Which are your favorite UML tools?

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <463265f0$0$19018$426a34cc at news.free.fr>,
 Bruno Desthuilliers <bdesth.quelquechose at free.quelquepart.fr> wrote:

> Anastasios Hatzis a écrit :
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I'm working on the light-weight MDA tool pyswarm, 
> > http://pyswarm.sourceforge.net/ (it is about a code-generator for 
> > Python/PostgreSQL-based software. I plan to add support of UML CASE tools 
> > other than the one supported currently.
> > 
> > I would like to learn which UML tools you use (if any), 
> 
> Any piece of paper and anything that can be used to write on it.
> 
> > preferrably if it 
> > comes to modeling a Python application. 
> 
> I stll wait for UML to be able to describe common hi-level dynamic 
> languages idioms and patterns without requiring more space and time than 
>   source code.

I am inclined to agree, though my experience is limited. I work on a 
project that is trying to model all its software using Enterprise 
Architect. EA has some nice features, but overall I find it clumsy and 
frustrating.

Some problems are intrinsic to UML (for instance it has no concept of 
linking use case information to other elements). And I don't know of any 
way to model functions (only classes).

Others are EA's fault. For instance it is very slow and clumsy to add or 
edit lists of items (such as class methods or database fields). Also, 
shared development is a pain because there is no concurrent version 
control (it uses CVS to keep track of revisions, but not in a concurrent 
way; checking out a package locks out everybody else).

I tried using a competing product but the interporability was terrible. 
Which brings up another point: it is likely the original poster would 
need to do a lot of work for each CASE tool supported.

-- Russell