Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Request: Fix sequence diagram copy-and-paste

« on: February 29, 2008, 02:24:57 am »

(Ran out of text :-)

Don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-EA.  It's generally an OK program.  It's just that these flaws are stopping me working as effectively, particularly for sequence diagrams.  Sequence diagrams remind me strongly of the old Select Yourdon tool and its many faults, all of which were apparent to anyone spending a few days actually working with it. :-/  In particular, inability to copy-and-paste multiple sequence messages seems a strange omission.  So I'm interested to know when a version might be released which will fix these.

With selection working properly, this'll be a great tool.  But as it stands, Visio has significant advantages over EA, and that's a shame.

Regards,

Graham.

2

Suggestions and Requests / Request: Fix sequence diagram copy-and-paste

« on: February 29, 2008, 02:18:26 am »

I'm using EA7 as the standard in-house design tool.  I'd be interested to know when the next iteration is which will fix numerous problems with selection and copy-and-paste in sequence diagrams.

Currently in EA7, copy-and-paste support could be described in the best cases as "variable".  For sequence diagrams I'd describe it as "absent", because there are very few situations in which it's possible to copy items.  Almost everything requires you do the job again if you want to repeat something.

Suppose I want to copy a sequence diagram from one collaboration to another.  Can I?  No.  Through trial and error, I found I *can* copy it to a package and then drag it to the destination collaboration, but why should that be necessary?

Suppose I want to copy multiple sequence diagrams though.  Can I?  Fraid not.  If you copy a diagram then things owned by the diagram will get copied along with it, but if you've got two dozen diagrams to copy, that's two dozen operations.

The situation is worse in the sequence diagram itself.  Can I copy multiple messages?  Can I copy a fragment to repeat the operations further down?  No to both.  If I want to do the same thing twice, I need to create a completely new diagram, put the copied content in there, and then paste that into the first diagram.  Fragments can be copied, but it doesn't pick up any of the contents.

There's also a "feature" with fragments, where if you copy an entire sequence diagram, double-clicking on the fragment in the new diagram takes you back to the old diagram.  Fine if you want it to do that, but the fragment doesn't let me turn that linkage off.

And sequence diagrams don't handle selection properly either.  Try selecting a message or fragment where the resize handles are close to a lifeline, and then try using that resize handle.  Can you resize it?  No - instead selection changes to the lifeline behind it.

3

Bugs and Issues / Re: Bug: Fragment movement when message deleted

« on: March 08, 2008, 01:01:09 am »

Thanks David.  Hmm, need to get our team all migrated to 818 then!

Graham.

4

Bugs and Issues / Bug: Fragment movement when message deleted

« on: March 07, 2008, 11:10:11 pm »

EA version 7.0 815

Bug steps to reproduce:-
Create a sequence diagram.
Add some classes.
Add some messages.
Add a fragment surrounding some messages, such that there are other messages above the fragment.

Bug behaviour:-
Delete the message immediately above the fragment.  We would expect the fragment to move up in step with the messages it surrounds, or worst-case to stay where it is.  Actual behaviour is that although the messages move up, this fragment stays where it is.

Note that if messages are deleted further up the diagram (but not the message immediately above the fragment), all fragments lower down *do* move up in step.  Even if a message above a fragment is deleted, other fragments lower down move up in step with their contents.  Only the fragment immediately below the deleted message is affected by this bug.

5

Bugs and Issues / Bug: Project browser opts missing from "Customise"

« on: March 08, 2008, 12:02:25 am »

EA version 715.

The "Customise" options for setting keyboard shortcuts and toolbars don't include project browser context-menu options.  The only project browser options in "Customise" are those covered by the "Project" menu.  Other options such as "Move up/down" and "Copy RTF bookmark" are missing from "Customise".

6

Bugs and Issues / Bug: Fragment selection in sequence diagrams

« on: March 07, 2008, 11:00:36 pm »

EA version 7.0 815.

Bug steps to reproduce:-
Create a sequence diagram.
Add some classes.
Add a fragment.

Bug behaviour:-
Move the fragment so that fragment handles are close to a class lifeline.  Select the fragment, so that the fragment is highlighted and handles are visible.  Attempting to use LMB to drag those fragment handles now changes selection to the class lifeline behind the fragment, instead of changing the selected fragment.