One of the problems developers face is handling non-trivial feature requests for a product. FR: Please support UML in your tool. Me: Sorry, but that would take many months, if not years, of work! FR: But it’s just boxes and lines, right? Can’t you just copy and paste the code? Me: Well, not really, have […]
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction or True Story? You decide… “I’m a consultant working for a consultancy company in France. I might be able to persuade my client to donate a few euro if you can Skype with me to discuss all features of Archi. Should only take 2 hours at the most. Oh, and it has to […]
On Being a Free Software Maintainer
The blog post, “On Being a Free Software Maintainer“, is resonating with me right now as are some of the comments on the Hacker News response. You will be demanded to fix your software. You will be shouted. Sometimes, the line may be crossed, and you will be abused. “How dare you not (use your […]
jArchi, new website, stuff…
They say that “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas”, and so it is with maintaining an open source project like Archi. It’s turned into a full time job (hey! the blog is called “just another sob story”). Stuff done: jArchi released. Slow uptake but I guess it’s a niche product. Still, it’s […]
The Archi Alphabet
A is for Archi, an open source tool B is for Business, in which you must school C is for Cartel, that threatened to sue While D is for Downloads, that so many accrue. E is for Enterprise, that grows and it grows F is for Function, that each person knows G is for Gerben […]
“It Just Works”…unless it’s a Mac
Apple’s “it just works” tag-line is probably best confined to the Trash can. All of the problems and silly little bugs in Archi (well, actually the Eclipse framework) have been on the Mac, especially the later versions of OS X. “It just works “- this bug cost me three days of testing, trial and error, […]
Plug-in Installer Woes
I’m trying to make life easier for Archi users who install official Archi Plug-ins but differences in Operating Systems are making things tricky. A plug-in consists of either a single “jar” file or a directory containing several files which need to be placed in the “plugins” folder of the Archi installation. This could be done […]
Representing ArchiMate Relationships
ArchiMate defines a set of 11 relationships between elements. How these relationships can be used is also defined in the specification in the metamodal diagrams and in a table of allowed relationships given in an appendix. Here’s an example of a metamodel diagram for the business layer: And here’s an excerpt from the relationships table […]
Turning the Tables
Another day, another “proposal” from a training organisation. 🙄 Over the years I’ve received quite a few “proposals” relating to Archi. They’re usually some variant of: Hey Phil, why don’t you advertise my (money-making) site for free, and I’ll promote Archi! Hey Phil, we use Archi to make loads of money training people in ArchiMate […]
Executable Standards
This post follows on from my previous post where I said: Overpriced “enterprise” software that can only be accessed from behind a paywall may as well not exist. I want to talk about the concept of “Executable Standards”, something that the curators of ArchiMate are keen to promote. The difference between a “Paper Standard” and […]