Messages

16

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Re: Customization of the Start Page?

« on: February 14, 2016, 07:04:42 am »

Yes, I found that solution after I wrote this post, but then I hit another EA-thing - Apparently one cannot execute EA-scripts via hyperlinks or anything else that can go on a standard diagram 

Thanks for responding though

~Per

17

Suggestions and Requests / Re: Ability to treat a file as a base project

« on: February 14, 2016, 07:01:09 am »

Yes, that will work if you have one template, but if you have more than one, that's not really an option.
I can create a number of MDG's with model templates, but that requires some expert steps (like manually editing MTS-files), and registering MDG's.

EA does not like to open read-only files at all (refers to EA lite to view them), so why not just use that as an easy option for choosing among any number of templates?

~Per

18

Suggestions and Requests / Ability to treat a file as a base project

« on: February 13, 2016, 09:25:16 pm »

In order to aid people working with EA, it could be nice to able to present them with a list of predefined base projects (through Windows Explorer), and on opening that base project, a new project is initiated.

I can think of two simple solutions:

• Accept a file extension of *.EAT (EA Template), which will open as if "copy base project" was chosen inside EA.
• Saving a file that was opened read-only could give the option to save as a new project

~Per

19

Automation Interface, Add-Ins and Tools / Customization of the Start Page?

« on: February 13, 2016, 09:12:09 pm »

Is it possible to customize the Start Page?

I am thinking about having company specific set-up, e.g. with references to different base models, depending on the task at hand.

~Per

20

General Board / Re: EA drifting away?

« on: December 10, 2015, 09:28:21 pm »

Roger that: "Load on Demand (Lazy Load)"

21

General Board / Re: EA drifting away?

« on: December 10, 2015, 02:11:57 am »

Loading EAExample.eap:
Version:  Time to UI ready / Time to CPU idle
10.0.1010: 25 / 34
12.1.1224: 33 / 41

Don't focus on the absolute times (I run this on single core 1.4GHz).

The performance of 12.1.1224 is 20-25% slower than under 10.0.1010.

22

General Board / Re: EA drifting away?

« on: December 10, 2015, 12:34:51 am »

It is 12.1.1224 and 10.0.1010 I use (should have been more precise before).
It's a small local EAP file (139 elements).

The timing is measured from Desktop (dropping the EAP-file onto the EA shortcut - Same as double clicking the EAP file for the 12.1.1224) to UI ready and CPU load drops (two measures).

Anyway, it wasn't meant to be a debugging thread, but rather a general "whine" of frustration, with the hope that Sparx would hold back on whistles and bells, and focus on keeping us productive.

23

General Board / Re: EA drifting away?

« on: December 09, 2015, 09:58:23 pm »

Did another test:

EA10: 24/32 seconds (UI presented / CPU load drops)
EA12: 34/42 seconds (UI presented / CPU load drops)

24

General Board / Re: EA drifting away?

« on: December 09, 2015, 09:51:41 pm »

I did disable quite a few MDAs in both versions, although they were not the same, so I've just done that, and another test.

MDAs enabled: Basic UML, Simple UML Views, Core Extensions, Database Engineering, BPMN 2.0, EAScriptLib, GoF patterns, Simple UI, System Engineering, Win32 UI.

EA10: 24 seconds.
EA12: 42 seconds.

I'm absolutely supporting the concept of users reporting bugs and issues in general, but I feel that we (users) have become their "test department". Had the product been free of charge, then ok...

And I completely agree with the moving menus and rearranging dialog boxes - That renders me a rookie user after every(?) update.

25

General Board / Re: EA drifting away?

« on: December 09, 2015, 08:21:34 pm »

Streamlining can be good, but you do risk that everything becomes equally accessible (read complicated).

I was not aware of the F9 and F10 shortcut as I have always used the Context menus to reach those, and F9 and F10 are not described there (UI inconsistency btw., but thanks for the pointer).

An example, Create a class, name it and set stereotype to "control":
EA10: Create class (F3), type name, press TAB, type "co", press DOWN (control is found), press ENTER.
EA12: Create class (F3), type name, press TAB 4 times, press ENTER, press TAB, type "co" (control is found), press ENTER.

Another thing that has irritated me for ages: Reading direction of associations! - If I choose to set a reading direction, it does belong to the association name in the model, not just the visual representation. So having multiple diagrams with the same associations visible, I have to set the reading direction for each and every association. And even worse if I change the name and its semantic, e.g. "has >" to "< belongs to", then I have to identify and change the reading direction on every visible association.

