Table of Contents Previous Chapter 25 The MSC Editor

25 The MSC Editor

Menu Bar

The MSC Editor menu bar provides the following menus:

The File Menu

Figure 370 : The File Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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The commands beneath the File menu allows to perform the following operations:

New

This command creates a new MSC.

Open

This command opens a file on which an MSC is stored. A Standard Directory Selection Dialog is issued (see Figure 371). 

Figure 371 : Opening an MSC. 
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(fig)  
       
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Filter field

The Filter field is set to *.m?? by default. This extension corresponds to the default file extensions that are applied to MSC files.

Input File

The MSC Editor supports reading Message Sequence Charts stored in either:

Status Bar Information

As a file is selected in the Files list, relevant one-line information related to the file is displayed in the status bar at the foot of the MSC Editor window.

Save

This menu choice saves the current diagram. The menu choice reads Save (Not needed) if no changes have been done to the diagram since the last Save.

Save of newly created Diagrams

When a newly created diagram is to be saved, a Standard File Selection Dialog is issued following the Save menu choice. The dialog prompts to specify what file to save the diagram on. 

Figure 372 : Save of a New Diagram 
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(fig)  
       
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Default file names                                            
The default file name that the MSC Editor suggests consists of       
·  <diagramname> appended with                                 
·  an enumerated integer value (1, ..., N) if the 

                  
<diagramname>/file extension already exists,                   
·  a default file extension (see Figure 372 and "Default File Exten  
sion", below). Reserving these default file extensions for Mes       
sage Sequence Charts makes it easier to locate them in the file      
system.                                                              
-------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------
Storage Format  Default File Extension  
--------------------------------------
MSC-GR          .msc                    
MSC-PR          .mpr                    
--------------------------------------

Save As

This menu choice allows to save a copy of the current MSC on a new file. The MSC Editor associates the MSC with the new file and the Organizer Reconnects the MSC icon with the newly created file in order to maintain consistency.

The name of the new file is to be specified in a Standard File Selection Dialog. The MSC Editor suggests a default file name, using the same rules as for Save of newly created Diagrams (see page 1314).

If the user changes the suggested file name to specify a file that already exists, the MSC Editor issues a confirmation dialog:

Figure 373 : The Save Confirm Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Save A Copy As

This menu choice saves a copy of the current MSC on a new file.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:                                                                 
The MSC Editor window will hold the original file in its window,      
not the newly saved copy of the diagram. The diagram remains          
connected to the old file and the Organizer's structure is left unaf  
fected by the operation                                               
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The name of the new file is to be specified in a Standard File Selection Dialog. The MSC Editor suggests a default file name, using the same rules as for Save of newly created Diagrams (see page 1314).

If the name of an already existing file is entered, the MSC Editor prompts the user to confirm the operation in the same way as when ordering Save As on an existing file.

Save All

This menu choice saves all modified diagrams that are open in the MSC Editor. This menu choice is dimmed if no modifications have been made to any MSCs currently being edited.

Any new diagram that needs to be saved will cause a file section dialog to be issued (see "Save of newly created Diagrams" on page 1314).

Close Diagram

This command closes the current diagram and its associated window.

If the diagram has been modified, the MSC Editor will prompt to save the changes before closing the diagram.

Figure 374 : Prompting to save changes when closing a diagram. 
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(fig)  
       
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Print

This menu choice invokes the Print Utility. Following selection this command, a print dialog is issued in order to specify what to print and how to print it. 

Figure 375 : MSC Editor Print Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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See page 1456 for further description.

Exit

This menu choice closes all MSC Editor windows that are open, and terminates the MSC Editor session. When Exit is selected, the following menu - see Figure 376 appears for each of the diagrams open which have been modified. 

Figure 376 : Saving at Exit. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Edit Menu

Figure 377 : The Edit Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Edit menu provides editing functions that operate on the objects in the diagram. The following menu choices are available:

Undo

This command restores the content of the drawing area to its state prior to the most recently performed operation. The following operations can be undone:

Cut

This command removes the current selection from the drawing area, and saves it in the clipboard buffer. Cut is only valid if a selection is defined. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:                                                                   
Cutting an instance head symbol or its instance axis line will delete   
virtually all objects that were connected with the instance axis, un    
less they were selected.                                                
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copy

This command makes a copy of the current selection in the clipboard buffer. The content of the drawing area is not affected by this menu choice. Copy is only valid if a selection is defined.

