tool and nothing more, that is all I am using EA for, and perhaps all I will use it for, in which case it will be a direct comparison of features.

I like EAs features like the Requirement image feature, but I believe it should say "Requirement" on the diagram, like Process says "process" on the diagram.

In the end, I want software that is easy to do and does everything I need, and if that software is EA or Visio, that is what I will recommend we buy.

3

General Board / Re: Linking Use Case pathways to Activity Diagrams

« on: September 09, 2002, 08:51:05 am »

We're about to have an ISO inspection, and we're not supposed to have unlicensed software on the computers. I've tried downloading Visio (naughty naughty I know, but it was at home not on company time ) but got nowhere with it.

While I'm not ignoring your opinions, the MD of the company had suggested to my immediate boss that they buy Visio for me to use, we just happen to have EA on a coverdisk, and as a full copy is allowed by the ISO people.

I'll happily download 3.0 at home (its laughable, but I have a faster connection at home than the office.. 1MBs Cable vs ISDN). However, at the moment, all I am using EA for, and indeed, all I can see myself using EA for is to draw diagrams and arrows between them as an outline of sotware development programs.

I've tried 3 different projects and have yet to actually use requirements etc. The times I've experimented with them they don't print out, so when I have a hard copy, all it shows is the icons and any text labels I add, this rendors the requirements etc useless for me, so in this example, all I'd need is this copy of EA.

While I appreciate the benifits of upgrading, I'm of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" school, especially with so many problems with MS Windows Update corrupting things, so while I'll try the full trial version at home, unless I see anything wonderful about it, I'll wait till we can trial Visio and say for definate that we should buy EA.

Remember, I'm a student on a placement, I'm 21, I don't make business choices, I'll see what happens, and by all means if EA serves the purpose (and the fact it is cheaper is a + as well), I'll get it.

However, I've got no use for any of the programming tie ins, or the XML exports or any of that stuff, so what's easiest and best for me is what I'll choose, and that won't be influenced by people other than me, as I'm the one using it.

4

General Board / Re: Linking Use Case pathways to Activity Diagrams

« on: September 09, 2002, 03:45:20 am »

As a member of the bottom rung of the ladder, I don't get to choose the programs, only advise

I'm happy using a full copy of EA2.5 for the moment until I have had time to fully evaluate it, which is the aim of getting the Visio trial software from MS.

I don't pay for the software, I leave that to the bosses

5

General Board / Re: Linking Use Case pathways to Activity Diagrams

« on: September 09, 2002, 12:52:57 am »

I'll have to explain a little

I'm on a placement year as the 3rd year of my degree (in Systems Analysis and Design) working as a Software Systems Analyst for a software design company.

My job is to help design and plan the projects they work on before they embark on all the coding so they know how to proceed and how the overal system will work.

We got EA as a free 'full' program on a magazine cover disk and are evaluating it and will be considering Visio et al before deciding which is best for what we need and purchasing a full license for that software.

Visio looks nice, and its links in with other MS products are obvious plus points but it may have some things missing that EA has. This will all be taken into account.

Take note also, this is only my 2nd week here, and I've only really scratched the surface of EA. For instance, I'd like to know how to print out all the listed requirements for an entity (as in, any shape) on the diagram, as well as several other things, but that will hopefully be found through experimentation.

6

General Board / Re: Linking Use Case pathways to Activity Diagrams

« on: September 06, 2002, 12:56:33 am »

I've now been using EA for 5 days so I think I have much to learn.  

I'm going to try your solution to experiment with more of EA's features. Sounds interesting, even if I don't fully understand it yet.

Just a further question - what version are you using? I am currently using 2.5 Desktop (not upgrading to the latest until we have trialed MS Visio 2002 as well) and I don't have the right click option ("Link this note to element feature") on the note link that you mentioned.

Is this a more recent addition?

I also don't seem to be able to access the following thing you mentioned:

In Feature type choose Scenario, and click on the first scenario. The name and text associated with the scenario will automatically appear in your note.

Finally, when I tried to "drag the icon diagram that corresponds to the scenario into the note." nothing happened, the icon diagram just added to the diagram and wouldn't appear in the note. Is this because the above features I mentioned don't exist in my version?

7

General Board / Re: Linking Use Case pathways to Activity Diagrams

« on: September 05, 2002, 01:20:43 am »

I'm not sure if this is what you're after, but assuming I understand what you are asking (and it may not be ), the way I link external diagrams to a new diagram is to click/drag/drop the image I want from the file browser onto the new diagram. Then I link it using a flow arrow (or similar). This will add an element to the diagram with the pages location (e.g. 'Business Process Model: diagram x' with a little picture of a page hierarchy by the side).

