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Menu Bars


The SDL Editor's menu bar provides commands available in menus and menu choices for editing diagrams and pages of diagrams. Most of the functionality that the SDL Editor offers is contained within the commands from the menu bar. The menu bar provides the following menus:

The File menu is described in File Menu and the Help menu in Help Menu.

In addition, other menus may appear; one is the Simulator menu which appears when you set breakpoints in the SDL Editor (see Connect-To-Editor).

Edit Menu

The Edit menu provides editing functions that you can perform on the objects in the drawing area. The Edit menu functions that are available differ depending on the type of diagram you edit, either:

The Edit functions are as follows:

Undo

With this command you restore the content of the drawing area to its state prior to the operation you performed most recently. It is only available for operations on symbols, lines and text attributes. You can undo the following operations:

Note: Undo for text editing

You can undo text editing operations in the text window, such as Import, Cut, Paste, and Clear. There is also an Undo function available for text entered via the Grammar Help or Signal Dictionary functions. See Undo.

Note: Undo for Class Symbols

If a class symbol is cut and thus also cleared, Undo will be enabled. If the Undo command is used, operators will be restored, including their body code.

Cut

This command removes the current selection from the drawing area or text window, and saves it in the clipboard buffer. Also see Deleting an Object.

In text editing mode the command will work on the current text selection.

Copy

This command makes a copy of the current selection, and saves it in the clipboard buffer.

In text editing mode the command will work on the current text selection.

Paste

This command inserts the contents of the clipboard buffer into the drawing area or text window.

No lines will be drawn between the pasted symbols and the symbols already present in the drawing area.

You can interrupt the Paste operation by pressing <Esc>.

Also see Pasting an Object.

In text editing mode the text contents from the clipboard buffer will be inserted at the current text insertion point.

Note: Cut, Copy and Paste for Class Symbols

When a class symbol is cut or copied, defined body codes are saved on the clipboard, along with their operators. When a class symbol is pasted, previously copied body codes are inserted as well, unless an operator already has defined another body code.

If any operator will be deleted as a result of the operation, a warning is shown, the command is canceled and a dialog similar to the one in Cutting, Copying and Pasting Class Symbols is shown.

Insert Paste

This function has the similar functionality as the Paste function, but is only available for flow pages. It inserts necessary space after the selected symbol before pasting the clipboard buffer and connecting the two flows.

The function requires that the clipboard is not empty and that you have selected exactly one symbol or line. Otherwise, the menu choice is dimmed. The menu choice is also dimmed if connecting the two symbol flows would violate the Z.100 syntax rules.

The functionality differs depending on if you have selected a symbol or a line. If you have selected a symbol the pasted symbols are inserted following the selected symbol. If for example you have selected a decision, the Insert Paste command will create a new branch. Also if a line following the selected symbol joins another line and the selected symbol only can have one follower, the inserted symbols will be placed following both the lines.

If you have selected only a line the pasted symbols will be inserted onto that line. For example if a line following a decision is selected, the inserted symbols will be inserted into the selected decision branch.

Before inserting the selection, the SDL Editor allocates the necessary space by pushing the required objects downwards. If this is not possible, a dialog is displayed.

Paste As

Pastes the currently copied object (from the OM or Text Editor) as an SDL object in the drawing area. The object is transformed and a link is optionally created between the copied and pasted objects.

The Paste As dialog is opened. See The Paste As Command for more information.

Clear

This command removes the current selection from the drawing area or text window. The content of the clipboard buffer is not affected by this menu choice.

Also see Deleting an Object.

In text editing mode the current text selection will be removed.

Note: Deleting Class Symbols

When deleting a class symbol, a warning dialog is shown if an operator will be deleted as a result of this operation. See Cut, Copy and Paste for Class Symbols.

Collapse/Expand

This command is available for symbols that can be clipped. These are the package reference symbol, additional heading symbol, text symbol, comment symbol and text extension symbol. A collapsed symbol has the minimum size and an expanded symbol will automatically adjust its size to the text.

