Managing Preferences

This chapter describes the principles for the management of preference parameters in a Telelogic Tau environment. It also describes how to use the Preference Manager to customize the Telelogic Tau installation.

For a reference to the Preference Manager and the preference parameters, see The Preference Manager.

Table of Contents 

• Introduction
• How Preferences Are Managed
• Preferences and Dialog Options
• Preferences and ORCA and SDT Diagram Options
• Preferences and System File Options
• Starting the Preference Manager
• Adjusting a Preference Parameter
• Adjusting a Textual Parameter
• Adjusting a Boolean Parameter
• Adjusting a Ranged Integer
• Adjusting an Option Menu
• Adjusting an Option Menu Textual Preference
• Adjusting a Font Preference (Windows only)
• Adjusting a File Preference
• Customizing the On-Line Help
• Configuring the Help Environment
• Timeout Issues
• Customizing User-Defined Preferences
• Saving Parameters as User-Defined
• Reverting User-Defined Parameters
• Customizing Company Preferences
• Customizing Project Preferences
• Locating the Preference Sources

Introduction

Different users are likely to use Telelogic Tau in different ways. Even the same user may use the tools differently in different work areas. The Preference Manager allows you to customize the default behavior of the Telelogic Tau 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 the following tools:

• Organizer
• SDL Editor
• ORCA¹ diagram editors
• Text Editor
• Index Viewer
• Type Viewer
• Coverage Viewer
• SDL Overview Generator and Editor
• Simulator Graphical User Interface
• Validator Graphical User Interface
• Help Viewer
• Preference Manager
• Print
• SDT (generic Telelogic Tau tool preferences).

Note:  The Preference Manager only handles the ORCA and SDT specific tools, and the common Telelogic Tau tools. The behavior of the ITEX-specific tools cannot be changed by these preferences. For more information, see Customizing ITEX (on UNIX).

The Preference Manager also allows you to specify the printer setup, the headers, and the footers that are used when you print documents.

Preferences may be customized for an individual user or may apply to an entire project or even organization that uses the Telelogic Tau tools.

How Preferences Are Managed

Depending on your needs and how you configure your environment, the Telelogic Tau tools handle preference parameters either as:

• Organization (company) preferences

These are parameters that should affect all work that is done with the Telelogic Tau tools within an organization; for example you might want to prohibit the use of some specific SDL symbols, to set up printout headers and footers with your company's logotype, etc.

• Project preferences

These are parameters that should affect the properties that are specific for a particular project; for instance what make and build options should be used by the Analyzer and Code Generators within the scope of a project. Project preferences can also be regarded as a specialization of the organization preferences, specific for a project.

• User-defined preferences

User-defined preferences are parameters that would typically affect the behavior of the tools to have them fulfil the individual user's needs; such as what additional windows to open or not open at start-up of the tool.

• Default (factory) settings

These settings are "burnt-in" into the tools and will be used whenever no other preferences are available.

Figure 78 : The user's view of the preference parameters

Preferences and Dialog Options

The Telelogic Tau tools allow you to customize a number of options that define the default behavior of a tool, using the Preference Manager (the ITEX specific preferences can be customized as described in Customizing ITEX (on UNIX)). 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.

1. Assume that you have assigned the Print preference parameter PrinterCommand the value lpr (i.e. send to printer queue).
2. You print from the SDL Editor, change the option Execute to ghostview (i.e. a 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).
3. But, when you print from another tool (the MSC Editor for instance), the Execute option is preset to the preferred value, i.e. lpr.

Preferences and ORCA and SDT Diagram Options

ORCA and SDT use your preferred values when you create a new diagram and assign it:

• A width (set with the command Drawing Size)
• A height (set with the command Drawing Size)
• A viewing scale (set with the command Set Scale)

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 the diagram is edited
• 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.

Each individual OM, SC and HMSC diagram also stores information about:

• Whether to align symbols and lines to the grid or not

When you save a diagram, the current diagram parameter values are saved on the diagram file and will be reused next time you open it, overriding the preference parameters.

Preferences and System File Options

The Telelogic Tau tools use 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 for a reference to the contents of a system file and what parameters are stored on it.

