Re: [Swarm-Support] UML for Obj-C

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Tim,

Swarm itself has code to convert type declarations (a.k.a. protocols) 
into diagrams via AT&T Graphviz.  It's a part of the Swarmdocs package 
and builds on the parser that is used to implement that multilanguage 
interface (like for Java).   This of course means that the architecture 
of the simulation is described by such files and is accurate.  You 
probably have interface files, but not many protocol files.   So that 
won't help.  In this spirit are projects like the RDF Introspector for 
GCC.  Idea being to dump the structures in the compiler itself out as 
RDF and then use XML tools (e.g. web browsers) to visualize the 
result.   If it worked, this would be nice because you could really 
expose all of the details of the interface and implementation -- but I 
think that project is beta quality at best.

Generally, though, UML tools are designed for pointy-haired manager 
types to impose structure on the work of programmers rather than to do 
visualization of work that has been done.   Also, by design, Objective C 
is very mutable at runtime.  It would be easy to get a distorted picture 
one might infer by looking at the class hierarchy by using message 
forwarding, delegate objects, etc.  I think at the end of the day 
someone has to just get comfortable reading code and physical factor it 
in such a way that the design becomes clear, carefully discriminating 
between what are subtle points in the code (or the model) and what is 
just incomprehensible or mistaken.  Alternatively, forget all the 
detail, and start from scratch with a fresh and clear intent.   (And 
then make all the same mistakes twice!)

Marcus