Redirect

This command changes the direction of a selected channel, signal route or gate. The new direction is denoted by changing the orientation and position of the arrow, leaving the arrowhead pointing in the opposite direction. Subsequent redirections result in the signal list toggling between two directions.

Note:

The only way to draw a channel from the environment to a symbol is to:

  1. Draw a channel from that symbol to the environment
  2. Redirect the channel.

Bidirect/Unidirect

This command changes the selected channel, signal route or gate to be bidirectional/unidirectional. The Bidirect command will generate a new arrowhead and an empty signal list. The Unidirect command will show a dialog asking what signal list that should be kept.

Class...

This command opens up the Browse & Edit Class Dialog. The command is available only when a single class symbol has been selected. The command is not available if the class name contains incorrect syntax.

Flip

This command creates a vertically symmetrical copy of the symbol(s) you have selected. It is valid on the following symbols only:

The flow lines connected to a mirrored text extension symbol or comment symbol are redrawn in order to reconnect them to the opposite side.

Split Text

This command splits the text from a symbol and its associated text extension symbol (if any) into two parts, where the first part is placed in the symbol itself, and the second part in an associated text extension symbol. The split is done where the text insertion marker is, in the selected symbol.

To place all text in an associated text extension symbol, place the text insertion marker first in the text for a normal symbol and invoke this operation.

To remove an existing text extension symbol associated with a normal symbol, place the text insertion marker last in the text extension symbol and invoke this operation.

Dash/Undash

A dashed reference symbol is used in an SDL subtype when referring to an object that is defined elsewhere in one of the supertypes of the current subtype.

In a similar fashion, a dashed gate indicates that the gate is already defined in one of the supertypes in the inheritance chain.

Figure 436 : A dashed process reference symbol and a dashed gate

The Dash/Undash command is available on the following diagrams:

The Undash is a toggle command.

Note that a symbol cannot be dashed if there are syntax errors in the name attached to the symbol. Also if a syntax error is introduced in a dashed symbol the symbol will automatically be undashed.

Mark as Important/Mark as Detail

In the high-level view, only symbols which are marked as "important" will be shown. For more information, see Show High-Level View/Show Detailed View.

Symbols that are marked as "important" will be shown with border and fill colors different from ordinary symbols. These colors can be changed through the Preference Manager.

The Mark as Detail command sets the view status of a symbol to "normal", meaning that it will only be shown in the detailed view.

Mark Types...

This command brings up a dialog with a list of symbol types. The selected symbol types will be visible in the high-level view, while unselected symbol types will only be visible in the detailed view.

Drawing Size

This menu choice sets the size of the drawing area for the current SDL page. A dialog is issued where you can type in the width and height. The values are saved on file when you save the diagram.

Note:

Enlarging the drawing, the current SDL page may not fit any longer into the paper that is defined with the Print preferences; the result may be an SDL page that requires multiple sheets of paper when printed.

Select All

This command selects all of the text contained in the text window or all objects within the drawing area.

Insert signal

When an input or output symbol is selected this menu-choice will show a sub-menu with a list of signals available to the system. If an input symbol is selected it will list input signals and if an output symbol is selected output signals will be listed. Selecting a signal will place it in the symbol.

Complete Word

Note:

You can also complete a word by having the mouse pointer in the drawing area and pressing the tab key, provided that the preference Editor*TabEqualsCompletion is true.

Word completion helps you complete long words that have already been used in the same context. Type the beginning of the already used word and invoke word completion to get the rest of the word. If there are several ways to complete the word, the word completion operation will initially give you the common part of the possible completions. If you invoke word completion again, you will get one of the alternatives. To get another alternative, invoke word completion once more.

Word completion takes the word closest to the current cursor position and tries to complete that word by adding characters at the end of the word.

The word completion operation uses the following sources to look for already used words:

Select Tail

This command selects the currently selected symbol and all objects beneath it within the tree (following the flow lines).

Symbol Border Color > Set Color...

This command calls the color dialog where it is possible to set a custom color for the selected objects.

Symbol Border Color > Set Default

This command restores the default color for the selected objects. Default color for Symbol borders are set by the Preferences.

