Using the Documentation

A principal feature of Together is that it enables you to work in different ways, source first, diagram first, or a combination. This means you can approach projects from any one of several viewpoints, or a combination of these viewpoints. You can think of these as:

Word usage conventions

Documentation attempts to use terminology consistent with the viewpoint appropriate for the topic. If the topic is primarily about source code, terms appropriate to the specific language are used. (Language terminology is not defined in Together documentation.) If the topic relates to object modeling, terminology consistent with the UML is used. (For information on UML terminology see Rational Software's UML Resources website. )

There are a number of terms used in topics that cover working with Together tools and diagrams. The brief glossary in this document explains the most important terms you need to get started. Here is an example of the way the terminology for different viewpoints can vary:

In a topic explaining how to work with things in diagrams, you may see something like: "Click on the Class1 node's icon to select it." The focus is on the visual element of a diagram that represents a node in the model.

A topic that discusses the modeling aspects of a diagram might say something like: "Use the Diagram Toolbar to add nodes and links to the Class diagram." Here, "node" is used in the UML sense.

A topic on source code might have: "Class nodes are represented in source code with class declarations."

The following sentence illustrates the way the different viewpoints are expressed: "When you write a new class declaration in the source file, a new node is created (in the model) and a new Class node icon appears on the diagram." Here, you can sense the difference between the UML (modeling) concept and its visual and source code representations.

Typeface Conventions

Together's documentation uses typefaces and symbols described in the table below to indicate special text.

A brief Together Glossary

This section highlights a few of the more important terms used in the documentation that relate to working with the visual modeling tools.

 

	Figure 1.1-a. Examples of diagram icons

 

	Figure 1.1-b. Examples of Navigation icons

 

 

	Figure 1.2. A class node icon and its sections.

 

Starting Together

How you begin running Together depends upon your operating system platform and which particular variant of the Together installation program you have obtained. Information on installation variants and startup under different platforms is provided in the Readme files.
 

About the Main Window

The Together main window is your control center for such things as:

	Creating, opening, saving and closing Projects and Diagrams
	Configuring Project options
	Printing operations and generating system documentation
	Clipboard operations
	Find and Replace operations
	Selecting View options

 

	Figure 1.3. Together main window

The Together main window is comprised of:
1. the Main Menu bar,
2. the Main Toolbar,
3. the Status bar (shows current system message),
4. the Message Log buttons (Clear is visible only when log is displayed. It clears the system message display. Message button toggles Message Log display),
5. the Message Log display (window) (it displays all system messages since session start-up, or last Clear).
Clipboard operations, Find and Replace, and view selections executed from this window are carried out on the active instance of the Object Model Browser (this window displays when you open a Project). The Main menu and toolbar are documented in the User Reference. See Menu Reference and Toolbars Reference for information.
 
From the Together Main window you can create a new Project, open an existing Project, or create a new Together project from existing source code. For more information, proceed to Getting Started: Chapter 2. Projects.

Chapter contents:

Using the Documentation
Word usage
Typeface conventions
A brief Together Glossary
Starting Together
About the Main Window