It seems there is some work to do yet in sequence diagrams in order to have the model and diagram in synch regarding activators and predecessors.
If the user changes activator or predecessor using the property panel then the ordering of messages on the diagram should change to reflect that. And the reverse is true. If the user drags messages so that their ordering changes on the screen that may require to change the activator and predecessor values in the model. Whats more there may be several sequence diagrams showing different views of the same interaction. A change to position of messages in a diagram may require change to the model which in turn may require change to position of messages in other diagrams. These diagrams may well be incomplete showing only some of the parts of a sequence diagram interaction. This is very new to ArgoUML where model elements actually effect the position of edges and positioning an edge can change the model. I think we have too much to do here to get correct and complete for the first release of sequence2 diagrams. I see three choices 1) Allow the FigMessage positions and model to get out of synch and expect the user to correct (but preferably have critics that can report this as high priority) 2) Restrict dragging of messages so that the user can't reorder then. Dragging of messages will still be allowed within a restricted range so that the user can still arrange position and layout better than they can in the current stable release. The user can still change activator and predecessor in the property panel (should that break sequence on diagram we should have a critic) 3) We complete the work in full for first release so that diagram and model are in synch. I would suggest we go for option 1 on first release with post release sequence work concentrating on removing that restriction and getting us to option 3. Note that with the current stable release the user can't move messages at all but they can still get the model and diagram out of synch by changing using the property panel so we currently have an even more restrictive option 2. For comparison with other tools I've haven't seen anything that changes edge positions when model properties change. If anyone has seen anything different let me know. But I'm comparing with UML2 tools for which the model elements are likely quite different (at least I don't see activator/predecessor on the property panels). Posseidon seem to have reintroduced something like critics for sequence diagrams (they drop critics in general long ago). They present a red exclamation marks on the sequence diagram elements when they detect some kind of inconsistency. That sounds like option 1 to me. Bob. ------------------------------------------------------ http://argouml.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=450&dsMessageId=1046901 To unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail: [[email protected]].
