I have not checked in a while, but I believe that RSA allowed free-form diagrams. Unfortunately, even if we support this in Papyrus - and I strongly believe we should -- it is unlikely that we will be able to produce the kind of elegant diagrams that Visio can produce. Please note that I am particularly hung up on well designed diagrams; I was trained as a classical engineer and even had to pass an engineering drafting course in my freshman year. As a result, I have a strong bias towards esthetically pleasing engineering diagrams and am really upset by sloppy ones. (BTW, I have LOTS of objections to the diagrams in Papyrus, and in RSA, for that matter.)
<cr> Re: RSA, there were two free-form diagrams capabilities that were discussed at some point: “sketching” (“back of the napkin in both look and behaviour) and “geometric shapes on (UML) diagrams.” I believe both were introduced in the RSA family at some point. With Sketching, you were supposed to be able to convert them into “real” UML elements and diagrams. I have no idea how far development went and even if those capabilities still exist…
I also agree that she should support free-form diagrams in Papyrus, although I suspect that goes against the CEA’s beliefs…
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Based on the above, although I very much agree that we should be able to generate the UML-RT profile document using Gendoc and Papyrus, I doubt that we can do that in the short term. Consequently, until we can, I think we should keep the document in Word format.
<cr> GenDoc can take a Word template, so Visio drawings could be incorporated. I am, however, unsure whether Accelio would be able to produce the document in the correct order, e.g., by containment, etc. or in a preset, static order. The examples I have seen resemble a simple, linear reporting of the model content rather than a document. I am unsure whether their funding got better, but if not, it may be a while before we can use it. I should look into that. Other options could be to write it in a portable, translatable format, e.g., Markdown, DocBook, or AsciiDoc, with Pandoc for “translation” (although the translations are not always perfect) or to move the document to a wiki. For now, I agree that, for now, the Word document is probably preferable.
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Finally, as far as I am aware, I am no longer the owner of that document. I believe that it was handed over to Remi, when he was still at CEA. Perhaps it should now be owned by Zeligsoft? Note that I am happy to help out with anyone who has questions about the document.
<cr> I think It would make sense for Zeligsoft to “own” it. We have, after all, a high density of UML-RT knowledge and expertise (although nowhere as high as Malina Software Corp., of course).
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