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3 Documentation Guide

A number of manuals, filling various purposes, are enclosed in the SDT 3.02 release. This document assists you in finding what information is available, where to find information and in which order you should read the enclosed manuals.

Contents 45

Reading Advice 48

SDL and MSC Knowledge 48

Features of SDT 3.0X 48

Tutorial Exercises 48

Compatibility and Migration 49

Organizing a Project 49

Documentation of Tools and Features 49

Typographic Conventions 50

Bold Style 50

Italics 50

Typewriter Font 50

Angle Brackets 51

Cross References 51

Run-in Paragraphs 51

Special Effects 52

Illustrations and Figures 52

The documentation of the SDT 3.02 release is divided into a number of volumes, filling various purposes. These volumes are listed below.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Volume         Enclosed chapters                Purpose              
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SDT 3.02       SDT 3.02 Media                   To describe how      
Installation   System Prerequisites             to install SDT       
Guide          Installation Procedure           and how to con       
               The Software License Server      figure the com       
               System Setup                     puter                
                                                environment.         
SDT 3.02       News in SDT 3.0                  To provide gen       
Release and    Release Notes                    eral information     
Documenta      Compatibility Notes              about the prod       
tion           Documentation Guide              uct release, new     
                                                features, errors     
                                                and limitations,     
                                                and compatibil       
                                                ity issues.          
Getting        Introduction to SDL, MSC,        To assist the user   
Started with   TTCN and ASN.1                   in getting famil     
SDT 3.02       Introduction to SDT              iar with the SDT     
               Tutorial: A First Example        tools. Combines      
               Tutorial: An SDL-92 Example      lecture with prac    
                                                tical exercises.     
SDT 3.02       Object-Oriented Design Using     To outline a         
Methodology    SDL-92                           methodology          
               Transition from SDL-88 to        that will assist     
               SDL-92                           the user in taking   
               Organizing a Project that will   advantage of the     
               use SDT 3.02                     SDL language in      
                                                an SDT environ       
                                                ment.                
SDT 3.01       Using SDT Frame Help             To instruct the      
User's Guide   Editing SDL Diagrams             user in how to       
               Editing MSC Diagrams             use the functions    
               Printing Information             that are available   
               Managing Preferences             in the SDT tools.    
               Verifying a System                                    
               Simulating a System                                   
               Validating a System                                   
               Building an Application                               
               How to Use the SDT Public                             
               Interface                                             
SDT 3.01 Ref   SDT On-Line Help                 To provide refer     
erence Man     The SDT Graphical User Inter     ence information     
ual            face                             for SDT tools,       
               The SDT Organizer                windows,             
               The SDL Editor                   menus, com           
               The Type Viewer                  mands, mes           
               The MSC Editor                   sages, etc.          
               The Search List Manager                               
               The Cross Reference Viewer                            
               The Coverage Viewer                                   
               The Print Utility                                     
               The Preference Manager                                
               The Analyzer                                          
               The Simulator                                         
               The Validator                                         
               The C Code Generator                                  
               The ADT Library                                       
               The Master Library                                    
               The Performance Library                               
               The SDL to CHILL Translator                           
               The CSDL Code Generator                               
               The Information Server                                
               References in SDT-3                                   
               The SDT PostMaster                                    
               The SDT Public Interface                              
               The Cmicro Generator                                  
               The Cmicro Library                                    
               The Cmicro Tester                                     
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Reading Advice

This section gives some advice on which parts of the SDT 3.02 user documentation to read in different situations. It is assumed that SDT 3.02 has been installed according to the instructions given in the volume SDT 3.02 Installation Guide.

SDL and MSC Knowledge

The SDT 3.02 tool set supports the specification languages SDL (Specification and Description Language) and MSC (Message Sequence Chart).

Users with no or little knowledge of SDL and MSC should start by reading chapter 1, Introduction to SDL, MSC, TTCN and ASN.1, in the volume Getting Started with SDT 3.02. A list of recommended literature is also enclosed at the end of that chapter.
Users seeking to learn how to take advantage of the new object-oriented features in SDL-92 are advised to read chapter 1, Object-Oriented Design Using SDL-92, in the volume SDT 3.02 Methodology.

Features of SDT 3.0X

Assuming basic knowledge of SDL and MSC, the user should become acquainted with the features of SDT 3.0X.

Users who have no or little previous experience using SDT should read chapter 2, Introduction to SDT, in the volume Getting Started with SDT 3.02.
Users who have previous experience using SDT 2.X and wish to learn about the new features in SDT 3.0X should read chapter 1, News in SDT 3.0, in this volume.
Users who have previous experience using SDT 3.0X and wish to learn about the new features in SDT 3.02 should read "New and Changed Functionality" on page 58, in this volume.

