The UML Profile for Framework Architectures

3.7 Summary

We have discussed the foundation of the UML-F profile, which comprises the concept of UML-F tags as a unified concept of standard UML tagged values and stereotypes. We have systematically introduced a number of UML-F tags that apply mainly to UML class diagram elements. Some of these tags, such as the incompleteness (' ') tag or the completeness (' ') tag, deal with the visual representation of a given model; others, such as adapt-static or fixed , have implications for the model itself and the method of dealing with the tagged elements of the model.

For most of the tags that UML-F introduces, the standard stereotype form tag-name is used if the tag has implications for the model. An intuitive, iconic form (such as ' ' or ' ') is used if the tag has its implications for the visual representation.

The UML-F tags provided in this chapter are not fully independent of each other. Sometimes they imply, or even contradict, each other. In the following chapters, additional tags will be introduced as combinations of these basic tags to deal explicitly with framework core construction principles and with design patterns both the patterns developed by the gang-of-four (GoF) authors (Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides), and any framework-specific ones.