These two name prefixes are used, by convention, at the beginning of the name of any function called by the SCRIPT, COLUMN_SCRIPT, or COMPONENT_SCRIPT keywords. The function itself (for example, _fmtUMLAttr) usually provides a special formatting display of a property value (such as an attribute and all of its properties) on the symbol. The naming convention is as follows:
_fmt
(for example, _fmtUMLAttr): The function itself exists in hard code and cannot be modified. Most functions in SAPROPS.CFG are this way. Hard-coding the function makes System Architect’s response faster.
fmt
(for example, fmtUMLAttr): Exists in the fmtscript.bas file in System Architect’s main executable directory.
DEFINITION "Class"PROPERTY "Attributes" {ZOOMABLE EDIT COMPLETE ListOf "Class Attribute" KEYED BY {"Package", "Class Name":"Name", Name } LENGTH 4096 ASGRID DISPLAY { FORMAT COMPONENT_SCRIPT _FmtNewUMLAttr LEGEND "$$FORCE$$"} LABEL "Attributes" }
In the example above, a script is called that is used to display attributes on a class diagram in a particular fashion (for example, if an attribute’s access property is “public”, + (plus sign) is placed before the attribute on the class symbol, and so on.