Symbol Border Color > <Color>

This command sets <Color> for the selected objects. Default available choices are Black, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, and White. Custom colors are added to the menu when they are first used. The most recently used color is moved to the top of the list.

Symbol Border Color > List All Colors...

This menu choice becomes available when a maximum of 20 used colors has been surpassed. When you select List All Colors a dialog is issued containing all colors that has been used in the current SDL Editor session and you have the possibility to set them for the selected objects.

Symbol Fill Color > Set Color...

This command calls the color dialog where it is possible to set a custom color for the selected symbols.

Symbol Fill Color > Set Default

This command restores the default color for the selected symbols. Default fill color is set by the Preferences.

Symbol Fill Color > <Color>

This command sets <Color> for the selected symbols. Default available choices are Black, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, and White. Custom colors are added to the menu when they are first used. The most recently used color is moved to the top of the list.

Symbol Fill Color > List All Colors...

This menu choice becomes available when a maximum of 20 used colors has been surpassed. When you select List All Colors a dialog is issued containing all colors that has been used in the current SDL Editor session and you have the possibility to set them for the selected symbols.

Symbol Visibility > Hide

This command hides the selected symbols. The hidden symbols will be replaced with a thick vertical line. The flow line structure will not be altered. The [Screen, Print]Z100Symbol preferences makes the replacement line as this as the flow line. See also Show hidden symbols and Include Expression.

Symbol Visibility > Show

This command restores the selected symbols.

Include Expression

This command displays a dialog, where it is possible to specify the include expression that is presented above the top left corner of a symbol, for the selected symbols.

The include expression is a name of a boolean variable (or external synonym). The value of the include expression is checked before analyzing an SDL system, when SDL/GR is converted to SDL/PR. Only those symbols that...

...are included in SDL/PR and are visible for the analyzer and the code generator.

As default, all boolean variables have a value of false. To change a boolean value to true, an external synonym file (a plain text file with extension *.syn) must be created and placed close to the SDL system in the Organizer. The external synonym file closest to the SDL system will be used. An external synonym file contains lines of name value pairs. For instance:

DEBUG true
VERSION1 false
VERSION2 true

Note that all lines going to a symbol that is removed, will also be removed. An exception to this rule is that flow lines going to a symbol that will be removed, are reconnected to the first following symbol that will not be removed, if there is one and only one such symbol.

It is also possible to decide if SDL/GR symbols should be included or excluded in SDL/PR by hiding symbols. See Analyze, Symbol Visibility > Hide and Symbol Visibility > Show.

View Menu

The View menu provides rescaling functions and access to various options that affect the behavior of the SDL Editor.

The following menu choices are available in the View menu:

Set Scale

Issues a dialog where you can adjust the scale.

Show High-Level View/Show Detailed View

The high-level view shows only symbols which are marked as "important", whereas the detailed view shows all symbols (normal view). This makes it possible to work with a less detailed version of the SDL diagrams.

By selecting the high-level view, only symbols which are either marked as "important", or belong to one of the types selected in the Mark Types dialog, will be visible. Also, a tidy up operation will be performed, and the diagram will be read-only - all editing has to be done in the detailed view.

By selecting the detailed view, the diagram is reverted to the original, detailed view, where all symbols can be seen and edited.

Temporary Colors > Remove

Temporary colors are colors that are not saved in the SDL diagram. These colors are used by certain operations, such as SDL trace from SDL simulators and Compare Diagrams in the SDL editor, to highlight symbols of interest. Before doing a new operation that relies on color, it might be useful to remove already existing temporary colors. This can either be done by using this menu choice or by closing down the SDL editor.

Temporary Colors > Make Permanent

Temporary colors are explained in Temporary Colors > Remove. This menu choice is used to convert temporary colors into permanent colors that can be saved in diagram files for future use.

Window Options

This menu choice issues a dialog where you set the options that affect the window properties.

Diagram Options

This menu choice issues a dialog where you set the options that affect the editing properties applied on the current diagram.

Interaction and Flow Diagram Options

A dialog with the following options is displayed on interaction and flow diagrams.

