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Previous Chapter 5 Managing Preferences
This chapter describes the principles for the management of preference parameters in an SDT environment. It also describes how to use the Preference Manager to customize your SDT installation.
For a reference to the Preference Manager and the preference parameters, see chapter 30, The Preference Manager.
Different users are likely to use the SDT tools in different ways. Even the same user may use the SDT tools differently in different work areas. The Preference Manager allows you to customize the default behavior of the SDT tools in order to minimize the number of operations that you have to perform manually after having started a tool.
The Preference Manager allows you to set up the default behavior for following SDT tools:
- SDL Editor
- MSC Editor
- SDT Organizer
- Cross Reference Viewer
- Type Viewer
- Coverage Viewer
- SDL Overview Generator and Editor
- Search List Manager
- Simulator Graphical User Interface
- Validator Graphical User Interface
- Help Viewer
- Preference Manager
- Print
- SDT (generic preferences).
The SDT Preference Manager also allows you to specify the printer setup, the headers, and the footers that are used when you produce printed copies of your documents.
Preferences may be customized for an individual user or may apply on an entire project or even organization that uses SDT.
Depending on your needs and how you configure your environment, SDT handles preference parameters either as:
SDT allows you to customize a number of options that define the default behavior of an SDT tool, using the Preference Manager. Some of these preferences may be overridden during the current tool session, by assigning a new value to the option. The option's latest value will then be memorized and reused, where possible.
Example 8 : Print Preferences and Options.
- Assume that you have assigned the Print preference parameter PrinterCommand the value lpr (i.e. send to printer queue).
- You print from the SDL Editor, change the option Execute to ghostview (i.e. PostScript previewer) and click Print. Next time you print from the SDL Editor, the Execute option is memorized and reads ghostview (until you terminate the SDL Editor session).
- But, when you print from another tool (the MSC Editor for instance), the Execute option is preset to the preferred value, i.e. lpr.
SDT uses your preferred values when you create a new diagram and assign it:
Each individual SDL diagram also stores information about:
- Whether to align symbols and lines to the grid or not
- Whether to check syntax or not when editing the diagram
- Whether to fix endpoints at frame or not.
These diagram parameters are set with the SDL Editor command Diagram Options.
Each individual MSC also stores information about:
- Whether to show the instance name or not
- Whether to show the instance kind or not
- Whether to show the instance composition or not
- Whether to show the message name or not
- Whether to show message parameters or not.
These diagram parameters are set with the MSC Editor command Diagram Options.
When you save an SDL diagram or Message Sequence Chart, the current diagram parameter values are saved on the diagram file and will be reused next time you open it, overriding the preference parameters.
SDT uses your preferred values when creating new system files (the .sdt files that are managed by the Organizer).
When you save a system file, the parameters that are related to the system are also stored on the system file, overriding the preference parameters:
- The parameters managed by the Set Directories dialog
- The parameters managed by the View Options dialog
- The parameters managed by the Set Scale dialog
- The parameters managed by the Analyze dialog
- The parameters managed by the Make dialog.
See "Options in the System File" on page 1146 in chapter 22, The SDT Organizer for a reference to the contents of a system file and what parameters are stored on it.
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Note:
Each individual user should make sure the $HOME environment vari
able is defined in order to take advantage of the Preference Manager.
(The $HOME variable normally denotes the user's home directory).
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To invoke the Preference Manager, select the Preference Manager menu choice from the Organizer's Tools menu. In response to this action, the Preferences window is displayed.
Figure 152 : The Preference Manager Window.
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Only one instance of the Preference Manager can be started during an SDT session. If the Preference Manager has already been started, selecting the Preference Manager menu choice again simply pops up the Preferences window.
To modify a preference parameter:
- First, locate the symbol representing the SDT tool it governs (you may have to scroll the tree area up or down to make the symbol visible and to expand it with the Expand menu choice from View Menu).
- Once the parameter is located, select it. (The information within parentheses is the current value, the item within brackets shows the source, i.e. user-defined / project / organization).
- The Interface Area is updated according to the type of parameter you have selected. The sections below describe how to adjust the preference parameter.
