Messages

1

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Aggregation in requirement diagram

« on: October 08, 2009, 09:49:01 pm »

Paolo has argued my point precisely!

To extend the argument, consider this. If I draw a unidirectional (that is directed) association from class A to class B (with the arrow head pointing at B), then class A will contain a reference attribute for an instance of B. Yet class B is at the target end of the association!

An aggregation is a specialised form of association in that it specifies the ownership of associated class instance. However, I would still draw the association in the direction of default communication (which is my world is always unidirectional, and only bidirectional under special circumstances and even then I tend to prefer separate associations for this to capture the intent clearly). Hence when class A is making use of class B the association is drawn from A to B (with the arrow head pointing at B). If I decide that class A will own the life of class B then the source end of that association will show the required aggregation with a black diamond.

It is not possible to do this with the aggregation connector because it always puts the diamond at the target end, even with the draw aggregations reversed setting set.

Even if other view points are valid, EA should support this view point.

Regards
Dave B.

2

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Aggregation in requirement diagram

« on: October 07, 2009, 07:37:54 pm »

Simon,
that feature in EA doesn't work as expected. See here http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1254153042/6#6 (least not in v7.5.846)

Dave B.

3

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Line style shortcuts

« on: January 30, 2010, 01:23:47 am »

Definitely got my vote! I'm always using the tree line styles on my SysML BDDs.

Dave B.

4

Suggestions and Requests / Re: auto-layout diagrams and direct routing

« on: October 30, 2009, 11:38:51 pm »

What we really need is for the connectors to work like Visio's smart connectors. They move and adjust as you move the shapes they are attached to. EA drives me crazy when it moves the connectors on a diagram-object just be cause I changed its size.

Gets my vote. Please send them a formal feature request.

Regards
Dave B.

5

Suggestions and Requests / case insensitive sorting

« on: October 19, 2009, 10:03:43 pm »

I notice that the alpha-numeric sorting in the project browser and diagram layout tools is sensitive to letter case, possibly because it is only sorting based on character code values. Please implement a case insensitive alpha-numeric sort.

Best Regards
Dave B.

PS currently using EA v7.5.849.
PPS I fully appreciate that consistent naming conventions are de-rigour for software, but mixed case model-element names arise when constructing analysis models with domain-specific language and terminology. (I'm using SysML for this purpose.)

6

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Need DiagramObject.DiagramLinks collection

« on: October 30, 2009, 01:33:20 am »

This is exactly the problem that I have - see http://www.sparxsystems.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1256653355/0. So this feature request gets my vote.

I would also add that with the scripting interface to EA I wouldn't expect to have to write scripts to do relative simple bits of automation that involve writing complex helper functions. The automation interface should provide the solutions so that scripts can remain goal oriented.

In the mean time would any one be so kind as to post a bit of code on this thread that can identify the diagram-links associated with a given diagram-object? Pretty Please! (I'm out of time to write a helper script to help format several tree style SysML BDD diagrams into 3 columns (to fit on an A4 sheet) that have a lot of blocks on them.)

Thanks
Dave B.

7

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Fan-out Routing (Reverse Tree)

« on: October 13, 2009, 11:36:34 pm »

I'd also suggest that the tree routing line styles should:

• support more than just two columns (horizontal mode) or two rows (vertical mode)
• have a keyboard accelerator assigned to them
• be available on the line styles tool bar

Regards
Dave B.

8

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Multiple select!!!

« on: September 29, 2009, 11:18:34 pm »

The notes window will undock and you can make it as large as you like and dock it, or float it, where you like. The element properties dialog is also resizeable. So what's the problem?

Dave B.

9

Suggestions and Requests / Joined up models and notes/descriptions

« on: May 13, 2008, 12:16:27 am »

It would be very good to have the usage of every modelling element's name (including the glossary terms) automatically recognised and locked to the element's definition in any reference to it in any note field, wiki style. This would provide the following benefits:

• automatic emphasis of the model's terms in the text (which is very important for the development of a consistent language in the model and the project)
• automatic hyper-linking and mouse-over tool tips in certain presentation views (e.g. HTML, RTF, etc.)
• automated refactoring when element names are changed (i.e. propagate changes)
• reports on a term's reference usage

Hope this proves of value,
Dave B.

10

General Board / Re: Bugs and Issues

« on: March 01, 2010, 10:55:47 pm »

May be it was to stop me from posting the Sparx support response that I have received for my problems with the RTF report generator!  

Dave B.

11

General Board / Re: Can't edit because its checked in &can't check

« on: February 13, 2010, 02:02:58 am »

It's happened to me a few times! We're using the ClearCase VC connector.

The way that I have fixed it is to export the affected package to my desktop (or some local temporary place). Then replace the VC package with the exported package from the previous step and, using the direct ClearCase tools interface (i.e. not through EA) check it in. Then go back to EA and check it out. EA will reload the package from VC and allow you to continue.

If there's a better way, please would someone post that here!

Best Regards
Dave B.

12

General Board / Re: System and Software Requirements - SPICE & IEE

« on: November 26, 2009, 09:27:01 pm »

What's the reference to the SPICE book that has been cited?

Regards
Dave B.

13

General Board / Re: Link to Glossary Terms from other elements

« on: October 14, 2009, 10:11:31 pm »

Now what would be really nice would be to generate documentation that has hyperlinks to glossary definitions!

Dave B.

14

General Board / Re: Default size of diagrams in RTF documents ...

« on: November 02, 2009, 10:55:15 pm »

Not as far as I have found, but in order to work around pagination problems the trick I use is to set the top and bottom margin in the report template to be larger than required and then when I import it into MS Word I set them back to normal. EA appears to use a scale to fit method up to 100% of diagram size.

I'd also like to be able to control which way it rotates the image, when the "rotate" RTF report option is set on the diagram properties. The convention that it uses is the opposite of the one we would normally use!

hope this helps
Dave B.

15

General Board / Re: How to find requirements/use case

« on: October 06, 2009, 02:01:45 am »

My two penny worth is that I would align myself with Oliver. The word "requirement" can mean any type of requirement that the product under development must fulfil. The customer may state it, or the engineering team may deduce it or impose it.

We start with the user or customer view point and have user requirements as input. We do some form of requirements analysis to understand what we are being asked to do. We can use Use Case analysis methods for this purpose (although this is not the only technique available to us). Out of this analysis we arrive at the System Requirements (functional and non-functional).

The System Requirements are the input to the design teams (hardware, software, validation). The design teams make design and technology choices. This leads to new design requirements (that cannot be directly traced to the user requirements), and they make architectural and implementation choices that contribute directly or indirectly towards the realisation of the System and hence User Requirements.

The analogy here is client-server where the server can be a client to other systems and so on.

An engineering process step (IDEF0 style http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEF0) has inputs and outputs. The inputs can be requirements and the outputs (whilst also being considered to be engineering artefacts) can also be (derived) requirements.

This detailed view of the requirements tree is required by those of use working with engineering processes that have to demonstrate requirements traceability down to components on a board and lines of source code (and sometimes even the op codes). I don't doubt that agile and other customer centric methods can dispense with the need for rigorous requirements traceability and still be successful. The difference is that that sometimes the engineering rigour that has been applied has to be demonstrated retrospectively to an auditor and one of the many things that they require is good (to complete) requirements traceability.

Hope this helps
Dave B.