Starting the Preference Manager

Note:  Each individual user should make sure the HOME environment variable is defined in order to take advantage of the Preference Manager. The HOME variable normally denotes the user's home directory (on UNIX), or a directory on the PC's local HDD (in Windows).

To start the Preference Manager:

• Select Preference Manager from the Organizer's Tools menu.

The Preference Manager will be opened.

Figure 79 : The Preference Manager window

Only one instance of the Preference Manager can be started at a time.

Adjusting a Preference Parameter

To modify a preference parameter:

1. First, locate the symbol representing the Telelogic Tau 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).
2. 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).
3. The area at the bottom of the window is updated according to the type of parameter you have selected. The sections below describe how to adjust the preference parameter.

Note:  You have the possibility to revert any parameter to its saved value or default value, using the Set Saved Value / Set Default Value command.

Adjusting a Textual Parameter

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.

Adjusting a Boolean Parameter

Click on to turn an option on.

Adjusting a Ranged Integer

Drag the slider for a coarse adjustment or click the slider bar for a fine adjustment.

Adjusting an Option Menu

Clicking on the button brings up a pop-up menu where all permissible values are listed. 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 "(Windows only)" should only be selected on a UNIX system or a Windows system, respectively.

Adjusting an Option Menu Textual Preference

You may select the preference parameter from a number of predefined values, available on an option menu (see above). As an alternative, you may type in the value into the text field, which grants access to not predefined values.

Adjusting a Font Preference (Windows only)

You must select the font by clicking the folder button, which opens a Microsoft Windows Font dialog. It is not possible to edit the text field to the left of the folder button.

In the font dialog, all TrueType fonts in the system are listed. It is also possible to select font style and size, but these values have no effect. Only the specified font name is used.

• Any font name can be entered by editing the Font text field in the font dialog. This possibility is useful when setting a font for printing that is not available in the system, but it does exist on the printer.
• ORCA and SDT will also recognize the three font names "Times", "Helvetica" and "Courier". These are translated into the TrueType fonts Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New, respectively.
• When using other fonts than the three mentioned above for printing, the preference Print* DestinationFormat should be set to MSWPrint to get the best result for symbols that are adjusted to the text size.

Adjusting a File Preference

You may assign the preference parameter any file name, entered as a text string into the text field.

• You can also click the folder button, which issues a file selection dialog in which you can select a file.

Customizing the On-Line Help

In Telelogic Tau, you can request on-line help by selecting a menu choice in a Help menu, a pop-up menu or by clicking a Help button in a dialog. For more information about Help menu choices, see Help Menu.

To be able to view the on-line help, you need to have one of the following HTML-viewers installed:

• Netscape Navigator
• Microsoft Internet Explorer²
• The Telelogic Tau Help Viewer (included in the Telelogic Tau distribution)

Also, you have to make sure that the on-line help files (in HTML-format) have been installed.

In the on-line help, you can also find information about how to use it.

Configuring the Help Environment

In the Preference Manager window, locate the icon symbolizing the help preferences.

2. Double-click the icon. This will expand it and list the available help preferences.
3. Select and, if required, adjust the preference HelpViewer to an adequate value, either Netscape, Internet Explorer or Telelogic. Use the option menu that appears at the bottom of the window to select the value.
4. Select and, if required, adjust the preference parameter
   NetscapeCommand or InternetExplorerCommand to a command that starts Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer in your computer environment. Type the command in the text field that appears at the bottom of the window.

Note:  The command must be available via your PATH variable. The Telelogic Tau Help Viewer is included in the Telelogic Tau distribution and does not have a start command preference.

5. Select and, if required adjust the preference parameter HelpDirectory to the help directory (by default C:\tau35\help in Windows and appl/telelogic/help/ on UNIX).

To limit local disk space usage in a multi-user environment, you may optionally put the on-line help files on a network server (unless you already have a network installation of Telelogic Tau, which is usually the case on UNIX). To do this, you move all files in the help directory and its subdirectories (available in the local installation directory, by default C:\tau35) to the network server area. This step may already have been performed on your computer system, so check where the on-line help files are stored.

Then check and adjust the preference parameter HelpDirectory to the help directory on the network server.

6. Save the preference settings and exit the Preference Manager. The on-line help is now configured in accordance to your computer environment.

