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General
Editor Information
The editor described in this chapter handles SDL diagrams.
Another editor is capable of handling four different types of diagrams, namely the Object Model (OM) diagrams, State Chart (SC) diagrams, Message Sequence Chart (MSC) diagrams, and High-level MSC (HMSC). That editor is described in Using Diagram Editors.
SDL Diagrams
The SDL Editor can handle any number of SDL diagrams of any type. Virtually all of the Z.100 recommendation is supported.
The SDL Editor supports three kinds of SDL diagrams:
- Interaction Diagrams
- Flow Diagrams
- Overview Diagrams
The editing functionality that is available depends on what type of diagram the SDL Editor is handling.
This chapter describes the functionality the SDL Editor provides when you edit interaction and flow diagrams.
In Figure 360-Figure 362, you can find an example of interaction diagrams (in the example there is one system diagram and two block diagrams) and the resulting overview diagram.
Interaction and Flow Diagrams
The SDL Editor works with SDL diagrams in graphical form, SDL/GR, and allows graphical editing of symbols, lines and text.
You may open multiple windows in an SDL Editor to be shown at the same time; each window will hold an SDL page. This can be useful if you want to edit different diagrams and pages and refer between them, or if you want to see the interface between two processes on different hierarchical levels. This is the normal mode in which diagrams are edited.
Interaction diagrams are: system, system type, block, block type, substructure, package diagrams.
Flow diagrams are: process, process type, service, service type, procedure, operator, macro diagrams.
Overview Diagrams
You can also use the SDL Editor to view SDL overview diagrams. An SDL overview diagram consists of a number of diagrams that are built up into a diagram subtree in which the symbols are drawn in a nested fashion, giving a more comprehensive overview of a required set of diagrams. You may have multiple SDL overview pages associated to one SDL system, at different SDL levels, and thus presenting different views of the system. You generate overview diagrams in the Organizer (using the SDL Overview command), and you can open the overview diagrams for display in the SDL Editor. Various parameters allow you to generate overview diagrams to meet your requirements.
Once an SDL overview diagram is generated, you cannot modify it in the same way that you would normally edit interaction and flow diagrams (unless you regenerate it). However, you can do limited editing on the text of overview diagrams in the SDL Editor.
Essentially, the editor works in read-only mode with regard to graphical operations. General restrictions in editing Overview diagrams are:
SDL Pages
The pages that the SDL Editor displays are always contained within an SDL diagram. An SDL diagram can contain any number of pages, but, must contain at least one page, and can be any of the following types.
- Block interaction, process interaction, service interaction, package (the interaction pages)
- Graph, service, procedure, macro, operator (the flow pages)
- Overview
Relationship between Diagrams and Pages
Pages and diagrams must be associated with each other according to the rules of SDL. There follows a list of what type of pages can be added to different diagrams and what type of pages can be pasted into those diagrams.
SDL Page Order
The SDL pages that are contained in an SDL diagram are listed and handled according to the order they were added when they were created.
This order is reflected in some of the menu choices that are related to SDL pages. Also, the structure displayed by the Organizer will adopt the same order. See Chapters.
SDL pages can be renamed and rearranged by the Edit menu choice in the Pages menu.
Tracing Simulations (Graphical Trace)
Graphical trace, GR trace, is a method to follow the execution of transitions in SDL/GR source diagrams. It is mainly intended to be utilized together with the simulator's Step-Symbol command and should normally only be used for a small number of processes to limit the amount of information displayed. The GR trace facility will always show the next SDL symbol within the transition to be executed. After a nextstate or stop operation (e.g. between two transitions), the nextstate or stop symbol is still selected.
The GR tracing is activated from the SDL Simulator. The SDL Editor selects the symbol currently being executed. The Simulator automatically highlights the symbol and displays it. You can use either SDL to see what is being traced, or MSC to see the interaction between processes.
If you use an MSC to trace the simulation, the instances concept of MSC is mapped to the instances concept of SDL processes. The mapping rules which govern how SDL events are transformed into MSC symbols, lines and textual elements are described in Mapping Between SDL and MSC.
GR trace will take place in an SDL Editor window containing the appropriate diagram. If the SDL Editor does not hold the current page, but if the diagram can be found in the Organizer, then the page will be opened by the SDL Editor.
If the Organizer cannot find the diagram, or the SDL Editor cannot find an appropriate symbol to select, due to, for example, modifying the diagrams after the generation of the simulator, error messages will be issued by the Organizer or SDL Editor, but the simulation program will continue to execute without tracing graphically.
Setting Breakpoints in Simulations
During simulations, the SDL Editor can show all breakpoints that have been set in the Simulator. It is also possible to set and remove breakpoints directly in the SDL Editor by using the special Breakpoints menu that will be shown while this function is operating. The functionality is activated by the Connect-To-Editor command in the Simulator.
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