Week 23 of 2010

This week was very short since I travelled up to Nottingham to attend a family 50th celebration. I also spent some time with my much neglected relatives!

My current development focus is on the new OOA Tool 2 framework. Two subsystems of that are Dictionary and Repository. The dictionary subsystem is a compact metamodel suitable for representing the OOA of OOA. It adds support for multiple notations and Java locales (language and country). It also adds support for generic GUI presentation and validation which will evolve as the needs of the generic GUI expand. I've implemented a DictionaryTool which can convert any domain (loaded from a "<project>.ooa" XML file) into a dictionary (stored as a "<domain>.dictionary" XML file). The core dictionary files are generated from the "OOATool.ooa" model which continues to evolve (using the current version of OOA Tool).

The repository subsystem defines rows (objects/attributes are represented as tables/columns in the dictionary), transactions and location nodes. Rows not only represent object instances, they also represent relationship instances as column data since they are resolved to object references as required. Rows also represent event destination and event data since simulation objects are mapped to special tables in OOA Tool 2. This allows me to treat all data changes in a uniform way for transaction purposes. The alternative would require special undo/redo handling for every new type of data change. I've just started reworking the Simulation subsystem of the OOA of OOA so that all required special tables for simulation can be identified and implemented. Execution (rather than modelling) is the priority for OOA Tool 2. Repository data will also be stored as XML files but that work hasn't been done yet. I also need to implement a RepositoryTool which can convert any OOA Tool "<project>.ooa" XML file into a single "<project>.ooa2" XML file. The generated repository file will reference the previously generated core dictionary files which will be included in future OOA Tool 2 releases. I'll leave discussion of location nodes to another day.

I'll cut it short this week so I can start some real work! I just hope England does better come Friday!!