[Modeling] Behavior in Interaction Diagrams

[Marc-Philippe Huget]

Hi all,

I just received a good question that must be considered even if I have
my thoughts about it. The person represents agents as a set of objects:
one for communication, one for means-end reasoning, one for scheduling,
etc. She wants to write an interaction diagram that presents the
exchange of messages between agents but as well, the method invocation
between the agent as whole and the objects constituting it. The aim is
to link messages to actions triggered by these messages. My first answer

to the person was: actually, interaction diagrams are for messages and
that's all, after a second thought, I think about UML 2 where we can
have method invocations (grey rectangles on lifelines) and a recent
discussion where AUML was criticized, yes, some people dare! ;-),
because it is not possible to relate messages to actions.

I would like to know your opinion and particularly if such approach must

be added to the specifications or do I have to answer that statecharts
and activity diagrams are done for that, I know continuations inside a
diagram but between different diagrams of different kinds, that's
possible?

Cheers,
Marc-Philippe

PS Renato, I don't forget you and your recent comments but they need a
special treatment ;-) and quick answer will be an error in this case



--
Marc-Philippe Huget

Agent Applications, Research and Technology Group
Department of Computer Science
University of Liverpool
Chadwick Building, Peach Street
L69 7ZF Liverpool
United Kingdom

email: mph@csc.liv.ac.uk
http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~mph