Note:

Turning the switch from off to on will not perform a retroactive syntax check for not allowed or interconnection of symbols. Only the objects that you add while syntax checking is enabled are checked.

The diagrams options are also saved on file when the diagram is saved.

Overview Diagram Options

A dialog with the following options is displayed on overview diagrams.

The diagrams options are also saved on file when the diagram is saved.

Editor Options

This menu choice issues a dialog where you can customize the behavior of the SDL Editor.

The options are controlled by toggle buttons. They are:

Pages Menu

The Pages menu contains the following menu choices:

First

This menu choice opens the first page contained in the diagram. The first page is defined according to the order of appearance in the Edit Pages dialog. If the page is already opened, its window is displayed.

<Page Name>

Activating the Page menu presents up to four menu choices that consist of the names of the two pages that are sequentially right before and after the page you edit. If you edit the first page of the diagram, the next four sequential pages are shown. If you edit the last page of the diagram, the previous four pages are shown.

When you select one of these page names, that page is opened or restored in the SDL Editor. Use the Edit menu choice if you want open other pages.

Last

This menu choice opens the last page of a diagram. See First for more information.

Add

This menu choice is a shortcut for adding one page to the current diagram. The Add Page dialog is issued and when you click OK the new page is shown.

Edit

This menu choice opens a dialog where you can Add, Rename, Move up, Move down, Clear, Cut, Copy and Paste an SDL Page. See Page Editing Functions.

Edit Reference Page

This menu choice opens (or, if already active, simply restores) the page in the parent diagram where the name of the current page is referred.

This menu choice is dimmed when the current page is one of the pages contained in the Organizer Root Document (in which case there is no parent diagram) or the diagram being edited is not known by the Organizer.

Diagrams Menu

The Diagrams menu records all diagrams and pages that are opened by the SDL Editor.

Back

This menu choice opens the diagram that was previously visible in the same window.

Forward

This menu choice opens the diagram that was displayed in the window before you pressed the back button.

<Diagram Name>

The last edited page always goes to the top of the list, and subsequently moves the other diagrams and pages down a position. A maximum of 9 open pages can be shown. A tenth one will be put at the top of the list, but any subsequent opening of a diagram or page will only show the last 9 that have been opened. Another option - List All (at the bottom of the list) - is available to list all the open diagrams in the SDL Editor.

Each item in the menu provides information about the diagram type, its name, a slash (`/') followed by a page name, a hyphen and, possibly, the file it is stored on. A diagram that is preceded by an asterisk (`*') denotes that it has been modified during the SDL Editor session.

List All

This menu choice becomes available when a maximum of 9 open pages has been surpassed. When you select List All a dialog is issued containing all diagrams and pages that are currently open in the SDL Editor and you have the possibility to display them.

Window Menu

The Window menu contains the following menu choices:

New Window

This command opens a new window containing a new view on the SDL page contained in the source window from where you selected this menu choice. You can edit the SDL page in any window.

Close Window

This option closes the open window, but, does not close the diagram. All but the last open window can be closed, the last one you must close from the File menu, possibly in conjunction with saving information (see Close Diagram).

Grammar Help

This menu choice opens the Grammar Help window, see Grammar Help and Signal Dictionary. Its purpose is to assist you in editing SDL textual elements that are correct according to the SDL grammar.

Each SDL Editor window has its associated Grammar Help window.

The SDL Editor tries to open a file with grammar help templates when opening the Grammar Help window (which file to open by default may be specified as an SDL Editor preference). If the file cannot be located, a dialog is issued where you can choose to select it manually. The filter in the file selection dialog will be set to *.tpl.

Signal Dictionary

This menu choice opens the Signal Dictionary window, see Using the Signal Dictionary. It gives access to information about what signals are defined in an SDL hierarchy. Each SDL Editor window has its associated Signal Dictionary window.

Class Information

Opens the Class Information window. See Class Information for more information.

Entity Dictionary

Opens the Entity Dictionary window. See The Entity Dictionary for more information.