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Note:
You have the possibility to revert any parameter to its saved value
or default value, using the Set Saved Value / Set Default Value com
mand.
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To edit a textual value, simply place the cursor on the text field and enter the text of your choice. No control of what is entered takes place.
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Clicking on the button brings up a pop-up menu where all permissible values are listed. Simply select the value of your choice.
- When you move the mouse pointer over a value in the option menu, a short description of the value is printed in the status bar. Values whose description starts with "(Unix only)" or "(PC only)" should only be selected on a Unix system or a PC system, respectively.
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Two radio buttons are issued (e.g. on and off). Clicking the button of your choice turns it on.
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A slide bar shows the minimum and maximum allowed values, along with the current value. Drag the slider for a coarse adjustment or click the slider bar for a fine adjustment.
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You may select the preference parameter from a number of predefined values, available on an option menu.
- As an alternative, you may type in the value into the text field, which grants access to not predefined values.
- When you move the mouse pointer over a value in the option menu, a short description of the value is printed in the status bar. Values whose description starts with "(Unix only)" or "(PC only)" should only be selected on a Unix system or a PC system, respectively.
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File Preference
The preference parameter may be assigned any file
name, entered as a text string into the text field. As
an alternative, clicking the folder button issues a
Standard File Selection Dialog.
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You may assign the preference parameter may be assigned any file name, entered as a text string into the text field.
To preserve the modifications for future SDT sessions, you must save the preference settings on a file. To do this, use the Save command from File menu.
Whenever you require to save a company or project preference (and thus customize it as your personal preference), you need to confirm the operation by clicking Save in the following dialog:
Figure 153 : Confirming to Modify a Project or Organization Parameter
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The reason for this is that a parameter which is defined at the company or project level should not be possible to modify inadvertently by any individual user of SDT.
SDT allows you to remove a preference parameter from your personal settings, in which case you will revert to the project or company preferences (or the default settings, if no project or company preferences are defined).
To revert a user-defined preference parameter, you must remove it from your preference file. SDT can do this for you:
- Locate the preference parameter and select it.
- From the Edit menu, operate the Unsave menu choice. A dialog appears, prompting you to confirm the operation.
Figure 154 : The Unsave Dialog.
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- Click on the OK button to confirm the operation.
- The parameter will be removed from your personal preferences next time you Save the preference settings.
The SDT installation contains a file with all Preference parameters,
along with their default values; the file is identified as: $sdtrelease/.sdtpref
This file is also referred to as the company / organization preference file.
To customize the company's preferences, do as follows:
- Login on a privileged account (for instance as system manager or the user who is the owner of the SDT installation).
- Change the default directory to $sdtrelease
Start SDT. Also, start the Preference Manager from the Organizer.
- Modify the preference parameters of your choice (described above in "Adjusting a Preference Parameter" on page 293. For a description of the meaning of the preference parameters, see chapter 30, The Preference Manager in the Reference Manual, section "Preference Parameters" on page 1503.
- Save the parameter setup. This concludes the procedure. From now on, all SDT users will have the company setup as default (unless they have a different setup in their $HOME/.sdtpref)
It is possible to customize the default preferences by defining a so called project preference file. The values defined here will supersede the company preferences.
To create a preference file that will be used by a specific project, perform the following steps:
- Login on a privileged account (for instance as project manager or a user who has write access to a project directory).
- Copy the company preference file to a suitable directory (where the project preference file will be stored). Change the default directory to that directory, start SDT and the Preference Manager.
- Modify the preference parameters of your choice (described above in "Adjusting a Preference Parameter" on page 293. For a description of the meaning of the preference parameters, see chapter 30, The Preference Manager in the Reference Manual, section "Preference Parameters" on page 1503.
- Save the parameter setup.
- In a suitable file that all project members should source, insert the following statement:
setenv SDTPREF <directory>
where <directory> denotes the project directory. Failing to do this will cause SDT to ignore the project preferences and to use company preferences instead.
- This concludes the procedure. From now on, all SDT users will have the company setup as default (unless they have a different setup in their $HOME/.sdtpref file)
To obtain information about the preference sources that are currently used (i.e. the directories and files that contain the company, project and user-defined preferences):
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