27 September 2015

google anniversary doodle

Google 17th anniversary doodle showcases lego cabinet of the first google server at Stanford:


13 September 2015

Astah: fast modeling

Astah (formerly Jude) is a uml tool that works very well, I only have some minor remarks about the interface:

  • did not find a way to make an element unselectable (e.g. when you do not want to multiselect all elements in a package, but not the package itself), like you can in Enterprise Architect.
  • you easily select sub-elements when you want to select e.g. a class
Here is a page with some tips for fast modeling from Astah, and a link with keyboard shortcut.
Some more tips
  • Association classes: right click on an association, choose convert to association class 
Sequence diagram modeling does not have the same level of perfection in v7.0:
  • Astah is in message draw mode, even when not appropriate (if you misclick you add an unwanted message)
  • not easy to add methods from diagram to existing classes
  • no automatic generation of communication diagrams from sequence diagrams (and vice versa) 
  • unlike sequence diagrams, communication diagrams do not
    • prompt to add new classes
    • support iterations

5 September 2015

model translation dictionary

Speaking in tongues: Nice translation dictionary from one modeling notation to another by Scott Ambler