23 The SDL Editor

Symbol Menu

The symbol menu contains the SDL symbols that can be placed into the drawing area. The contents of the symbol menu depends upon the type of diagram that is displayed in the SDL Editor window.

For process, process type, procedure, macro definition and operator diagrams (the flow diagrams), the symbol menu looks like the left picture in Figure 311 on page 1224.
For interaction diagrams (system, block, substructure, service, package, system type, block type and service type), the symbol menu looks like the right picture in Figure 311.

Symbol Menu Properties

The two symbol menus are each fixed-sized, non-moveable auxiliary windows, associated with the drawing area and placed to the right of it. Each SDL Editor window has its own symbol menu.The symbol menu can be made invisible and visible again with a menu choice, Window Options.

Basically, selecting a symbol in the symbol menu and clicking it into the drawing area adds it to the diagram. This reference manual does not describe how to work with symbols; this are described in "Managing Symbols" on page 69 in chapter 2, Editing SDL Diagrams.

All symbols appear the same appearance in the symbol menu as they do in the drawing area. The size of symbols as shown in the symbol menu is half of the default size, 10 * 5 mm.

For a reference to these symbols, see "Symbols on Interaction Pages" on page 1170 and "Symbols on Flow Pages" on page 1171.

Figure 311 : The Symbol Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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Syntax Checking on SDL Symbols

If syntax checking is enabled, some of the symbols displayed in the symbol menu may be dimmed. This indicates that those symbols are not valid within the current context, and cannot be selected.

When syntax checking is disabled, all symbols can be selected.

When syntax checking is enabled, the following rules apply:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Type of page              Dimmed symbols (unusable)                
----------------------------------------------------------------
System                    process reference

                       
                          service reference                        
                          block substructure reference

            
                          system type reference                    
                          gate                                     
Block diagram /           process reference                        
Block interaction page    service reference                        
                          block substructure reference             
                          system type reference                    
                          gate                                     
Block diagram / 

         block substructure reference             
Process interaction page  service reference                        
                          system type reference                    
                          gate                                     
Service                   procedure start

                         
                          procedure return                         
                          macro inlet

                             
                          macro outlet                             
                          gate                                     
Process diagram /         procedure start

                         
Graph page                procedure return                         
                          macro inlet

                             
                          macro outlet                             
                          gate                                     
Process diagram / 

       block reference

                         
Service interaction page  process reference                        
                          block substructure reference             
                          system type reference                    
                          block type reference

                    
                          process type reference                   
                          gate                                     
Procedure                 start

                                   
                          stop                                     
                          macro inlet

                             
                          macro outlet                             
                          gate                                     
System Type               process reference

                       
                          service reference                        
                          block substructure reference

            
                          system type reference                    
                                                                   
Block type                process reference                        
                          service reference                        
                          block substructure reference             
                          system type reference                    
Macro                     gate                                     
Service type              procedure start                          
                          procedure return                         
                          block substructure                       
                          system type                              
Process type diagram / 

  procedure start                          
Graph page                procedure return                         
                          macro inlet                              
                          macro outlet                             
Process type diagram / 

  block reference

                         
Service interaction page  process reference                        
                          block substructure reference             
                          system type reference                    
                          block type reference

                    
                          process type reference                   
Operator                  state                                    
                          input                                    
                          save                                     
                          output                                   
                          procedure call                           
                          enabling condition / continuous signal   
                          create request                           
                          priority input                           
                          procedure reference                      
                          start                                    
                          stop                                     
                          macro inlet                              
                          macro outlet                             
                          gate                                     
Package                   block reference                          
                          process reference                        
                          block substructure reference             
                          service reference                        
                          gate                                     
----------------------------------------------------------------

Text Window

The text window is pane of the SDL Editor window, as shown in Figure 312, which can be resized vertically.

Figure 312 : The SDL Editor Text Window. 
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(fig)  
       
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The text window provides a menu bar with two menus, containing clipboard functions, as well as means to transfer text to / from a file.

Text Editing Functions

The following text editing functions are provided in the text window:

Text Selection - First Method

Point to the beginning or the end of the portion of text to be selected.
Drag the I-beam pointer to the other end of the text to be selected. The selected text is highlighted as the mouse is moved.
Release the mouse button.

Text Selection - Second Method

Point to the beginning or the end of the text to be selected and click.
Move the I-beam pointer to the other end of the text to be selected.
Press <Shift> and click.

Word Selection

A single word, delimited by spaces, is selected by double-clicking it.

Line Selection

One line of text is selected by triple-clicking it.

Text Editing Functions

Any attempt to enter an illegal character(1) will always result in an audible warning.

The editing functions that are available depend upon the context. Some functions are standardized and are available from the Edit menu of the Text window.

Other standardized functions include:

Positioning the cursor by clicking, or by using the arrow keys.
Inserting characters after the current position of the I-beam pointer.
Deleting the character preceding the I-beam pointer by pressing <Back Space>.
Deleting the character following the I-beam pointer by pressing <Del>.
Replacing a portion of text by selecting it and typing the new characters.

