Re: Free Ada UML tools Available /

[Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>]

Joe Simon <jb.simon@lmco.nospammmmmm.com> writes:

> Anybody know of any free tools that will allow me to model using UML
> and generate Ada code.

I have a project (ColdFrame, http://www.pushface.org/coldframe/) which
generates Ada framework code as a backend for a UML tool.

At the moment the only front-end supported is Rational Rose, which is
_not_ free of course. The Gnome Office "Dia" sounds very interesting,
though; the other free UML tools are Java-based and (IME) a little
unreliable. I had thought about PragSoft's offering, but have been
very busy. All that's needed is to dump the model in a CF-specific XML
format :-)

A word of warning: CF will generate a _lot_ of framework code for you
because it assumes you don't want to clutter up your clean analysis
model with framework cruft (collection classes etc). But for it to do
this you have to invest a lot of effort into a model that is precise
enough, and it needs you to put in more annotation than you might be
used to (for example, you have to name each association and specify
role names and multiplicities throughout).