1. A computer system for diagramming comprising: a computer generated diagram graphically representing a subject model, the subject model having model elements and the diagram being formed of notational elements corresponding to the model elements of the subject model; and a view generator responsive to primary edits to the subject model, the view generator generating a non-persistent view representative of the primary edit for secondary edits to the diagram, the non-persistent view being contained in a non-persistent container element, that is associated with but detached from a persistent container element of the diagram, and the view generator generating the non-persistent view in a manner such that the diagram and the non-persistent view are displayed to a user as if the non-persistent view were a persistent part of the diagram by displaying both attributes of the persistent and non-persistent container elements of the diagram; wherein a notation meta-model persists the notational elements with references to the corresponding model elements, the notation meta-model allowing notational elements to be recreated and changed dynamically in a manner free of replacing original notational elements in the diagram by mapping from which persistent and non-persistent container elements to retrieve said attributes, and wherein mapping the attributes of the non-persistent container element to the persistent container element transforms the non-persistent view into a persistent view persisting with the diagram.