Re: Visualizing Cocoa
Re: Visualizing Cocoa
- Subject: Re: Visualizing Cocoa
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 07:50:33 -0700
>
And while we're on the subject (since it's relevant to a project I'll
>
likely take): are there any good UML tools for the Mac? (MacOS X
>
preferred)
>
>
Failing that, I'll take a good Linux one (I'll probably get stuck
>
with Rational Rose, but...).
I have not had any luck finding a good CASE tool for Cocoa. There are a few
that run in Classic mode. I can't remember names offhand because none of
them have impressed me enough to make them a mainstay of mine.
There are a few good ones written in Java, which can be used on OS X - but
none of the CASE tools that I've worked with are really set up for
Objective-C, and most are very java-centric. One that I like, but has some
serious shortcomings and just doesn't really work for Obj-C for a number of
reasons. One that I like but which doesn't work well for objective-C is
ArgoUML (open source project at: www.argouml.org), which also has a
commercial counterpart (GentleWare Poseidon). Some of the things it does
that keeps it from working for Cocoa:the scope for methods is required and
the +, -, an # are converted into "Public", "Private", and "Protected".
Objective-C doesn't support scope for methods - only for iVars. Also,
Objective-C uses the + and - operator for a very different purposes than
the UML standard - for defining class v. instance methods. Most CASE tools
I've worked with will change the + or -, which makes it impossible to
designate methods as class or instance using standard notation, and I don't
believe there is a UML notation for class v. instance designation.
I used ROSE for a short period of time as part of an evaluation of CASE
tools where I work. ROSE had some really good things, but is very, very
expensive.
If you just want to diagram and don't need something that automates the
process, OmniGraffle has a number of template objects for OO design, but
it's totally manual, and it's missing a lot of basics (i.e. no actor icon).
But, it works if you don't mind the manual path, and it sure as heck beats
Visio for diagramming...
Jeff