Uml2.0 Tool

"To do a good job, you must first sharpen the tool." UML does not have any good tools to help, and often allows developers to wait halfway. What's more, developers sometimes think that UML is a very difficult technical tool for developers who use development tools that are not easy to use 」. I do not know that UML is just a kind of "speech". It is just like learning Simplified Chinese and beautiful languages. Learning UML is not difficult at all, as long as you understand the UML modeling method and understand the UML runtime, UML naturally comes to the pipeline. Of course, if there is a set of ready-to-use UML development tools, the difficulty of UML is greatly reduced. This is why we will discuss the comparison of UML tools.

In this phase, we will compare three different UML tools-IBM's Rational Software Architect (below), Borland's together impact ect (the following operator has together) and sparx systems's enterprise impact ect Corporation Edition (the following operator has EA ).
The benchmark of the benchmark is estimated separately from the following two aspects:

1. Support for UML 2.0;
2. File generation mechanism.

Throughout the article, we will divide these three sets of datasets into two parts, which mainly explain the operations of these three sets of datasets in the preceding two directions, and in the last small segment of each part, the ratio of the three parts in the same segment will be reduced.
But before the start of the introduction, I made a comparison on the cost and sold the product standards of the three companies, the following table lists the bitwise tables of the lattice:

Company	Product	Monger (USD)
IBM	Rational Software Architect	5500
Borland	Together for eclipse connector ect Edition	5000
Sparx Systems	Enterprise effecect effecate Edition	239

Table 1: lattice table of three samples

Yes! Don't worry. The difference between the three products is about 20 times. With such an impression, we will introduce the features of these three products.

Analysis of UML 2.0 support

Objective 1 is the classification of UML 13th percentile defined by OMG.Uniied modeling language: superstructure, Version 2,P. 660 ).

Classification 1. diclasses of UML 2.0 rules and definitions

Below, we will explain their support for the three parts mentioned above for the 13th phase of UML 2.0.

1. ibm rsa:

IBM's RSA and Borland together are both built on the eclipse platform. Therefore, you must first create a case of UML 2.0 so that you can understand the structure of UML. The lower part 2 is the operation plane of the rsa uml case.

Scenario 2: rsa uml 2.0 case-based operations

Similar to the operations of Eclipse, In the RSA operation region, the left region is the case area, and the right region is all available tools.

In RSA, the following types of operators can be added: class digoal, composite structure digoal, component digoal, deployment digoal, use case digoal, activity digoal, state machine digoal, sequence digoal, and communication digoal.

Compared with the 13th percentile of the runtime produced by UML 2.0, object digoal, package digoal, InterAction overview digoal, and timing digoal are missing.
However, if we look at the specifications of UML 2.0, we can find that the basic digoal of object digoal and package digoal is actually class digoal, only in these two cases, the dependency between packages and between objects is defined separately. Therefore, in RSA, we can use class digrams to parse these two linear shapes.

As a result, InterAction overview digrams is similar. In UML 2.0, the basic layout is activity digrams. Therefore, in the same way, we can also use activity digoal to adjust interaction overview digoal.

As for the time sequence, although the communication digoal in RSA can be used to table lifeline in the time sequence, the related UML components of its hierarchy are lacking. Therefore, RSA does not have the complete table sequence in chronological order.

As for the above, we can understand that it is a bit difficult to implement the complete 13-member UML 2.0 specification in RSA, developers must have a clear understanding of the main features of these thirteen regions, so that they can find the desired region for further development.

In terms of operability, developers are quite easy to use RSA if they are familiar with the eclipse interface, but unfortunately, developers use ide tools other than eclipse. using RSA is a bit of attention.

Next, let's look at the operations of the deployment department. In RSA, developers can easily convert the established sequence digoal into a communication digoal, and vice versa, this is an important feature of RSA extended to Rose. It can be said that this product is the most exciting part.

The model-driven architecture (MDA) mechanism is used in the end to provide three types of memory devices in RSA, it is divided into UML-> JAVA, UML-> C ++, and UML-> ejbs. Since RSA is built on Eclipse, when its role is Java or EJB, it can be very easily integrated with the Java or J2EE case of eclipse. In this part, it is also an example of RSA.

2, Borland's together:

Like RSA, to add the divisor of UML 2.0 in Borland together, you must add a new example of UML 2.0 in the eclipse environment. The lower limit 3 is the operation plane of Borland together.