Timeout Issues

When you request on-line help from Telelogic Tau, the Postmaster supervises the communication. On a heavily loaded computer system, the help viewer may fail to respond within the time limit specified by the environment variable STARTTIMEOUT. When this occurs on UNIX, a message is appended to the console window. The environment variable should be adjusted to a higher value to match the typical response times for the computer system where Telelogic Tau and the help viewer are running.

Customizing User-Defined Preferences

Saving Parameters as User-Defined

To preserve the modifications for the future Telelogic Tau tools sessions, you must save the preference settings. The preferences are saved on a preference file denoted by $HOME/.sdtpref (on UNIX), or %HOME%\sdt.ini (in Windows).

Note:  In Windows: If the environment variable HOME is not set, the preferences are stored on a preference file in the directory from which the tool was started.

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 80  : Confirming to modify a project or organization parameter

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 the Telelogic Tau tools.

Reverting User-Defined Parameters

The Telelogic Tau tools 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. The Telelogic Tau tools can do this for you:

1. Locate the preference parameter and select it.
2. From the Edit menu, select Unsave. A dialog appears, prompting you to confirm the operation.

Figure 81 : The Unsave dialog

• Click on the OK button to confirm the operation.

3. The parameter will be removed from your personal preferences next time you Save the preference settings.

Customizing Company Preferences

The Telelogic Tau installation may contains a file with all Preference parameters, along with their default values. The file is identified as $telelogic/.sdtpref (on UNIX), or sdt.ini (in Windows), and resides in the installation directory of the Telelogic Tau tools.

This file is also referred to as the company / organization preference file. In Windows, to be meaningful in a multi-user environment, the company preference file should be stored on a network drive (and, of course, all Telelogic Tau users should have read access to this file).

To customize the company's preferences, do as follows:

1. UNIX only: Login on a privileged account (for instance as system manager or the user who is the owner of the installation).
2. On UNIX: Change the default directory to $telelogic. Start the Telelogic Tau tools.
   In Windows: Start a Telelogic Tau tool from the installation directory, i.e. not from a shortcut icon that defines another start directory.
3. Start the Preference Manager from the Organizer.
4. Modify the preference parameters of your choice (described in Adjusting a Preference Parameter). For a description of the meaning of the preference parameters, see Preference Parameters.
5. Save the parameter setup. This concludes the procedure. From now on, all users (in Windows, those that are running the Telelogic Tau tool from the network installation) will have the company setup as default (unless they have a different setup in their $HOME/.sdtpref (on UNIX), or %HOME%\sdt.ini (in Windows))

The ITEX specific preferences and their default values on UNIX are described in How Resources Are Read.

Customizing Project Preferences

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:

1. UNIX only: Login on a privileged account (for instance as project manager or a user who has write access to a project directory).
2. On UNIX: Copy the company preference file to a suitable directory (where the project preference file will be stored). Change the default directory to that directory, and start the Telelogic Tau tools.
   In Windows: Copy the company preference file to a suitable directory on a network drive, where the project preference file will be stored (using a directory on a local HDD for this purpose makes no sense). Start ORCA or SDT using a shortcut icon that designates this directory as the start directory.
3. Start the Preference Manager from the Organizer.
4. Modify the preference parameters of your choice (described above in Adjusting a Preference Parameter. For a description of the meaning of the preference parameters, see Preference Parameters.
5. Save the parameter setup.
6. On UNIX: In a suitable file that all project members should source, insert the following statement:
   setenv SDTPREF <directory>

In Windows 95, insert the following in a suitable batch file that each project member runs at start-up (e.g. AUTOEXEC.BAT):
set SDTPREF <directory>

In Windows NT, using the System properties in the Control Panel, set a SDTPREF environment variable to <directory>

In all cases, <directory> denotes the project directory. Failing to do this will cause the Telelogic Tau tools to ignore the project preferences and to use company preferences instead.

7. This concludes the procedure. From now on, all project members will have the project setup as default (unless they have a different setup in their $HOME/.sdtpref (on UNIX), or %HOME%\sdt.ini (in Windows)).

Locating the Preference Sources

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):

• Select Info from the File menu. A message box is issued:

Figure 82 : The message with information about preference sources