Add post for Gaphor 3.0 release

_posts/2025-01-26-gaphor-3.0.md

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+---
+title: Gaphor 3.0
+author: Arjan Molenaar
+image_url: /images/gaphor-3.0/bg.jpg
+image_background: #f0f0f0
+image_attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/goldtoe/305519757/
+lang: en
+---
+
+Finally, Gaphor 3.0 has been released.
+
+The major changes in this release include an improved user interface and better modularity for modeling languages.
+
+
+In this post we dive into the highlights of the 3.0 release,
+The [change log](https://github.com/gaphor/gaphor/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) contains a more complete set of changes,
+as does the [Gaphor Release](https://github.com/gaphor/gaphor/releases).
+
+<!--break-->
+
+As always, the releases are based on the latest [GTK 4](https://gtk.org) and
+[LibAdwaita](https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/libadwaita) releases.
+
+## UI improvements
+
+We've improved the user interface, based on a paper from the Uni of Mannheim about the use
+of [MBSE tooling for neurodivergent system architects (German)](https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/66242/1/Benutzeroberfl%C3%A4chen%20von%20MBSE-Tools%20und%20deren%20Auswirkung%20auf%20neurodivergente%20Systemarchitekten.pdf).
+In this paper Gaphor was used as one example. We contacted the authors and applied the feedback in this
+version of Gaphor. As a result things are simpler and the UI behaves more as one would expect.
+
+The improvements include
+
+* Better layout of the header bar
+* Settings previously done on model level are now application wide settings
+* A tool bar for common operations
+* Double-clicking a model element in the Model Browser now highlights it in the diagram, and no longer adds it.
+
+Many thanks to [Mareike Keil](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mareike-keil-7600b4226/) from the Uni of Mannheim for collecting the feedback.
+
+![The improved user interface with tool bar](/images/gaphor-3.0/new-ui.png)
+
+## Modeling languages
+
+Historically, Gaphor modeling language have always been based on UML. UML was the first ML implemented, and forms the
+basis for languages like SysML (v1) and RAAML.
+
+While we were investigating how to implement SysML v2, we ran into an issue: SysML v2 has been built from the ground up
+and is not based on UML. Our initial attempt was to build a common base for both UML and SysML, but this resulted in
+a confusing situation where the UML model was spread out over several models.
+
+This was clearly not the way forward. With the help of Paul Brown we managed to make the Gaphor core modeling language
+agnostic. Now we can implement any modeling language. This means that we can implement SysML v2, onthology models, ER models
+without the need to base it on UML.
+
+Credits go to Paul Brown for his help and guidance on this endavour.