Re: [COAS-List] Status of Updating COAS IDL

[Tim Brinson <tim@protocol.com>]

Paul Cooper wrote:
> It sounds as though you are totally sold on the benefits of UML /
> Rose98. :-)

I must admit to being a convert.  Even though Rose98 does not implement
all of UML it is a great start.  The power comes from well defined
semantics.  When you draw a diagram it is defining a model and the
diagram is a view of the model.  When you update the model the diagrams
update automatically.  You can create other views of the model just by
dragging the relavent elements from the model to a blank diagram and
arranging them as you wish.

> I am curious by your comment that the IDL generated from the
> information model is of no use as a service layer interface.  I would
> have expected that.  However, does it provide anything of use at all?

Within a model created by Rose98 you can control the kind of IDL type a
UML class maps to - to some degree.  You can also output Java and C++
code but I have not played with that.


> I am also interested to know what the scripts are doing to massage
> the generated IDL (after you have added a service level description).
> Is Rose98 defficient in some way?

There are a couple of issues here.  One is how to produce an IDL file
meeting the OMG style guide (as standardized by the Architecture
Board).  Another is how to generate files that can be included into the
spec at various places.  The mapping from UML to IDL is not really
complete and there are a lot of extra comments that need to be removed. 
For example I found no way to create a sequence type.  All IDL types are
mapped to the global scope (no IDL modules) and a separate IDL file is
created for each.  Some of the IDL types generated have missing
information.  For example The Rose98 tools allow you to convert a UML
class to an IDL typedef but they don't provide a way to indicate the
type it is defined from.  I do need to do some hand editing as well.
 

> Finally, will the Rose98 model be available to the COAS team, or
> just the Word document?

I will make the model available too.  I think that will be an important
part of the submission.  BTW, we are using Framemaker instead of Word
since at the end the OMG needs a Framemaker file anyway.


Regards,

Tim
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