I currently have customers with non-technical staff who are very reluctant to use EA as "it's too intimidating", and I'm in the process of finding out how I can make MDG's for them, but that in itself is quite a journey.

When I used the word "slow", I meant that the application itself has become slower. Load of a simple model with EA10 takes 36 seconds, and the same model with EA12 takes 46 seconds, and I cannot see what I get for this extra delay - The only visible is a "fancier UI", which btw. in both versions I have set to the same XP style without whistles and bells (i.e. no gradients or shadows).

To me, a modeling tool should not trade speed for "whistles and bells". It'll be ok as an option when rendering images and reports.

26

General Board / EA drifting away?

« on: December 08, 2015, 08:49:04 pm »

Am I the only one that feels that EA has drifted away from its core values?  :-/

I suppose this is a subjective view, so let me elaborate on that:
I started to use EA because it made it fast and easy to create UML diagrams for larger projects (and it included the timing diagram).

With each release I feel that the UI of EA becomes increasingly slower, and primary features gets increasingly more complex to reach. Today I stick with EA10 because 11 and 12 have become too slow and complex to work with for me, and I do presume that EA10 does not get any support anymore so I feel that I have hit a dead-end with EA.

A couple of examples (from history as I remember it):

• Attributes and Methods got buried under "Features and Properties...", so one more click to reach these.
• Roles and multiplicity: Once you double-clicked on an association, and you could reach roles and multiplicity with a few TABs. Then they got demoted to secondary tabs under "Source Role" and "Target Role", and now their accessibility is even worse (try TAB your way to multiplicity). Previously you could hit the down-key to open the "pull-down list", that has gone as well.
• Wasn't there a time where you could open an Association or Class dialog box, and click on other associations/classes in the diagram and cause the dialog box to simply change to that entity, so that you didn't have to navigate to the same field for each entity.

Anyway, I suppose I really want to ask Sparx to please stop implementing new features for a while and start making EA fast and easy to use again, and please fix all those bugs too.

Yeah, this will be my Christmas Wish!

27

Bugs and Issues / Re: Problem with ArcTo in Shape Scripts

« on: December 10, 2015, 09:44:07 pm »

Have just had a little debug session with help from AndyJ.

It appears that (in my case at least) Sparx forum not even attempts to deliver notification mails on forum replies. Funny enough, I did get a notification on AndyJ's PM reply to me...

I've investigated a bit further, and found that the Sparx mail server has not been set-up correctly in quite a few ways, of which the missing reverse DNS is the worst. Some mail servers are set up to completely ignore sending servers without proper reverse-DNS (PTR).

I did mail Sparx about that 2 years ago, and they replied that they fixed it, although I did not verify it back then, but today it appears to be the same problem.
I've mailed them again today, so we'll just have to see I guess.

I did whitelist their servers IP address back then, so their mails still comes through to me at least.

28

Bugs and Issues / Re: Problem with ArcTo in Shape Scripts

« on: December 08, 2015, 07:38:33 pm »

Odd, I set notification on replies on this topic (verified), but haven't got any - Another bug I suppose, although not YAEAB to be fair.

I tried defSize(61,100) and AutoSize (Alt-Z), but same issue (EA10).
I'll file a bug report - I hope it will be worth the effort...

Thanks

29

Bugs and Issues / Re: Problem with ArcTo in Shape Scripts

« on: December 03, 2015, 08:55:11 pm »

By the way, this has been tested with EA 10 and 12.1

30

Bugs and Issues / Problem with ArcTo in Shape Scripts

« on: December 03, 2015, 08:53:56 pm »

The ArcTo() methods appear to have an issue, see image and shape script below. The left vertical line of the main image is made by the second ArcTo(), and appears to off by one.

Code: [Select]

shape main{
      defSize(60, 100);
      
      // Draw outline and fill interior.
      StartPath();
      moveto(100, 15);
      arcto(0, 0, 100, 30, 100, 15, 0, 15);
      arcto(0, 70, 100, 100, 0, 85, 100, 85);
      lineto(100, 85);
      EndPath();
      FillAndStrokePath();
      arc(0, 0, 100, 30, 0, 15, 100, 15);
      arc(0, 10, 100, 40, 0, 25, 100, 25);
      arc(0, 20, 100, 50, 0, 35, 100, 35);

      // Debug code
      rectangle(0,0,100,3);
      StartPath();
      moveto(0,90);
      lineto(0,93);
      moveto(0,95);
      lineto(100,95);
      moveto(100,99);
      lineto(0,99);
      EndPath();
      StrokePath();
}