Evan:
Thank you. Anders has successfully enlightened me to the fact that UML
does contain more than just the 2 dimensional syntax, albeit via
references. I am currently reading the docs to try and determine if it
is sufficient for some of the requirements people have laid out for me.
UN/CEFACT also will have to determine if the interchange format is also
acceptable to endorse as the one and only standard to do this with. No
judgment from me on that.
While I find it not untruthful to say that "UML has a model interchange
format", I find it a bit misleading in the fact that a more accurate
statement might be "UML formally specifies use of XMI for model
interchange". The use of XMI may have some implications - some of these
are noted in the specification itself (see below).
Nevertheless, the main thrust of this conversation is around the fact
that when most people say "UML", they do refer to the 2 dimensional
syntax. For instance, UBL provides their UML diagrams in *.gif format.
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/lcsc/0p70/uml/reusable/UBL_Library_0p70_InvoiceLine.gif
Hardly useful for an application that wants to parse them. A human can
read and understand them quite well however.
The last comment you made:
wrote:
>The Diagram Interchange specification is utterly
>irrelevant to encoding the elements of a UML model, it's purpose is to
>support exchange of presentation information between graphical tools.
>
is actually a large part of this problem we are trying to solve. We need
an interchange format that allows consistent interpretation of the
models and is supported by the graphic tools vendors so there is
consistent rendering of the models.
Please forgive my ignorance to all things UML - I am still learning more
about UML every day. It is impressive and large specification - makes me
wonder if any one person has read the whole thing ;-)
Duane Nickull
References: (From version 1.5 not 2.0)
Section 1.5.1.2 “The UML defines a semantic metamodel, not a tool
interface, storage, or run-time model, although these should be fairly
close to one
another. The UML documents do include some tips to tool vendors on
implementation choices,
but do not address everything needed. For example, they don’t address
topics like
diagram coloring, user navigation, animation, storage/implementation
models, or other
features.”
Section 5.1 “UML model interchange is based on the Metaobject Facility
(MOF) 1.3 Specification.
The UML Semantics abstract syntax is mapped to a set of MOF packages
called the
UML Interchange Metamodel. The packages are available as an XML document
called UML_1.4_Interchange_Metamodel.xml (OMG document ad/01-02-15) whose
document type is based on the MOF 1.3 Model and the XML Metadata Interchange
(XMI) 1.1 Specification.
.”
Section 5.2 “UML models can be exchanged between software tools as
streams or files with a
standard XML format. An XML document type file named UML_1.4_XMI_1.1.dtd
(OMG document ad/01-02-16) is generated from the UML Interchange Metamodel
following the rules of the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) 1.1
Specification. The
single document type supports all packages of the UML Interchange
Metamodel, but a
tool that exchanges models using XML might support some packages and not
others.”
5.3 “CORBA interfaces can be used for creating, accessing, and
manipulating UML models.
The MOF Specification's Reflective module provides generic interfaces
for accessing
all objects of a model. Tailored interfaces extend the generic
interfaces. One tailored
IDL module is generated from each UML Interchange Metamodel package
following
rules defined in the MOF Specification. The tailored interfaces support
fine-grained
creation, access, and modification of model elements with type safety in
terms of the
UML Interchange Metamodel. Support of tailored interfaces is optional. A
facility
might support some packages and not others.”
--
***********
Senior Standards Strategist - Adobe Systems, Inc. - http://www.adobe.com
Vice Chair - UN/CEFACT Bureau Plenary - http://www.unece.org/cefact/
Chair - OASIS eb SOA TC - http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ebsoa
***********