<Window Name>

If more than one editor window is open the other windows are listed here. The behavior of this list will be similar with the diagrams list in the Diagrams menu. The only difference is that the menu items will not provide the diagram file information.

List All

This menu choice is available only if more than 9 editor windows are open, and has the same functionality as the List All menu command in the Diagrams menu.

Tools Menu

The Tools menu contains the following menu choices:

Show Organizer is described in Show Organizer and the Link commands are described in Link Commands in the Tools Menus.

Search

This menu choice opens a dialog that allows you to search for a text in the current diagram or document in any editor. You can search many diagrams and documents at the same time with this menu choice.

For more information about searching, see Search and Searching and Replacing Text.

Spelling > Comments

Check the spelling of comments in the current diagram. For more information about the spelling operation, see Spelling > Comments.

Spelling > All Text

Check the spelling of all text in the current diagram. For more information about the spelling operation, see Spelling > Comments.

Tidy Up

This menu choice rearranges the graphical layout of the entire SDL diagram, using default layouting algorithms when calculating the location and size of graphical objects. Before the tidy up operation is started, a dialog appears where you can adjust parameters to the operation:

Connect to Text Editor

This command issues an external text editor and creates a temporary file from the currently selected text. After this you can only edit the text from the external editor. The SDL Editor is updated every time the external text editor saves the temporary file. When you no longer edit the temporary file the editing control returns to the SDL Editor.

Which external text editor you are to use is defined by the preference SDT*TextEditor.

Navigate

This command navigates to another diagram or to another symbol within the current diagram, depending on the selected symbol. It is available for the following symbols:

Double-clicking a symbol will have the same effect as using the Navigate command. This applies to all navigable symbols, except class symbols.

The Show Sub-menu

All menu choices in the Show sub-menu require a running index viewer loaded with an up-to-date cross reference file. You can get this for all SDL systems that passes through the SDL Analyzer, by pressing the Generate Index quick-button in the Organizer.

Show > Definition of X

This command takes the name of the word closest to the current cursor position as input. If the name represents an SDL entity listed in the index viewer, the SDL Editor will navigate to one of the definitions of that entity. Usually there is only one definition to show, but for states, each state symbol is considered to be a part of the definition and one of them is shown. If you invoke this command once more for the same state name, another state symbol is shown (if there are several).

Show > Use of X

This command takes the name of the word closest to the current cursor position as input. If the name represents an SDL entity listed in the index viewer, the SDL Editor will navigate to one of the uses of that entity. If you invoke this command once more for the same word, another use of that entity is shown (if there are several uses),

Show > Definition or Use of X

This command takes the name of the word closest to the current cursor position as input. If the name represents an SDL entity listed in the index viewer, a dialog is opened, allowing you to navigate to one of the definitions or uses of that SDL entity.

Show > Next (Definition or Use of) X

This command repeats the last Show > Definition of X, Show > Use of X or Show > Definition or Use of X command using the same word as last time as input.

Show > Definition of X in Index Viewer

This command takes the name of the word closest to the current cursor position as input. If the name represents an SDL entity listed in the index viewer, the index viewer tool is popped up and this entity is selected.

Show GR Reference

This command issues a message where the graphical SDT reference for the object you have currently selected is displayed.

The syntax of the graphical references used in the SDL Suite environments described in SDT References.

Create Bookmark

This command creates a bookmark in the Organizer for the object you have currently selected.

Compare Diagrams

With this menu choice you can compare the contents of two SDL diagrams. See Comparing and Merging Diagrams.

Merge Diagrams

With this menu choice you can compare the contents of two SDL diagrams and create a new diagram by merging the two SDL diagrams. See Comparing and Merging Diagrams.

Add Differences

With this menu choice you can merge two SDL diagram versions into one. The SDL diagram that is visible in the editor when the operation is invoked will be updated with information from the other version, for all differences. Symbols from the other diagram might be placed slightly to the left of the original place, to avoid overlapping symbols.

Differences are marked with temporary color, except for complete page differences when a complete page is missing in the other diagram. The reason for this is to support merging of a complete diagram (the SDL diagram in the editor) with diagram parts (containing a subset of all pages in the complete diagram) that might be slightly different.

