RE: [vhdl-200x] Question on provision of UML tool with P1076c

Mark,

I guess our "insurance" against bit rot in the application is that we revise
the standard at intervals. If MagicDraw were to dissappear, we would have a
few years before bit rot set in, during which time we would migrate to
another tool for the subsequent revision. Of course, this doesn't help with
archival access to old revisions, but hopefully the HTML version will be
less subject to bit-rot.

Cheers,

PA

--
Dr. Peter J. Ashenden         peter@ashenden.com.au
Ashenden Designs Pty. Ltd.    www.ashenden.com.au
PO Box 640                    VoIP: sip://0871270078@sip.internode.on.net
Stirling, SA 5152             Phone: +61 8 7127 0078
Australia                     Mobile: +61 414 70 9106


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Zwolinski [mailto:mz@ecs.soton.ac.uk] 
> Sent: Friday, 11 May 2007 23:45 PM
> To: Peter Ashenden
> Cc: vhdl-200x@eda.org
> Subject: Re: [vhdl-200x] Question on provision of UML tool with P1076c
> 
> 
> Peter et al,
> 
> I think this is the sensible solution - the only thing that slightly 
> bothers me is "bit rot". If MagicDraw were to disappear, we 
> might have 
> the reader, but in n years time, we might find that it 
> doesn't run under 
> any current OS. I'm sure we've all been there, but I can't 
> think of an 
> alternative.
> 
> Mark
> 
> Peter Ashenden wrote:
> > Daniel,
> > 
> > The MagicDraw Reader is available free of charge from the vendor's 
> > website (www.magicdraw.com). The Reader (as its name implies) just 
> > opens the UML model read-only, but it allows you to navigate and 
> > search quite nicely. The vendor also provides a free 
> Community edition 
> > that lets you edit the class diagrams. Beyond that, you can pay for 
> > verious personal and enterprise editions with more 
> functionality for 
> > other UML diagrams. However, given that we only include 
> class diagrams 
> > in the VHPI information model, the Community edition is probably 
> > sufficient for 99% of what people would want to do.
> > 
> > The information model is provided in the standard in XMI 
> format. XMI 
> > is a standard XML representation of the model's structure, 
> and should 
> > be readable with other UML tools. The problem is that XMI does not 
> > specify representation of the graphical layout of the class 
> diagrams. 
> > That's handled as a vendor-specific extension, and so is 
> not likely to 
> > be readable by other tools. When we developed the 
> information model, 
> > there was no standard for the graphical representation. So having a 
> > freely available reader, together with facility to generate a 
> > web-browsable representation of the graphics, was a stong 
> motivation 
> > behind choosing MagicDraw.
> > 
> > I think your suggestion to archive the current distributions of the 
> > tools as an insurance policy makes good sense. We might 
> suggest to the 
> > IEEE that they do so, even if they don't currently make the 
> > distributions available for download. I'll see if they are 
> interested 
> > in doing that.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > PA
> > 
> > --
> > Dr. Peter J. Ashenden         peter@ashenden.com.au
> > Ashenden Designs Pty. Ltd.    www.ashenden.com.au
> > PO Box 640                    VoIP: 
> sip://0871270078@sip.internode.on.net
> > Stirling, SA 5152             Phone: +61 8 7127 0078
> > Australia                     Mobile: +61 414 70 9106
> > 
> > 
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Daniel Leu [mailto:daniel_leu@inicore.com]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, 9 May 2007 8:54 AM
> >> To: Peter Ashenden
> >> Subject: Re: [vhdl-200x] Question on provision of UML tool 
> with P1076c
> >>
> >>
> >> Hello Peter,
> >>
> >>> Second, they have concerns about distributing a 
> commercial product. 
> >>> The issue is not one of permission, which has been given 
> by the tool
> >>> supplier.
> >>> Rather, they are concerned about being perceived as endorsing a  
> >>> particular
> >>> product. Our rationale for including the tool with the 
> standard is  
> >>> that
> >>> doing so mitigates the risk of future versions not being 
> >> compatible
> >>> with the
> >>> form in which we publish the information model, and the
> >> risk of the
> >>> tool
> >>> supplier withdrawing the tool or going bust. None of these
> >> is likely.
> >>> However, as a wise man once said, confidence is that glowing
> >>> feeling you get
> >>> just before falling flat on your face!
> >> I don't think that this is an issue as long as the 'reader' is
> >> available free of charge. Is the data format compatible 
> with other  
> >> tools? Ideally would be to have the data files available 
> in an open  
> >> format that is supported by several tools. I have no idea 
> if such a  
> >> thing exist for UML tools.
> >>
> >>> The alternative proposed by the IEEE editor is to include 
> a link to 
> >>> the tool supplier's website, so that people can download the tool 
> >>> for
> >>> themselves. The
> >>> link would would be accompanied by a statement that IEEE 
> does not  
> >>> endorse
> >>> this tool and that users are free to use equivalent tools. Would  
> >>> that be
> >>> satisfactory?
> >> This sounds reasonable to me. Maybe one could archive the tools to
> >> prevent an issue if the original downloads were no longer 
> available.  
> >> Then Accellera or eda.org might jump in to host them.
> >>
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Daniel
> >>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> -- 
> ===================================================================
> Professor Mark Zwolinski
> Electronic System Design Group           Tel. (+44) (0)23 8059 3528
> Electronics & Computer Science           Fax. (+44) (0)23 8059 2901
> University of Southampton                Email.  mz@ecs.soton.ac.uk
> Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK             http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~mz
> 



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