Deleting a portion of text by selecting it and pressing <Back Space> or <Del>. (Remember, the <Del> and the <Back Space> keys have different functions according to Motif Style Guide.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Delayed updating of the drawing area when editing             
text                                                                 
When text is edited, updating the drawing area is delayed until no   
text editing action (mouse or keyboard operations) is performed dur  
ing a period of one second.                                          
The text window is however always updated immediately.               
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The File menu of the Text window

The File menu provides functions that transfer text from a file to the text window and vice-versa. The basic intention is to provide the user a means to edit larger portions of text with a more suitable text editor (for instance signal definitions in text symbols). The available menu choices are:

Import

Export

Figure 313 : The Text Window File Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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Import

Import imports the contents of a file into the text window and inserts the contents of the file at the current I-beam cursor position, possibly replacing selected text in the text window. Following this menu choice, a Standard File Selection Dialog is issued, where the file to import text from is to be specified. The file name filter is set to .txt by default.

Export

Export exports the selected text to a file. If no text is selected in the text window, the entire text window contents will be exported to the file. Following this menu choice, a Standard File Selection Dialog is issued, where the file to export the text to is to be specified. The file name filter is set to .txt by default.

The Edit menu of the Text window

The Edit menu provides the following choices, which may or may not be dimmed depending upon whether or not some text is selected:

Cut
Copy
Paste
Clear

Select All

Figure 314 : The Text Window Edit Menu. 
-----
(fig)  
       
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Cut

Cut removes the selected portion of text from the text window and saves it in the clipboard buffer. Cut is only valid if a portion of text has been selected.

Copy

Copy makes a copy of the selected portion of text in the clipboard buffer. The content of the text window is not affected. Copy is only valid if a portion of text has been selected.

Paste

Paste inserts the content of the clipboard buffer into the text window. The clipboard buffer will be appended immediately following the cursor position. Paste is only valid if a portion of text has been cut or copied into clipboard buffer.

Clear

Clear removes the selected portion of text from the text window. The content of the clipboard buffer is not affected. Clear is only valid if a portion of text has been selected.

Select All

Select All selects all of the text contained in the text window.

Programmable Function Keys

SDT allows to tie a function key to a defined text string. When typing that defined function key, the programmed text string will be inserted at the current cursor location. Each user can customize his own programming of function keys.

Global SDT Resources

The function keys are set up as X-resources. It is possible to set up both system default and user-defined X-resources, allowing each user to customize his environment. The X- resources are defined in a file that is common for all SDT users, namely

/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/SDT

To program the function keys, insert following lines anywhere into the SDT file:

/* Any suitable comment */
SDT*XmText.translations: #override \n\
<Key>F1: insert-string("F1Text") \n\
<Key>F2: insert-string("F2Text") \n\
<Key>F3: insert-string("F3Text") \n\
<Key>F4: insert-string("F4Text") \n\
<Key>F5: insert-string("F5Text") \n\
<Key>F6: insert-string("F6Text") \n\
<Key>F7: insert-string("F7Text") \n\
<Key>F8: insert-string("F8Text") \n\
<Key>F9: insert-string("F9Text")
/* Note the absence of \n\ on line 9 */
------------------------------------------------------------
Note:                                                         
Omitting to define some of the function keys is permissible.  
------------------------------------------------------------

User-defined SDT resources

An SDT user can define his own function keys. This is done by defining the X-resources described above in a personal copy of the definition file and to store that file it into the user's home directory:

 ~/username/SDT

Alternatively, any directory designated by environment variable
XAPPLRESDIR can be used.

Restrictions

Only one line for each function key can be defined. Attempting to define more than one line into one function key may cause an unpredictable result when pressing that key.
For instance, it is not certain that the following line will produce the expected result:

<Key>F1: insert-string("F1Line1\nLine2") \n\

Only the keys F1-F9 can be defined.

Font Faces and Sizes

All textual objects managed by the SDL Editor use predefined font faces and sizes. The fonts that are assigned are determined when starting he SDL Editor, no change is possible to perform during an SDL Editor session. When printing the SDL graphs, SDT will use the same font face as defined for the SDL Editor. See chapter 30, The Preference Manager.

Supported Font Faces

On workstations, the availability of font faces is determined by the version of the X Windows server which are running. With a revision 5 or higher (X11 R5), scalable fonts are supported. In that case, the available list of predefined font faces would be:

Times
Helvetica
Courier
Schumacher.

Default Font Face

The default font face is Helvetica. If scalable fonts are not supported, the font face will be replaced by a Schumacher font (which can be used in all circumstances).

Default Font Sizes

The default font sizes are as follows:

-----------------------------------------------------
Flow Page Font Sizes                                   
-----------------------------------------------------
Text Object:                                Font Size  
Kernel heading symbol and page name symbol  12 points  
Other text objects                          9 points   
-----------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------
Interaction Page Font Sizes                     
----------------------------------------------
Text Object:                         Font Size  
Text symbol and signal list symbol.  9 points   
Other text objects                   12 points  
----------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------
Overview Page Font Sizes               
-------------------------------------
Text Object:               Font Size:  
Kernel heading symbol      12 points   
Signal list symbol.        6 points    
Other text objects         8 points    
-------------------------------------

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Footnotes

(1): Illegal in the sense that characters must comply to the set that is valid according to Z.100

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