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Official Project Website

  • Built on Eclipse 4.2 3 "JunoKepler"

We are happy to provide the ninth release of the Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout Eclipse Rich Client! It is a framework for enhanced user interaction in graphical modeling basing on the Eclipse platform. This being a pre-release it provides some basic core contributions as listed below. The full user experience will follow in upcoming releases. For known shortcomings and problems also see below.

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  • Support for Eclipse 4.3 "Kepler".
  • KLay Layered
    • ...
  • KLighD
    • ...
  • SyncCharts / S
    • SCCharts replace SyncCharts
      Image Added

    • Textual Xtext based SCCharts edior (*.sct files) added
    • SCCharts KLighD based automatic diagram synthesis 
    • Extended SCCharts transformation to Core SCCharts (experimental)
    • Core SCCharts normalization (experimental)
    • Core SCCharts to SCG transformation (experimental)
    • SCG to C code generation (highly experimental)

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  • The  GMF SyncCharts Editor (ThinkCharts Editor) was removed, *.kixs files can be imported into the new SCCharts format (moreover they keep their meaning)

Quickstart

Start with

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the ABO ("Hello World") Example

The 0.9.0 release provides examples you can add and play around with. You can start with an example by doing one of the following things:

  • Create a new project and name it as you like.
  • Create a new *.sct file in the project (create a file and give it the file extension ".sct")
  • Open the file (it should open in the SCCharts editor)
  • Start with the SCT language using the following

    ABRO

    ABO example:

    • File -> New -> Example -> KIELER
    • Choose a category (e.g. SyncCharts or KAOM) and select some examples
    • Finish

Start with an Empty Workspace

When you start KIELER, you will probably start a new empty workspace.

  • If it is not already there, open the KIELER Perspective! It opens the most important views that KIELER adds to Eclipse and adds some shortcuts to the New menu.
    • Window -> Open Perspective -> Other... -> KIELER Modeling
  • Create a new empty simple project.
    • File -> New -> Project

In your new project you can create new graphical or textual models. Here is some possible use case:

  • Create a new SyncCharts diagram.
    • File -> New... -> SyncCharts Diagram
  • Create a new initial SyncChart
    • Select empty canvas -> KIELER main menu -> Add Default
  • Edit the diagram
    • Select existing graphical objects in the diagram, choose editing operations from the KIELER main menu or the context menu (right-click). You won't need the palette. Layout is always performed automatically.
  • Trigger automatic layout
    • Use the corresponding little button in the toolbar (or Ctrl-R L)
    • Use the Layout view to customize the automatic layout: choose different layout algorithms---even within the same diagram for different hierarchical nodes---or configure specific options.
  • Save the SyncChart to automatically validate it.
  • Simulate the SyncChart with the Execution Managerview
    • From the dropdown list select the matching schedule synccharts. This will setup KIEM for SyncCharts Simulation.
    • Press the play button.
    • Use the Execution Manager view and the Data Table view to interact with the model (i.e. see outputs and enter inputs).
  • Checkout the key-bindings! Key-bindings help you to be faster with KIELER. All KIELER bindings have the Sequence Ctrl+R <key>, where <key> is some additional key that is pressed in sequence with Ctrl+R (CMD+R on Mac).
    • Press only Ctrl+R and wait to get a list shown with all possible key-bindings.
    • Maybe most frequently used are Ctrl+R L for autolayout and Ctrl+R Z for zoom to fit.

  • Code Block
    titleabo.sct
    @VHLayout
    scchart ABO {
      input output bool A;
      input output bool B;
      output bool O1;
      output bool O2;
      region:
      
      initial state Init
      --> WaitAB immediate with / O1 = false; O2 = false;
      state WaitAB {
        region HandleA:
        initial state WaitA
        --> DoneA  immediate with A / B = true; O1 = true;
        final state DoneA;
        region HandleB:
        initial state WaitB
        --> DoneB with B / O1 = true;
        final state DoneB;
      }
      >-> GotAB with / O1 = false; O2 = true;
      state GotAB;
    }

Known Problems and Limitations

  • If KIELER fails to start with an error message such as "Failed to load the JNI shared library...", you might have downloaded KIELER 64bit even though you're running Java 32bit, or vice versa. This is a known Eclipse problem and can be fixed by downloading the proper version of KIELER. Note that if you have installed multiple versions of the JVM on your machine, you have to make sure that Eclipse (resp. KIELER RCA) finds the right one. You can achieve this either by adding the Java bin directory to your PATH variable or by specifying the path to your JVM executable in your eclipse.ini file, using the -vm option, as explained on this page.
  • The performance of SyncCharts simulation visualization with focus & context is rather bad on some platforms. This may cause problems when the step size is set to a small value (< 500 ms). Please deactivate the SyncCharts visualization component if you wish a faster simulation.
  • Currently there is no full-blown user documentation integrated. See our

    Project Status with Release 0.9.0

    ExtensionProgress Released
    SCCharts Editor (*.sct)Implemented and tested 0.9.0
    SCG EditorImplemented and tested 0.9.0
    SCL EditorImplementation not yet finished 

    planned for 0.10.0

    Extended 2 Core SCChartsImplemented, not yet fully tested 0.9.0
    Core 2 Normalized SCChartsImplemented, not yet fully tested (some known bugs) 0.9.0
    Normalized SCCharts 2 SCGImplemented, not yet fully tested (some known bugs) 0.9.0
    SCG 2 Sequential SCG

    Implemented and partly tested,

    straightforward scheduler for 0.9.0 release,

    enhanced scheduler planned for 0.10.0 release.

     0.9.0
    SCG 2 C

    Implemented by transformation via common S language

    (this can also be translated into Java -> SJL)

     0.9.0
    SimulationA full featured simulation is currently being developed planned for 0.10.0

Bug Reports, Comments

We're working hard to make the graphical modeling user experience as convenient as possible. However, bugs can still remain in the code and some things might not be as you would expect them. Please don't hesitate to send in bug reports or give other comments like feature requests.

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