[Modeling] Re: Seq. diag. answer to Michael Winikoff

[Radovan Cervenka]

Dear Michael,

> Briefly, I believe that some sort of suggestive icon is a lot easier to
read and
> process than a three letter acronym (especially for casual users of the
notation
> - "what does ign mean again?")

Sure! It is better also for non English speaking people. But UML 2.0 has
already defined acronyms and all UML users will know them. That's a pity
that we are late little bit.

> Regarding multiple notations, any half-decent tool should be able to
> automatically switch presentations, i.e. show "alt" as "?" (or whatever
symbol
> is chosen) so I don't see this as a significant issue.

Yes, but we should not have any expectations on dynamic behavior of CASE
tools supporting AUML. I do not think that the key-players in the area of
UML 2.0 compliant CASE tools will implement also AUML with optional
notations. At least not in several months (years?) after AUML specification
releasing.

> Ideally, I'd argue for REPLACING the three letter acronyms with
symbols/icons,
> however it is too late for this, so I'm just suggesting that we define and
> permit an alternative presentation. I believe that this will AID the
readability
> and understandability of the notation. I appreciate your concerns over
different
> notations, but in this case the difference is very small and, more
importantly,
> completely localised.

OK We can offer presentation options in AUML for these elements, in sense of
presentation options occurred in UML specification.

BTW looking at UML 2.0, I feel that there could be more cases for which we
will offer alternative notations. Not only replacing some acronyms by icons,
but also replacing maybe several modeling elements by one visual element (of
course with unambiguous metamodel mapping). E.g. while modeling some AUML
concept that is naturally represented by a dependency and a constraint. It
can be drawn e.g. as a line with special arrowhead and guard, instead of
drawing dependency and constraint as two separate visual elements...

Regards,

Rado1.
--
Radovan Cervenka | rce@whitestein.com
Whitestein Technologies | www.whitestein.com
Panenska 28 | SK-81103 Bratislava | Slovak Republic
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