Tutorial Exercises

To learn how to use the SDT 3.0X tool set, users should practise the hands-on tutorial in chapter 3, Tutorial: A First Example, in the volume Getting Started with SDT 3.02. This tutorial is intended for users new to SDT, as well as experienced users who wish to learn the new user interface concepts and tools available in SDT 3.0X.

Users who wish to practise the object-oriented features in SDL-92 may then continue with the tutorial in chapter 4, Tutorial: An SDL-92 Example, in the volume Getting Started with SDT 3.02. This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of using the SDT 3.02 tool set.

Compatibility and Migration

Users with SDL-88 systems developed using SDT 2.X may wish to learn how to migrate to SDL-92 and SDT 3.0X.

Start by reading chapter 2, Compatibility Notes, in this volume. This chapter addresses how to avoid problems in the transition between SDL-88 and SDL-92.
For a more detailed description on how to achieve the transition, continue with chapter 2, Transition from SDL-88 to SDL-92, in the volume SDT 3.02 Methodology.

Organizing a Project

Users that wish to manage an SDT 3.02 project with several project members should read chapter 3, Organizing a Project that will use SDT 3.02, in the volume SDT 3.02 Methodology.

Documentation of Tools and Features

When running SDT 3.02, hyper-text versions of all volumes in the documentation are available on-line via the Help menus of the SDT tools.

The volume SDT 3.01 User's Guide gives guidelines on how to use a certain tool or feature in SDT.
The volume SDT 3.01 Reference Manual gives detailed reference descriptions of a certain tool, feature, command, window, menu, etc.
To find information on a certain topic, use the combined index for the two volumes mentioned above. A table of contents is also provided in each volume, and in each chapter of a volume.
If you encounter problems, errors or limitations when using SDT 3.02, chapter 4, Release Notes in this volume may supply possible explanations and work-arounds.

Typographic Conventions

This section describes the typographic conventions used in all volumes of the SDT 3.02 user documentation.

Bold Style

If a word or phrase in a paragraph requires special attention, it is printed in bold style.

Italics

SDT terms and user interface objects, such as labels, menu names, menu items and button texts, are shown in italics. For example:

The Edit menu provides a Paste command...
Click on the OK button...
... stored in the work area.

Typewriter Font

File names, as well as some SDT-specific concepts, are shown in a typewriter font. For example:

The sdt.ssl file...
The textual output generated by the computer, as well as portions of source code and file contents, are also shown in that typewriter font. For example:

State1: 
  Sig1:INPUT
  Sig2:SAVED
State2: 
  Sig3:INPUT
  Sig1:UNHANDLED

When you are asked to type in characters from the keyboard during an interactive session, a bold typewriter font is used in order to distinguish user input from computer textual output:

Now, type in Convert, Demon, System

Command : List-Ready-Queue

Angle Brackets

Information within angle brackets "< >" denotes symbolic names which should be replaced by actual names. For example:

The syntax is "<process instance> <variable name>"...
Special keys or key combinations are shown in typewriter font within angle brackets:

To execute the command, press <Return>...
Hit <ctrl-c> to...

Cross References

References to chapters and volumes in the documentation are shown in italics. For example:

See chapter 3, Documentation Guide, in the volume SDT 3.02 Release and Documentation...
References to sections within chapters are quoted. For example:

See "Search List" on page 21...
References to figures / examples within the current chapter refer to the figure / example number. For example:

See Figure 4.

Run-in Paragraphs

Bulleted run-in paragraphs enumerates information where the order of appearance is not of significance. For instance:

The SDT Main Application (level 1 bullet)
- The Main Application's Exit button (level 2 bullet)

Steps denote enumerated information in which the order of appearance is of significance, or operations which you should perform in the specified order. For instance:

First...
Then...
Finally...

Special Effects

Examples are listed with a special tag:

Example 1   
Some example
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Caution!                                                             
A caution notice provides essential information which, if disregard  
ed, could cause damage to the system or to the user's data.          
-------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:                                                                 
A note provides additional information that assists the reader when   
reading about a topic.                                                
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Icons and other small pictures are often depicted in the left margin to be easily noticed.

Illustrations and Figures

Throughout the SDT documentation, screenshots exemplify various situations which occur while using SDT. Although most of them are generated on a SUN workstation running the X Window System with the Motif window manager, they are valid for other computer and windowing systems as well, since the functional meaning remains unaffected. However, their appearance may slightly differ from the actual appearance on the screen when you are running SDT, depending on the window manager and the resource setup which was used when creating the illustrations.

Figure titles and comment text in a figure are shown in a sans-serif font:

Figure 999: The Figure Title. 
-----
(fig)  
       
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