In the Add Differences dialog, it is possible to specify the other diagram to compare with, either by specifying a file name or by specifying another editor buffer. The Add Differences dialog also makes it possible to specify the temporary colors to use for highlighting differences.

Generate PR

This command will generate SDL/PR/CIF for the current diagram. A dialog with the following options appears:

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 you the possibility to edit larger portions of text with a more suitable text editor (for instance signal definitions in text symbols). Another possibility to edit text externally is to use the Connect to Text Editor command in the Tools menu.

Import

Import imports the contents of a file into the text window and inserts the contents of the file at the text cursor position, possibly replacing selected text in the text window. In the file selection dialog, the 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. In the file selection dialog, the filter is set to *.txt by default.

Menu Bar in Grammar Help Window and Signal Dictionary Window

These menu bars contains the following menus:

File Menu

The File menu contains menu choices that access files that contain SDL Grammar Help templates.

These commands are useful only when requesting Grammar Help support.

Load

This command opens a file selection dialog, where you can select and load the file with grammar help definitions.

Grammar template files normally have the file extension .tpl. With the SDL Suite, a standard template file, sdt.tpl, is enclosed. The SDL Editor attempts to locate a .tpl file each time you invoke the Load command.

Any template definitions that are already loaded will be replaced by the contents of the selected grammar help definition file.

Merge

Merge extends the current loaded grammar definitions with the contents of a grammar help definition file.

This command issues a file selection dialog, in which you can select and add a set of custom templates to the basic set provided in the SDL Suite.

Any template definitions that are already loaded will be extended with the contents of the merged template definition file.

Edit Menu

The Edit menu provides two utility functions that you can use when copying text from the Grammar window or the Signal Dictionary window to the SDL Editor's text window.

Undo

You can revert changes with the Undo command.

Insert

This menu choice copies the entire contents of the Grammar field or the signal definition and copies it into the text window at the current I-beam cursor location. Selected text will thus be overwritten.

A shortcut for Insert is to double-click on the template name in the name field.

Replace

This command replaces the contents of the text window with the contents of the grammar field. This function is a shortcut for the following sequence:

Select Menu

The commands on the Select menu define what functionality the Grammar Help window and the Signal Dictionary window should provide.

Each of the options can be individually turned on and off. In addition, an Options menu choice (see Options) allows you to enable and disable multiple options in one command only.

The options that are currently enabled are indicated by an asterisk (`*') preceding the corresponding menu choice.

When you invoke the Grammar Help, the Grammar option is enabled, while the remaining options are disabled.

These functions restrict or extend the scope of search for signals. The Signal Dictionary functionality can be extended to provide access to MSC Messages and an external signal library.

Grammar

This toggle option, when set to on, will enable the SDL Grammar Help function.

Up

This toggle option enables the Up option provided in the Signal Dictionary window. This option displays the SDL signals that are available when looking one level up in the SDL hierarchy.

This

Turning This on lists all signals that are used in the current diagram.

Down

This option displays the SDL signals that are available when looking one level down in the SDL hierarchy.

All

This option displays all signals that are defined and are visible according to the SDL scope rules, starting from the root document (see Root Document) in the SDL System Structure chapter.

MSC

This option displays all messages that are available in the Message Sequence Charts that are submitted as input to the Signal Dictionary function. Each message is mapped to an SDL signal, with its parameters mapped to SDL signal parameters.

An MSC is submitted as input to the Signal Dictionary if associated to an SDL diagram that is present in the Organizer's diagram structure.

External

This option displays all signals that have been imported from an external signal dictionary. Importing external signals is done through the Public Interface. See Load Definition File.

Options

Issues a dialog where you can turn on and off all options individually (see Select Menu for a description of the options).

The default options for the Signal Dictionary are Up and Down.

Tools Menu

The Tools menu provide various convenience functions.

Show Editor

This command displays the parent SDL Editor window.

Show Definition

An SDL Editor comes up showing the definition of the item which is selected in the signal list.


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