Issue 13466: Lack of clarity about meaning of package shapes containing elements with fully qualified names (uml2-rtf) Source: Model Driven Solutions (Mr. Steve Cook, steve-c(at)modeldriven.org) Nature: Uncategorized Issue Severity: Summary: The UML specification is not clear what it means for an element with a fully qualified name to appear within a package shape on a package diagram. 7.3.37 says “The members of the package may be shown within the large rectangle”. So it seems to rest on the definition of members, which is the union of owned members and imported members. This is somewhat reinforced by “elements that become available for use in an importing package through a package import or element import may have a distinct color or be dimmed to indicate that they cannot be modified”. Note that the definition of ElementImport says “identifies an element in another package, and allows the element to be referenced using its name without a qualifier”. So we’d expect imported elements to be dimmed, but not have a name qualification (a poor user experience if I may say so). Subsidiary issue: Why does it say that they cannot be modified? This is a matter for tool implementers, and has no place in the UML spec. But elsewhere it says “The public contents of a package are always accessible outside the package through the use of qualified names”; So how should I interpret the appearance of an element shape within a package shape when the element has its fully-qualified name (as frequently appears in the UML spec itself)? Does this imply the existence of an import or not? According to “The public contents of a package are always accessible outside the package through the use of qualified names” no import is necessary; according to “The members of the package may be shown within the large rectangle” an import is necessary. At the very least this should be clarified. More deeply perhaps the issue is that the definition of the term “referencing an element” is very dubious. Does appearing on a diagram involve referencing? How about appearing in tool windows, type pickers, etc? Resolution: Revised Text: Actions taken: February 9, 2009: received issue Discussion: End of Annotations:===== m: Steve Cook To: "issues@omg.org" Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 11:44:53 +0000 Subject: UML 2: Lack of clarity about meaning of package shapes containing elements with fully qualified names Thread-Topic: UML 2: Lack of clarity about meaning of package shapes containing elements with fully qualified names Thread-Index: AcmKq9LiRdyKmjJ+TxiAy5I/lTIWnQ== Accept-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US The UML specification is not clear what it means for an element with a fully qualified name to appear within a package shape on a package diagram. 7.3.37 says .The members of the package may be shown within the large rectangle.. So it seems to rest on the definition of members, which is the union of owned members and imported members. This is somewhat reinforced by .elements that become available for use in an importing package through a package import or element import may have a distinct color or be dimmed to indicate that they cannot be modified.. Note that the definition of ElementImport says .identifies an element in another package, and allows the element to be referenced using its name without a qualifier.. So we.d expect imported elements to be dimmed, but not have a name qualification (a poor user experience if I may say so). Subsidiary issue: Why does it say that they cannot be modified? This is a matter for tool implementers, and has no place in the UML spec. But elsewhere it says .The public contents of a package are always accessible outside the package through the use of qualified names.; So how should I interpret the appearance of an element shape within a package shape when the element has its fully-qualified name (as frequently appears in the UML spec itself)? Does this imply the existence of an import or not? According to .The public contents of a package are always accessible outside the package through the use of qualified names. no import is necessary; according to .The members of the package may be shown within the large rectangle. an import is necessary. At the very least this should be clarified. More deeply perhaps the issue is that the definition of the term .referencing an element. is very dubious. Does appearing on a diagram involve referencing? How about appearing in tool windows, type pickers, etc? Thanks -- Steve DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=vzgMg0ApWDExDlWvKwSFL4RIaYngwstpjLYtt3iAPfo=; b=V3xlF3jpJaEDlr5NdixAG5B6h0vFMrdfGzWVMlAmh+m4PcBSMvr5sGnF4bRBKbCipU J8nzeq3uuBbHMqPKxu6pepsVQKojXC94O8C1YB2No2LS37ks0Dwv7O5TVJX+XZDto2x6 69rNJuKjo1ThPpLst3AhVdg6/sCm4iLNhAgss= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; b=URkOcnfQCjZXMTNSIK77AIjEFy00RJgQMhuf/7F6j2+VVqppdxw1nUe7NNi1qsWyPf 8U+2xrwueBNFfZUuGAYEAhieW1k91Jo9Lxwu8MaUka5hK3Kd+lTESOjhYSU5HyKbbwxU mDuhEeQWE5FWCS8hTlRZWaFfX+6rZXLq/hvek= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 19:37:54 -0500 Subject: Re: issue 13466 -- UML 2 RTF issue From: Bran Selic To: Juergen Boldt , uml2-rtf@omg.org Just a note on the diagramming conventions I used in the UML specs for all abstract syntax diagrams: fully qualified names are consistently used for any element imported from another package. Locally defined elements were shown with simple unqualified names. Cheers...Bran On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Juergen Boldt wrote: From: Steve Cook To: "issues@omg.org" Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 11:44:53 +0000 Subject: UML 2: Lack of clarity about meaning of package shapes containing elements with fully qualified names Thread-Topic: UML 2: Lack of clarity about meaning of package shapes containing elements with fully qualified names Thread-Index: AcmKq9LiRdyKmjJ+TxiAy5I/lTIWnQ== Accept-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US The UML specification is not clear what it means for an element with a fully qualified name to appear within a package shape on a package diagram. 7.3.37 says "The members of the package may be shown within the large rectangle". So it seems to rest on the definition of members, which is the union of owned members and imported members. This is somewhat reinforced by "elements that become available for use in an importing package through a package import or element import may have a distinct color or be dimmed to indicate that they cannot be modified". Note that the definition of ElementImport says "identifies an element in another package, and allows the element to be referenced using its name without a qualifier". So we'd expect imported elements to be dimmed, but not have a name qualification (a poor user experience if I may say so). Subsidiary issue: Why does it say that they cannot be modified? This is a matter for tool implementers, and has no place in the UML spec. But elsewhere it says "The public contents of a package are always accessible outside the package through the use of qualified names"; So how should I interpret the appearance of an element shape within a package shape when the element has its fully-qualified name (as frequently appears in the UML spec itself)? Does this imply the existence of an import or not? According to "The public contents of a package are always accessible outside the package through the use of qualified names" no import is necessary; according to "The members of the package may be shown within the large rectangle" an import is necessary. At the very least this should be clarified. More deeply perhaps the issue is that the definition of the term "referencing an element" is very dubious. Does appearing on a diagram involve referencing? How about appearing in tool windows, type pickers, etc? Thanks -- Steve Juergen Boldt Director, Member Services Object Management Group 140 Kendrick St Building A Suite 300 Needham, MA 02494 USA tel: +1 781 444 0404 x 132 fax: +1 781 444 0320 email: juergen@omg.org www.omg.org