Re: How to move down call action in seq. diagram?

Luis Sergio Oliveira wrote:
> Which lifeline do you say has disappeared? (See attached screen shot 
> of ArgoUML0.26 with your project open and zoomed out: 
> test-large-lifeline-zoomed-out-screen-shot.png.) There are several 
> which are big, but, this is not so annoying.
Well, basically those of A, C, F and H. The others start with a dashed 
line, while for A, C, F and H the function (call) scope starts 
immediately. They are also much, much larger than those which do start 
(and end) with a dashed line.

>> In the context of this diagram I wouldn't use it for anything. For 
>> horizontally placing the Classifier Roles, simply select and move 
>> left and right.
Horizontally placing of the classifier roles indeed works without any 
problems. In a class diagram, moving a class in any direction also 
works. It's just that in a sequence diagram nothing can be moved 
vertically. This is really extremely frustrating. In a sequence diagram, 
vertical ordering isn't just something to make the diagram look good, 
but it communicates a meaning. In my case, there's no point in having Y 
higher than X. The entire reason why I was drawing the diagram is to be 
able to communicate to my fellow team mates that Y happens after X.

I like the class diagram that ArgoUML offers. It's simple and 
straightforward. The sequence diagram however is extremely frustrating 
to use. I spend about 10 minutes sketching the diagram on paper, but 
after 6 hours(!) of literally fighting with ArgoUML, I still did not had 
the diagram in it. Eventually I resorted to the UML2 editor in Eclipse 
3.4 (ganymede, also provided as part of MyEclipse 7.0 M2). Although this 
is an incubation project, everything seems to work. I can move down 
calls extremely easily: just grap them with my mouse and move them down. 
Exactly as I would intuitively expect. I can also resize call scopes 
with the greatest ease. Again, just grabbing it at the corner and move 
the mouse up or down. If I want to make extra calls from one lifeline to 
an another, the tool lets me. In ArgoUML this is never the case. If 
there is enough room in a given call scope, I can add an extra call. But 
if there isn't, I'm out of luck. ArgoUML doesn't allow the extra call 
and since it also doesn't allow me to extend the call scope or move an 
existing one down I'm stuck. Yes, I can create some space by moving the 
entire diagram down, but if I just want to add an extra call between two 
life lines, I only want the vertical space to apply to those two life 
lines and not to the 10 others I have.

Basically, after 6 hours of working with ArgoUML it seems that you 
really have to know exactly what the diagram is going to look like in 
advance. As soon as you want to change anything later, the tool doesn't 
let you and the only solution seems to be deleting a bunch of stuff and 
redoing it. I don't want to sound too negative, since I know you worked 
very hard on this for 10 years. Like I said, the class diagram works 
intuitively, but the sequence diagram has been a major pain to use for me.

Kind regards,
Arjan

-- 
It's a cult. If you've coded for any length of time, you've run across someone from this warped brotherhood. Their creed: if you can write complicated code, you must be good.