Assignment 5-1: Eclipse Test Program

Assignment 5-1

Andrew Darr

COMP 645: Topics in Software Development

Dr. Hartung

9 February 2013

Assignment 5-1

I researched the free UML tools available, but finally decided to use Microsoft Visio 2010 since it is the tool that is preferred at my workplace. I have used Visio in the past to make flow charts and swim lane diagrams, but have never used it to make UML diagrams. In the past I have found Visio to be a relatively user friendly tool and found that it is no different when it comes to UML diagrams. I decided to model a simple a simple addition calculator with a User Interface module and a Calculator logic module. The user provides two numbers into the UI module and the Calculator logic module adds them together.

My first task was to create a UML class diagram. Visio has many different starting templates and it was not immediately apparent where the UML templates were. Some Internet searching quickly revealed how to load the UML template. Once the template was loaded, I found that all of the UML entities and connectors were available to be placed on the drawing surface. In addition, they were named which helped me out a great deal. At one point, I launched the help feature to see if Visio would provide context to some of the UML entities and connectors. Unfortunately, it did not, so a user would have to understand the meaning of the shapes before modeling. Adding classes to the drawing surface was as easy as dragging on dropping. Then, double clicking the class allowed me to modify the name, package path, visibility, attributes, and several categories of class data. The attribute editor allowed me to specify the name, type, visibility, multiplicity, and initial value. I could also define operations with parameters. Even though I had never used Visio to create UML class diagrams, I was able to create my simple two-class diagram in under 10 minutes.

Next, I attempted to make a sequence diagram. Just like the class diagram, I could drag and drop entities and connectors on to the drawing surface. I could even associate the sequence diagram objects with their respective class diagram classes (User Interface and Calculator). Associating the objects with their classes made configuring the message commands much easier. When adding message calls, I could select which class operation was being represented by the message call. Once I selected the operation, Visio would automatically fill in the message description text with relevant information.

In the end, creating both the class diagrams and sequence diagrams was quite easy. The Visio development team clearly put in extra effort when creating the UML designer. Creating quality and accurate UML diagrams was fast and easy. Visio’s class configuration windows made it very easy to select the necessary configuration options for my classes. In fact, I did not even need to know the UML notation, because Visio did all of that for me. I would definitely use Visio again and would recommend it to others.