Hello Benjamin,
Thanks for the briefing about the FMC editors architecture.
I am interested in the project because the company I work for has a similar project. Since we recently got to know about the FMC editor project
for eclipse we are now collecting information to decide how we are going to proceed with our project or if it makes sense to join forces.
My first impression of the editor is that it’s pretty rich in features but some of them are realized in a somewhat preliminary way, which is absolutely
what I expect of a project in the incubation phase.
The code itself is well documented and with your description and an architectural blueprint in form of some UML diagrams the architecture should
be more easy to grasp.
Another information that could be valuable for our decision is your relation to the project. In the sources I saw that the initial implementation
of the editor was created by SAP, so I assume you work there? Can you tell me how much effort you and maybe your colleagues (I saw different authors in the code so I assume there are other developers) are planning to invest in the project?
Best regards,
Martin
Von: Benjamin Schmeling [mailto:benjamin.schmeling@xxxxxxxxx]
Gesendet: Montag, 2. Dezember 2013 16:08
An: FMC project mailing list
Betreff: Re: [fmc-dev] Availability of the sources
I plan to add architectural documentation in form of UML to the project website. I provide some initial information about this project in the following:
First of all, the project focuses on Blockdiagrams. This is the most popular modeling technique of FMC which is also heavily used for TAM (technical architecture modeling). The FMC editor is technically based on Graphiti with its feature model and uses polygons
to render the different BlockDiagram shapes. All graphical algorithms representing the shapes (and separately also the connections) are encapsulated by a class hierarchy which allows the reuse of rendering, rotation, flipping etc. algorithms.
Furthermore, the editor has been built on the concept of flexible meta models behind the graphical part. The main editor uses a simplified meta model which is based on Java enums. However, it can easily be extended by more complex meta
models. An example for this can be found in the BlockDiagram meta editor which extends the basic editor and injects an FMC Ecore model (this is the editor used when you select the diagram + model wizard) instead of the simplified one. This strategy enables
the development of diagrams with new, alternative meta models such as an UML based one (e.g. based on the UML component diagram).
What is your intention? Do you plan to extend the editor? Are you interested in contributing to the project?
Hi Benjamin,
I managed to check out the sources from the repository below and am able to build the FMC editor without errors.
I am now reviewing the code in order to understand the general architecture and on first glance it seems there are some advanced patterns at work.
From my own experience in software development I know that these architectures do not manifest spontaneously but are planned beforehand.
So my question is: is there any documentation that would help me understand the architecture of the FMC editor faster than by reviewing the code? UML / FMC
diagrams or other design documents maybe?
Best regards,
Martin
the sources are available in the Eclipse git repository:
I have not yet linked the repo location on the Eclipse website, but I will do so in the next few days.
Dear developers of the FMC project,
I am interested in having a look at the sources oft he FMC project but so far I have not been able to obtain them. The download section of the eclipse website only provides
binary builds.
Is there a way to obtain the sources of this project? Or is there a specific reason why they are not available?