Paste

This command inserts the contents of the clipboard buffer into the drawing area. Paste is only valid if a selection has previously ben cut or copied into the clipboard buffer.

Once the Paste is activated, a dashed rectangle appears in the drawing area, following the mouse pointer. The rectangle contains the current selection, which appears as dashed symbols. 

---------------------------------------------------------------
Note:                                                            
Paste may be interrupted at any moment by pressing <Esc>.  
---------------------------------------------------------------
When pasting the selection, the MSC Editor will process each individual object contained in the selection, adjust it to the Grids if required and connect it, if feasible, to the "closest" object(s) in the drawing area.

If, for some reason, the MSC Editor fails in pasting some of the objects contained in the selection, the following message is issued, for each of the objects:

Figure 378 : The Failed to Paste Message.Figure legend: The message refers to 
		aninstance end that could not be pasted. 
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(fig)  
       
       
       
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Paste of Multiple Objects

When pasting a selection that consists of multiple objects, the MSC Editor attempts, as long as feasible, to preserve the original appearance of the selection.

Paste of Individual Objects

When pasting individual objects, the MSC Editor processes the objects as follows:

Clear

This command removes the selected object(s) from the drawing area. Clear is only valid if at least one object is selected. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:                                                                  
Clearing an instance head symbol or its instance axis line will also   
remove virtually all objects that were connected with the instance     
axis regardless of if they were selected or no.                        
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Status

This command displays and possibly modifies the status of a:

Upon activation of the menu choice, a dialog is issued where the current status for the object that is currently selected is displayed by having the corresponding radio button turned on (see Figure 379 - Figure 381). 

Figure 379 : The Instance Status Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Figure 380 : The Message Status Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Figure 381 : The Timer Status Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Instance Status

An instance may be decomposed into a sub MSC. This is indicated by a text attribute with the predefined contents decomposed located immediately beneath the instance head (see Figure 382). 

Figure 382 : Instance Status. 
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(fig)  
       
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Message Status

The status concept has been extended in SDT in order to map it to the SDL signal concept and to allow a way of expressing situations that are subject to occur in a real-time system(1), namely:

The MSC Editor displays these differences through the use of an asterisk located close to the message's ending arrow (see Figure 383).

Figure 383 : Message Status. 
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(fig)  
       
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Timer Status

Z.120 specifies two appearances for the timer symbol, depending on whether the timer has expired (i.e. timeout) or whether the timer is reset. SDT extends the timer status concept to the following (in analogy to the Message Status, see above. The appearance of the timer is illustrated in Figure 384.

Make Space

This menu choice presents the Make Space dialog, where space for events may be inserted.

Figure 385 : The Make Space Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Redirect

This command changes the orientation of a selected message. The new direction is indicated by a change in the orientation and position of the message end and of the message parameters.

Connect

This command opens the connect dialog that is used to connect a selected condition symbol to one or multiple instances.

Figure 386 : The Connect Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Condition Name field allows to enter or change the name of the condition.

The Instance List lists all possible instances that are concurrent with the condition.

Rename

This command allows a renaming and retyping(2) of the Message Sequence Chart. Following the menu choice, a dialog is issued where the MSC Editor prompts for the new name:

Figure 387 : The Rename Diagram Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Drawing Size

This menu choice changes the size of the MSC. A dialog is issued:

Figure 388 : The Diagram Size Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Spacing

This command allows to modify the space which is automatically inserted between the symbols and lines when appended to the chart. Following this command, the dialog illustrated in Figure 389 is issued.

Figure 389 : The Spacing Dialog 
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(fig)  
       
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Select All

This operation selects all objects contained in the current MSC.

The View Menu

Figure 390 : The View Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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The View menu contains rescaling functions and access to various options that affect the behavior of the MSC Editor.