This may be what you're after, I don't know :-/

8

General Board / Re: Feature Request: Attachable Notes

« on: September 20, 2002, 01:10:03 am »

I use EA for diagram drawing, not as a UML tool, thus it doesn't matter to me whether a link is "correct" or not, just that it is present to show the thought process in my head.

For example, if a program I was working on had a screen that would link to another screen, a button that would load a dialog and a user inputted decision that would display option 1 or 2 I would use the same arrows to show this as I am not concerned with the correct UML laws at present.

No doubt this might upset the true UML followers, but it is sufficient for me to do this to display the way I think programs should develop for my company and to use labels to show that development process.

For the initial post he wanted a link from a note to another diagram item, I suggested the reasons why a normal flow line wouldn't connect, but also suggested a link which would produce an arrowed line, rather than just the non-directional note line as I thought this might help YoPapa. It may not be true UML but it works

9

General Board / Re: Feature Request: Attachable Notes

« on: September 18, 2002, 08:00:57 am »

It is a feature of more recent versions of EA (2.5 does allow flows between notes and activities etc). The exact message is:

"The requested connection is not UML compliant."

This says to me that UML rules say a note cannot link to an activity/entity etc.

However, a 'dependency' link (on Logical Options) will link a note to an entity etc, as well as a note link.

I presume this means that UML rules allow an entity to be dependent on a note or vice versa.

Hope this helps.

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General Board / Re: Feature Request: Attachable Notes

« on: September 18, 2002, 02:25:57 am »

I'm not certain, but I believe this is to do with maintaining UML rules. Flow/Data Flow arrows cannot link notes with say activities I think.

You can use a dependency link (on the Logical section) to link notes with activities, this makes a dashed line with a big arrow like: - - - - - >

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General Board / Re: EAToolkit

« on: September 19, 2002, 01:41:07 am »

If you got the chance, use [glb]Windows XP[/glb] and set a system restore point before you install programs that don't have correct uninstall procedures and then you can restore it to the previous state if it all goes [glb]pearshaped[/glb]

12

General Board / Re: Colouring items on a diagram

« on: September 19, 2002, 01:36:01 am »

It probably will do, but my point was that there is a bug in the software Logically, every time you click an object and click on the fill menu, and choose the same colour it should apply that colour, not just ignore the command.

No biggy though

Lewis

13

General Board / Re: Colouring items on a diagram

« on: September 18, 2002, 07:56:31 am »

I'll try and explain.

On a diagram, I select say an entity. Using the drop down colour options at the top (3 options next to each other: Fill, Font, Border) I select Fill, and select a colour. The entity is filled in that colour.

Now, I select another entity/activity etc and click again on the Fill drop down list, and select the same colour, but now nothing happens and the object remains the default colour.

Using the drop down menu, the only way I can choose the same colour twice is to firstly select a different colour (thus filling the object as a different colour) then clicking the drop down menu again, and selecting the original colour.

This appears to be a bug of some kind, noting your experience, it seems limited to the drop down menus not the overal colour feature.

14

General Board / Colouring items on a diagram

« on: September 17, 2002, 07:59:16 am »

On a diagram I am doing as a design for a software program our team is working on, I like to add colour to items, both as borders and fills to distinguish certain items as independent from the main process.

During this, I coloured in 3 Objects, the first one happily coloured the border and filled in ok. When it came to the second one, wanting to do the same colour, I again clicked on the fill and borders options and chose the same colour. Unfortunately, it didn't do anything, and wouldn't do anything until I chose a different colour for the border and fill, then switched back to the original colour selection to get the effect I wanted.

Is this a bug in the software or am I doing something wrong?

As a side note to the guys who wanted information on my comparison of EA/Visio/Rose - I am currently using the trial version of 3.10, with view to purchase the full copy as I feel it is better than Visio and Rose. Visio, while I think it is quite fancy and I like the office interface it isn't as indepth as EA and seems to concentrate more on fancy visuals than actual tools. The professional edition....crashed on loading with an illegal operation  

Rose seems to extremely limited and lacks a huge number of the features EA has such as Requirements, Objects, Entities etc etc, it only seems to have Use Case, Actor and Links and nothing more. Plus their download trial was 260MB and the trial activation didn't work and it took 3 days for them to email me a 15 trial key, which upon entering said I had 11 days left

EA is my preference and I will be telling my boss to order it this week hopefully.

15

General Board / Re: Request on state elements in sequence diagrams

« on: September 17, 2002, 08:19:35 am »

I think all cats routinely fall into a state of sleep 99% of the time

Lewis