As promised, I've moved my DSL Tools project to use compartment shapes. A little hacking was involved to get my custom editor integrated, but an otherwise painless experience! For those just joining us, read the background on my project in this post. For those already in the know, here are some example screenshots of a Concern Map for a Windows Form / UI process pattern:

A collapsed diagram

The widget in the top right allows expand / collapse of the node, which really simplifies big diagrams with many selectors. People just using the diagram to navigate around a system (rather than editing the diagram) never have to see how the sausage gets made.

An expanded node

Expanding a node exposes the selectors which bind the node to development artifacts. These are grouped together in a compartment under the heading 'Selector Expressions'.

Adding a selector to an expanded node

Selectors are added straight into the compartment (above) and edited through a properties window (below).

The selector editor window

I still need to tidy up the editor window and tweak a few things, but will get another build and screencast together in the next week.

I spent most of today moving my DSL Tools project from the December to May version. This included some interesting detours - a little registry work to get rid of the December version, AddToolWindow() and GetToolWindow() on ModelingPackage somewhat changed, a couple of tweaks that I forgot to retro-fit into the generated code, and some total weirdness in System.Diagnostics.SymbolStore.SymWriter that I'm not strong enough to look at tonight.

Anyway, I'm now up and running on Whidbey Beta 2 / DSL Tools May, and tomorrow I'm going to start looking at compartment shapes.

I am finally starting to emerge out of a pretty spaced out couple of weeks - no programming, no exercise, lots of sleep. I'm on the verge of doing some productive work for the first time in a while.

My ESEC / FSE 2005 submission was rejected last week, but the feedback got me thinking about a few things - particularly the ability satisfy the desire for "real" semantics in my box and arrow diagrams for those who want them. I don't particularly want to indulge this, but I'll post something to at least explain my thinking later.

There is a great new Software Factories article up on MSDN - if you haven't read the book, this is the next best thing.

Dominic's blog got spammed so he shut up shop for a couple of days and returned with a custom blog app and ultra-minimalist design. Cool.

Took delivery of the Lyre of Orpheus / Abattoir Blues by Nick Cave this morning. It is excellent.