The following choices are available beneath the View menu:

Set Scale

This menu choice issues a dialog where the scale may be adjusted (see Figure 391).

Figure 391 : The Scale Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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Window Options

This menu choice issues a dialog where to set the options that affect the window properties (see Figure 392). 

Figure 392 : The Window Options dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The various window options are described below.

Diagram Options

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

Figure 393 : The Diagram Options Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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Editor Options

This menu choice issues a dialog where the behavior of the MSC Editor may be customized. 

Figure 394 : The Editor Options Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The options are controlled by toggle buttons. They are:

Insert Options

This command issues a dialog where the insert mode may be specified. The insert mode determines whether space that is created should be before or after the currently selected object and where to place a dynamically created instance in relation to its parent instance.

Figure 395 : The Insert Options Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The dialog has two areas:

Insert Symbol or Line

This area has two radio buttons, controlling the insert mode when double-clicking symbols in the symbol menu and when operating the Make Space command. (This option may be temporarily overridden in the Make Space dialog command is performed.) The options are to specify whether to add space:

Insert Created Process

This area has three radio buttons, defining the insert mode when appending dynamically created processes by double-clicking the create process symbol. This option governs how child instances will be placed in relation to the parent instance. The following modes are supported:

The Diagrams menu

Figure 396 : The Diagrams Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Diagrams menu records all MSCs that are opened by the MSC Editor.

The available menu choices are:

<Diagram Name>

The last opened MSC always goes to the top of the list, and subsequently moves the other diagrams and pages down a position. A maximum of 9 open MSCs 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 to have been opened. Another option - List All (at the bottom of the list) is available to list all the open diagrams in the MSC Editor.

A diagram that is preceded by an asterisk (`*') denotes that it has been modified during the MSC Editor session.

List All

This menu choice becomes available when a minimum of 9 open diagrams has been surpassed. When List All is selected, it provides a dialog containing all diagrams and pages that are currently open in the MSC Editor (see Figure 397). 

Figure 397 : Listing All Diagrams. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Windows menu

Figure 398 : The Windows Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Windows menu contains the following menu choices:

New Window

This command opens a new window containing a new view on the MSC contained in the source window from which this menu choice was operated. The MSC can be edited in any window.

Close Window

This option closes the open window, but, not necessarily the diagram. All but the last open window may be closed, the last one must be closed from the File Menu, possibly in conjunction with a Save of information (see "Close Diagram" on page 1316).

Info Window

This command issues a dialog as shown in Figure 399, displaying additional information about the currently selected MSC object. 

Figure 399 : The Info Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The dialog presents:

The Tools Menu

Figure 400 : The Tools Menu. 
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(fig)  
       
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The Tools menu provides following functions:

Tidy Up

The Tidy Up command orders the MSC Editor to reform and redraw an MSC. The editor compresses and orders the information in the diagram. The dialog allows to specify the horizontal and vertical spacing as well as the grouping mode (see "Insert Options" on page 1334).

Figure 401 : The MSCE Tidy Up Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The dialog provides:

Filter

The filter allows to hide parts of an MSC by filtering it to view only a certain part. The filtered diagram is copied under a new name.

Figure 402 : The MSCE Filter Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The dialog provides the following options:

Generate MSC PR

This command generates a textual description of the current MSC, using the Z.120 MSC-PR syntax. The resulting text is stored on a user provided file. Following the menu choice, the MSC GR to PR dialog is issued.

Figure 403 : The MSC GR to PR Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The dialog prompts to specify:

Generate SDL

This menu choice generates an SDL-PR(5) description for the currently selected instance. The resulting text is stored on a file. The command is dimmed if not exactly one instance is selected in the MSC Editor.

The Generate SDL dialog is issued upon activation of the command.

Figure 404 : The Generate SDL Dialog. 
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(fig)  
       
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The dialog prompts to specify the following generation options:

MSC to SDL Translation Table

The table below describes the translation scheme that is followed when generating SDL-PR from an MSC. 

