I agree that there's always going to be resource constraints, but I think the aspiration to improve the ease of use should be something that we continually strive for with every release.
I encourage everyone who works on the project, or who uses the tool, to show it to their colleagues who don't use it. Go through a basic set of use cases (you don't have to be obvious about what you're doing) creating a class diagram, creating use case diagrams, RE, codegen, etc. Watch where people struggle. At the end of the session, ask one simple question, "what would prevent you from using ArgoUML". Make notes of anything that said. The "UML as a sketch" idea is a perfect example of thinking outside the box. A tool that basically gets out of the way while you're working. Something lightweight. Something that works the way people work. Riffing on that idea (and Andreas' idea) a bit, I wonder if a web-based UI would fit the bill? The server would be capable of interpreting the drawing as a model, and generating the necessary artifacts. You would be able to do design reviews, and collaborative design. The server might also be capable of interacting with a code repository (so you could automatically reverse engineer your model when you make commits). On a previous thread, I talked about "instant reveng" -- where the user would move back and forth between the source view and the diagram. Changes made in the source view would automatically be reflected in the diagram and vice-versa. One of the advantages to working that way would be bridging this cognitive divide between UML and your language of choice. As you work in the source view, you learn the UML equivalents for the code you write. Kinda like learning a foreign language by reading the subtitles. As for deleting from the model vs deleting from the diagram, the key short cuts that Tom mentioned should probably appear in the menu items. That goes for any other shortcuts. It would be nice to have shortcuts for creating classes, interfaces, attributes and operations. Ctrl-Shift C might create a class, Ctrl-Shift A an attribute in the selected class, Ctrl-Shift D the documentation, etc. Mark On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 8:25 AM, David Glaser <[email protected]>wrote: > > On 3/31/2012 10:09 AM, Tom Morris wrote: > > Support of "UML as sketch" and a lightweight, facile, modeling flow is > something that I'd personally love to see though. I'd love to be able to > knock out a diagram in UML as fast as I can sketch it on a napkin (tablet > UI anyone?) without the cognitive load of thinking about the tool, but then > by able to take advantage of the machine's ability to modify the diagram > rather than redrawing it from scratch, generate code from it, and all the > other things we associate with using a modeling tool. Tom > ------------------------------------------------------ > http://argouml.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=450&dsMessageId=2942968To > unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail: [ > [email protected]]. To be allowed to post to the list > contact the mailing list moderator, email: [[email protected]] > > For a "sketch" version of Argo on a tablet, we would need a pointing > device that > is more fine grained than a fingertip. > > From what I understand, Android ICS does have stylus support. So, this is > definitely > a possibility. > > -David > ------------------------------------------------------ http://argouml.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=450&dsMessageId=2943005 To unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail: [[email protected]]. To be allowed to post to the list contact the mailing list moderator, email: [[email protected]]
