Defining syntax and providing tool support for Agent UML using a textual notation

An important role in software engineering is played by design notations. The Agent UML (AUML) notation for sequence diagrams has been widely used to capture the design of interactions between agents. However, AUML is not precisely defined, and there is very little in the way of tool support available. We argue that using a textual notation allows the notation to be precisely defined, and facilitates the development of tool support. We present a textual notation that we have developed, and describe a number of tools that support this notation. One of these tools is a 'renderer' which takes a textual AUML protocol and generates the standard graphical view. The layout of graphical elements in the generated graphical view is done automatically, using a layout algorithm which we present.