3. Borland together operation plane

Unlike RSA, Borland together APIs may make the operation interface similar to previous versions. The tools that can be used vary with different types of UML Divs. The tools are listed as the "pallets" shopping festival template on the right of the example.

In addition, similar to RSA, it is in Borland together. In the same way, it only supports the nine-member aggregate in UML 2.0 (from the Left box above ), package digoal, object digoal, InterAction overview digoal, and timing digoal cannot be directly selected by Borland together.

As mentioned above, both package digoal and object digoal can use class digoal to compile objects. Similarly, in Borland together, you can also use class digoal to compile these two objects.

As for interaction overview digoal and timing digoal, there is no limit in Borland together.

In general, Borland together mainly lacks the above two types of features in support of UML 2.0. Then, let's look at the actual operations, borland together extends the together operation method. Therefore, together does not cause too much difficulty when using the operator.

In addition, together provides an interesting mechanism for the interaction between sequence digoal and communication digoal, that is, you can perform the same interaction digoal at the root of the thread, it is an interesting idea to specify whether to use "sequence digoal" or "Communication digoal, it is more apparent that these two operators are different points of view in the same practice.

To generate source code using UML, you must use different cases. To generate a Java program, you must select the "Java modeling" program. At this time, when you create a class in the program, together will automatically generate a Java class. When the attention or operation of the class changes, it will immediately respond to the program. This is exactly the same as the previous togetherj.

In addition, together still has an important feature of togetherj, that is, the sequence divisor can be used to generate the implement program. Similarly, the program executor can also reverse the execution to sequence digoal. This is a major feature of together. It is also the biggest advantage between together and the other two products.

3. Ea of sparx Systems)

EA is the shortest and shortest among the three parts. Because stand-alone's AP is used by Alibaba, you do not need to install JRE and eclipse before installing ea.

In EA, when using UML digrams, there are many orders. Since EA itself is a tool for using UML, as long as you add a new case in EA, it will naturally render all the environments in which UML divs are to be written. The lower part 4 is the design environment of EA.

4. Operation plane of EA

Similar to the operations of Eclipse, In the RSA operation region, the left region is the case area, and the right region is all available tools.

The operation interface of the EA is quite different from the previous two parts. The main reason is that the previous two components are both built under the foundation of eclipse. Therefore, the basic operations will be affected by eclipse; the EA itself is a stand-alone program, so the operation method can naturally be self-designed.

If developers are familiar with IDE development tools such as Delphi, Visual Studio, or Borland, they will find that EA's operating environment is very similar to these tools. In the entire development environment, the right side is the tool area, and the left side is the different view fields related to the entire project ).

In EA, all UML schemas will be placed in the project view. Similar to togethe r, When you specify a divisor of a specific type, the left toolbox will stay on the pallet of the divisor, this operation is very convenient.

Then we can see the support for UML 2.0. In the same way, you can see the conversation box in the center of example 4, that is, the divisor of UML 2.0 that can be supported in EA.

In addition to the nine digrams supported by RSA and together, EA also supports the four digrams of the remaining segments. In addition, EA also supports non-standard analysis digrams (Eriksson-penker business extensions ). Therefore, from the support for UML 2.0, EA is the most complete tool that supports UML 2.0.

Inevitably, we must also incorporate the mutual relationship between sequence digoal and communication digoal in EA, in this regard, EA does not provide any function to allow the two regions to interact with each other. This is one of the weaker ones in EA.

Then we can see EA's support for MDA. In EA, this part is very intrusive. developers can use the script syntax to define their own transformation rule. In EA, refer hosts for C #, EJB, Java, DDL, XSD, Web Service, and other standards are provided, developers can associate a model of the same PiM (platform-independent model) with a model of the platform-speficic model of different platforms ).

As for program tracing, EA supports different program programming languages, including C #, VB, VB. NET, Java, C ++, Delphi, and PHP. For a single product, EA is the most diverse among the three tools in terms of Program Statement support (RSA only supports Java and C ++; together only supports Java ).

In terms of integration with IDE tools, EA is a set of stand-alone applications, so it is inferior to RSA and together in support of IDE tools.

Ratio of contract to contract supported by UML 2.0:

With support for UML 2.0, we will analyze the three components in table 2 below.

