NaiveUML consists of a very simple UML class diagram representation and accompanying compiler to GraphViz code. It aims to have the lowest possible overhead (syntax) to make creating a class diagram as fast as humanly possible.
NaiveUML is very simple to write, a small example:
# A cat is a class that is related to classes Mouse and Bird, and derives
# from class Animal
Cat : Animal : Mouse, Bird
=
miceCaught: integer
birdsCaught: integer
=
setMiceCaught(newCaught: integer)
setBirdsCaught(newCaught: integer)
getMiceCaught() : integer
getBirdsCaught() : integer
getAnimalsCaught() : integer
# ============================================
Animal : Organism
=
=
# ============================================
Interface Organism
=
=
eat()
# ============================================
Mouse : Animal
=
=
# ============================================
Bird : Animal
=
=
If this file is named example.uml, it can be converted to a pdf by executing the command
python naiveuml.py <example.uml | dot -Tpdf >output.pdf
which obviously requires the GraphViz package.
It produces something like
Now, what does this mean?
First of all, all lines starting with # are considered comments, so the
# ============================================
that appear are not required to be present and do not cary any meaning.
A class is shaped as following:
STRUCTURE
=
PRIVATE MEMBERS
=
PUBLIC MEMBERS
similar to how UML class diagrams are structured when displayed. Empty lines are not allowed within a class definition.
STRUCTURE can optionally have an "Interface" qualifier, which makes this class an interface class. It always contains the name of this class. It can also contain a colon (:) followed by a comma separated list of classes this class is derived from, possibly followed by another colon (:) followed by a comma separated list of classes this class is somehow related to.
The PRIVATE MEMBERS and PUBLIC MEMBERS sections of a class definition contain the respectively private and public members of your class. This could be data members or functions.