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HOWTO use stereotyped Components as parsing containers for technical text

A very good candidate for a relatable parsing container is the Component (a Classifier): In the "self-referential spirit" of UML Parsing Analysis the example below is a UML Parsing Analysis of one of the pages from this tutorial trail.

PROS:

  1. can be packaged
  2. can carry dependencies
  3. can contain/own other elements (like other Classes, Components, Comments or Artifacts):
    • can therefore contain (nest) easily other Components used as parsing containers:
      • the nested parsing container Components form a wonderful parsed text tree in your analysis model !
      • try using Show Owner on nested parsing container Components, very powerful !
  4. The Component symbol can graphically contain other elements that it does not necessarily own:
    • WARNING: the Component element in the model browser will correctly steal ownership of elements moved into it in the browser
    • In MagicDraw UML the Component symboldoes not "steal ownership" of elements moved into it in a diagram

CONS:

  1. Not intrinsically distinguished from Class or Component as used for software engineering:
    • This very useful and powerful misappropriation of the UML2 Component seems to unnecessarily annoy certain UML2 purists.
    • Indeed as long as one does not over-use the attributes, operations, or features specific to UML2 Component  semantics there is no problem:
      • Just clearly stereotype your parsing container Component to indicate the parsing context and/or parsed text source:
        • example: «UML2», «UML2», «SysML», «design manual», «source:test-456-ITC», «fredd.bloggs@somewhere.net»
      • use pen- or fill- colour and/or italic text to distinguish the parsing container Component symbol visually from other Component symbols
      • make sure that the option Header in bold is off (use Header in bold only for regular Components adhering to strict UML semantics)
  2. One can't use HTML text style:
    • I recommend that you turn of the Header in Bold option and turn on the Word Wrap option so that the name used as text displays well
  3. In MagicDraw UML the Component is only available on diagram menus of certain diagram types
  4. In MD SysMLthe Component is not even allowed (Block extends Class) and is not offered on any SysML diagrams
    • this useful misappropriation of the Component as a relatable parsing container and/or logical wrapper of blocks seems to
      unnecessarily annoy certain fanatical devotees SysML, too.
    • please use it freely in MD SysML,, however know that your model is not compliant with SysML1.0 (although it may still be very useful).

Despite these subtleties, if you really want the most powerful tecnical analysis modelling results, this is a very, very powerful strategy !

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