UML23 — Figure 7.38 needs to be revised

Figure 7.38 needs to be revised. The arrowhead on the dependency of Figure 7.38 is on the wrong end. The example it illustrates is not consistent with software engineering practices and is consequently ambiguous and misleading and should be revised. These errors lead to endless confusion and debate among UML modelers as to the correct usage of the standard notation for dependencies. p.62 Notation, says, "The model element at the tail of the arrow (the client) depends on the model element at the arrowhead (the supplier)." The example of Fig. 7.38 says, "the Car class has a dependency on the CarFactory class. In this case, the dependency is an instantiate dependency, where the Car class is an instance of the CarFactory class." These sentences should be revised. Suggested wording: "the Car class depends on on the CarFactory class. In this case, the dependency is an instantiate dependency, where the Car class is instantiated by the CarFactory class. That is, the Car class depends on the CarFactory class to produce instances of Car, i.e., to produce cars."

Merged with 11489