abstratt's blog

One less reason for using Eclipse 3.3

25th July, 2008 - Posted by rafael.chaves - 1 Comment

According to an announcement made on the acceleo-dev mailing list, Acceleo 2.3.0 has been released today. Congrats to the folks at Obeo! The latest bits are already available from Acceleo’s update site, but the download page still shows 2.2.1 as the latest release available.

That is one less excuse for using Eclipse 3.3, which was the latest release supported by Acceleo 2.2.1. An added bonus is that the TextUML Toolkit is much more stable on Eclipse 3.4 due to a nasty concurrency bug fixed in UML2 for the Ganymede release (kudos to Kenn and James!).

I just updated the install instructions for the Pet Store example application. With a new and improved Software Update mechanism (a.k.a. P2), it became much simpler to install the TextUML Toolkit and Acceleo on Eclipse 3.4. For instance, no need to worry about EMF or UML2, they are transparently installed. How cool is that?

TextUML Toolkit 1.0 has been released!

9th July, 2008 - Posted by rafael.chaves - 7 Comments

I am proud to announce that the TextUML Toolkit reached version 1.0!

It is basically the same as the RC3 build, made available earlier this week, with version numbers updated to reflect the status of release. You can download the TextUML Toolkit 1.0 from here.

Even if it still preserves the same humble look & feel, the TextUML Toolkit has come a long way since the first public milestone was announced here more than a year ago:

• M1 – May 2007
  • website went live
  • first public milestone
• M2 – September 2007
  • graphical class diagram visualization for Windows only (spawned as a brand new open-source project, EclipseGraphviz)
  • support for enumerations
• M3 – March 2008
  • reverse engineering of UML2 models as TextUML source (aka textual browsing)
  • diagram rendering also on Linux and Mac OS/X
  • click-through license
  • better stability and performance
  • website improvements: added user forum (SMF)
• M4 – May 2008
  • duplicate symbols properly reported as compilation errors
  • TextUML source renderer showing nested packages
  • evaluated a few code generators (Acceleo, oAW xPand, EMF JET), chose Acceleo
  • first milestone available via update site
• M5 – June 2008
  • fixed a serious memory leak caused by UML2 caching
  • several bug fixes
  • decoupled the TextUML Toolkit from EclipseGraphviz (EG becoming just a possible integration)
  • website improvements: wiki-based (MediaWiki) documentation area
• 1.0 – July 2008
  • support for applying stereotypes to stereotypes
  • provided a Pet Store-like sample application
  • more, better documentation

On the outreach front: in December, I did a quick presentation of the TextUML Toolkit during the Eclipse DemoCamp in Vancouver, and had the opportunity of doing a longer, more detailed presentation at the VIJUG’s meeting in April. At both opportunities, receptivity to the project was quite good. People seemed very keen on the idea of UML models as text, and I got lots of interesting questions.

In early June, I joined many other fellow mISVers in the 30-day product challenge. Even though I didn’t achieve everything I had set out to do, I am quite happy for having been part of it, as it provided me with the strength and courage to finally ship the first release.

Overall, I am quite happy with the current state of the TextUML Toolkit (or else I would not have declared a release). On the other hand, I confess I am disappointed that interest has not picked up yet, considering it is a free tool that provides real value. Now that there is an example describing how to use the TextUML Toolkit and Acceleo for generating code from UML models (which is the main application of the tool), I hope the value of the tool will become more apparent. And I guess more attention to the marketing side of things won’t hurt.

For the next few months, I will be focusing on a more ambitious project I have hinted at here a couple of times before. During this time, I will be promoting the TextUML Toolkit, writing more documentation and examples, and fixing any bugs users might report, but I do not plan to develop any new features unless there is user demand.

Well, it has been a fun ride, and I appreciate the interest of those of you who have followed at least some part of the journey. Your comments on the blog have been very helpful and encouraging. Thanks a lot!

Cheers,

Rafael

Sample application, TextUML Toolkit RC3 are now available

8th July, 2008 - Posted by rafael.chaves - No Comments

The Pet Store-like model-driven sample application is now available. This initial version contains UML models for a few of the key entities, and generates the domain model classes and their corresponding Hibernate mapping files. I noticed the generated mapping files (or maybe the models) have a few issues and/or missing elements, but as a first stab I am quite happy. Please give it a try. It is a great way example of how the TextUML Toolkit can be used in the context of code generation, in this case, with the awesome Acceleo tool (open-source). Note this is just an example – you should be able to use any UML2-based Acceleo modules (like those available from Acceleo’s module repository) and generate code from any UML models you create using the TextUML Toolkit.

In addition to the sample application, the latest TextUML Toolkit release candidate (RC3) is also now available, both as a standalone download and as an update site, as usual. Work items delivered in this build:

• ticket #182 – associations end up with one single member end
• ticket #183 – cannot define stereotypes on stereotypes
• ticket #167 – provide sample application

To my fellow 30-dayers – yes, its 8 days past the 30 day deadline, but unless I get a serious bug reported during this week, this is it, I am about to achieve my modest goals (yay!) of shipping 1.0 and a sample application (remember, I started working on the TextUML Toolkit quite while ago). The only planned change for 1.0 is basically updating the splash screen to sport the elusive 1.0 version number.

Feedback on RC3 or the sample application is most welcome. As usual, feel free to comment here or on the forums.

Cheers,

Rafael

Time is up

1st July, 2008 - Posted by rafael.chaves - 3 Comments

Even after cutting scope to close to half of what I was planning, I failed to accomplish what I set off to do in the 30-day challenge. I basically have the code and the example in a releasable state, but I have no means to publish a tutorial with images due to some unexpected web site issues. Even without this issue, I might not have made it, given how much work I left to the last day. Anyway… after spending quite some time trying to get MediaWiki to behave (with no success), now I don’t have time or energy for packaging and pushing the bits of the TextUML Toolkit RC3 (hopefully 1.0?) to the FTP server. Should do that at some point this week, and also hopefully get the wiki back online.

Well, enough ranting, need some sleep now. Thanks to the other 30-dayers for being part of this, and hope you guys had better luck. Cheers,

Rafael

P.S.: I considered not writing in my current mood, but I thought in the end it would be more honest doing so, so there you go