---------------------------------------------
MSC construct  SDL-PR expression               
---------------------------------------------
(fig)          process <P>;              
               start;                          
(fig)          procedure <P>;            
(fig)          state sdt_state_1;              
               input MSG1 () 

                 
               
comment `Parameters:PARAM';    
               ...                             
               nextstate sdt_state_2;          
(fig)          output MSG2 ()

                 
               
comment `Parameters: PARAM' 

  
               
to (Adr)                       
(fig)          create P (PARAM);               
(fig)          set (now + PARAM, TIMER_NAME);  
               nextstate sdt_state_3;          
               ...                             
                                               
               reset TIMER_NAME;               
(fig)          state STATE_NAME;               
(fig)          task `ACTION_TEXT';             
(fig)          comment (COMMENT_TXT);          
(fig)          stop;(a)                        
(fig)          endprocess;                     
(fig)          endprocedure;                   
---------------------------------------------
(a)
Only when generation of SDL process.

Test Case Extensions

When specifying that test case extensions should take place, the MSC Editor adds chunks of SDL-PR code that have the ability to report that the expected signal or another signal than the expected one has been received.

The translation scheme becomes:

---------------------------------------------
MSC construct  SDL-PR expression               
---------------------------------------------
(fig)          state sdt_state_1;              
               input MSG1 (PARAM);             
                 task                          
                 /*#CODE                       
                 xAssertError ("Passed");      
                 */;                           
               ...                             
               nextstate sdt_state_2;          
               ...                             
               /* Elsewhere in the PR file */  
               state *;                        
               input *;                        
                 task                          
                 /*#CODE                       
                 xAssertError ("Failed");      
                 */;                           
                                               
---------------------------------------------
Where the function xAssertError is an user provided function.

Show GR Reference

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

Figure 405 : The Show GR Reference Message. 
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(fig)  
       
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The syntax of the graphical references used in the SDT environment is described in chapter 41, References in SDT-3.

Extract Information

This command produces a file containing a list of definitions and cross references of entities contained in the current MSC.

The contents of this file may be read and displayed in the Cross Reference Viewer; see chapter 27, The Cross Reference Viewer.

Show Organizer

This command raises the parent SDT Organizer Main Window, i.e. from where the MSC Editor was started.

The Help menu

The Help menu is described in chapter 21, The SDT Graphical User Interface, on page 1033.

Keyboard Accelerators

In addition to the standard keyboard accelerators, described in the chapter The SDT Graphical User Interface, the MSC Editor features the following:

------------------------------------------------------
Accelerator     Command / functionality                 
------------------------------------------------------
<Delete>  Clear, (Remove, Delete, see page 1323)  
------------------------------------------------------

Popup Menu

The popup menu is a activated by pressing the right mouse button. The popup menu remains active until the next mouse click or until the <ESC> key is typed.

The popup menu contains the most often performed menu-choices from the Edit menu; the exact content depends however on the type of diagram.The available menu-choices on the popup menu are:

Quick Buttons

In addition to the generic Quick Buttons that exist in all SDT tools (see page 1035), the MSC Editor tool bar features the following quick buttons:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(fig)  Make space for new events                                                
       Create space between two events (the same as the Make Space com          
       mand, see page 1326).                                                    
(fig)  Remove space between two events                                          
       Remove the unrequired space between two events.                          
(fig)  Text window on / off                                                     
       Toggle the Text Window between visible and hidden (the same as the       
       Text Window option, see page 1332).                                      
(fig)  Instance ruler on / off                                                  
       Toggle the Instance Ruler between visible and hidden (the same as the 

  
       Symbol Menu option, see page 6).                                         
(fig)  Symbol menu on / off                                                     
       Toggle the Symbol Menu between visible and hidden (the same as the       
       Symbol Menu option, see page 1332).                                      
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Footnotes

(1)
For instance, the MSC Editor takes full advantage of the message status when tracing a simulation.
(2)
An MSC may either be a "normal" MSC or a sub MSC.
(3)
Event oriented MSC-PR describes the MSC using the order in which the events occur, i.e. starting with the top of the diagram and downwards, providing the feeling of a global event order.
(4)
Instance oriented MSC-PR describes the MSC on an instance by instance basis. The feeling of a global event order within the MSC is lost.
(5)
SDL-PR is the textual form for the Z.100 definition.
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