Project	RSA	Together	EA
Support for UML 2.0 13.0di.pdf	Timing divisor is not supported.	Timing divisor and interaction overview divisor are not supported.	Supports 13th percentile digoal
Mutual mechanism between sequence digoal and communication digoal	Provide	Provide	Not available
MDA Mechanism	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supported Program Statement	Two Types	Two Types	Nine types
Sequence distri program refers to Program Execution	Yes	Yes	No
Integration of the IDE Interface	High	High	Low

Table 2. Support Analysis for UML 2.0

 

Document generator Ratio

For developers, it is not the most heavy work to design and make progress, this is because it is necessary for an experienced developer to do things, but it is necessary to compile the design and program of the software into a development file, it often causes major difficulties for developers. This is not because these files are not important, or because developers do not need to repeat them, but because they want to go through the design process, pay attention to the file format or content during the upload, which may affect the designer's thinking. Because of this, using a good UML tool helps developers develop files using tools, this is an important benchmark for evaluating whether the UML tool is qualified. So, how can we estimate whether a UML tool has sufficient capabilities to generate a development file? Estimation can be made from the following parts:

• What formats does the file support?
• Can it be customized to the format used by the developer?
• What are the effort values required to compile a file?

We will discuss the following parts separately.

1. ibm rsa:

Basically, RSA is similar to rose. The file types supported by RSA are limited, mainly PDF and HTML, the lower part 5 is the operation surface of the RSA production file (in the example of a production PDF ).

5. Operation plane of RSA design File

Basically, RSA can generate only two types of related design files. At the same time, developers cannot directly create templates for the design file. Therefore, RSA is very weak in supporting design files.

In the previous version of RSA, IBM provided another tool for generating production files-rational soda, but the latest version of this product was before RSA release, therefore, it is still unknown whether the version supports RSA. However, for RSA alone, the function of generating and developing files is actually over spring, which is not a matter of fact.

2. Borland together:

Extended to the features of the previous version, Borland together is still quite effective in the development file. It mainly uses templates to generate files. The following section 6 shows the operation plane for together to generate the file.

6. Operation plane for together Production and Development File

In the mechanism of generating files, together is most excited by five file formats that can be generated. In addition, the design of its template is also very intrusive. the next 7 is the together template as the document template as the interface.

7. The document template of together is used as the response surface.

In addition to using the template provided by together, the Development Editor can also compile its own template according to the actual requirement, which is written in the entire file, it can be said that it is very complete. Of course, I developed a response to the previous togethe r statement that the new togethe r version can still use the template designed by the previous version. At this point, together has probably passed RSA.

3. Ea of sparx systems:

The file types that EA can extract are HTML and RTF. The bottom line is the source area of the RTF development file of EA.

8. Operation plane of the EA File

EA uses templates to generate files. The difference is that sparx systems releases their characteristics, multiple Preset templates are provided to enable developers to directly use these templates. On the other hand, they can use the copy template method to compile their own templates, the lower part 9 is the design Plane of a newly created template written through the preset template of EA.

9. The template of EA is used as the plane surface.

In the same region, the biggest feature of EA is the ticket. Therefore, the document template of EA uses the "What you see is what you get" method. for developers, using this method to design may lead to many orders. However, unlike the document types provided by togethe r, EA provides more document types than spring.

The ratio of the combined statement for file operation:

In the same way, we use the three weights mentioned above to compare these three tools. The comparison result is shown in table 3.

Project	RSA	Together	EA
Supported formats	PDF, html	RTF, PDF, HTML, txt	RTF, html
Whether it can be customized to the format used by the developer	No	Yes	Yes
How many effort files are required to compile a file?	But you cannot design your own file template.	Simple, but the design file template is difficult	The configuration file template has a moderate degree of consistency.

Table 3. Ratio of combined operations on documents

 

Conclusion:

The main purpose of this article is to hope that the author can understand the experiences of the author after these three sets of batch operations, understand the weaknesses of these three sets of components, and analyze the cost-benefit issues according to their needs, select a set of UML tools that best fit your own development environment.

In fact, in addition to the preceding features, when selecting the UML tool, the author should still consider the following features, including: ease of deployment in case management, support for the development platform, orientation of demand datasets, and support for mobile hosting .... . However, due to space limitations, we can only focus on "UML 2.0 support" and "file preparation mechanism.

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