Camille Editor

The first version of the Text Editor will be released in a few weeks, that means in second half of June and not before the Rodin release 1.0 has been published.

Until then we are going to release a few testing releases (beta) for interested users. You will find instructions how to install and use these beta releases on this page.

Warning: Don't use the TextEditor yet with your production models! The TextEditor is still in development It is based on latest SVN Rodin version which uses a changed database model. Therefore its projects cannot be used in older Rodin versions.

News

• 30th May 2009: Version 0.0.4
• 29th May 2009: Version 0.0.3
• 27th May 2009: Version 0.0.2. Update the page due to syntax changes and new version on update-site. Announcement on the DEPLOY tooling mailing list.
• 13th May 2009: Version 0.0.1. Creation of this page and publishing the beta update-site for the first time. Presentation at refocus meeting in Southampton.

Installing

The TextEditor relies on features of the Rodin release 1.0 which is not yet released. Therefore you will have to create a new Rodin installation. The following steps will guide you through this process:

1. Download a build of Rodin from our CruiseControl server:
   1. Point your browser to http://cruise.cs.uni-duesseldorf.de/dashboard/tab/build/detail/org.rodinp.platform
   2. Download a zip file with a name starting with rodin-product and matching your platform. For example rodin-product-linux.gtk.x86.zip if you are working on a Linux system.
2. Extract the downloaded zip file.
3. Start Rodin from the folder where you extracted the zip file in the previous step.
4. Install the TextEditor:
   1. In the menu choose Help -> Software Updates...
   2. Select the tab Available Software and click Add Site...
   3. Use the location URL: http://www.stups.uni-duesseldorf.de/update-beta/
   4. Back in Available Software open the update site you just added
   5. Select Event-B EMF Framework and Event-B TextEditor and click Install...
5. Restart Rodin as suggested.

Now you are ready to use the TextEditor.

Updating

As often as possible we are going to publish updated beta releases. We recommend that you update your new Rodin installation with these updates for the TextEditor (and EMF Framework).

Although we will try to announce these updates on this site too, it is a lot easier if you setup Rodin to let you know when an update is available. The following steps guide you through this process:

1. In Rodin open the preferences (Window -> Preferences or for Mac: Rodin -> Preferences)
2. Find Install/Update -> Automatic Updates
3. Select Automatically find new updates and notify me

As soon as Rodin finds a new update it will ask you if you would like to install it.

This is how it should work. Unfortunately the update doesn't always notify the user properly. So we recommend checking for updates regularly or watching this page for changes. We will announce updates on this page too.

Usage

This section should help you to get started with the TextEditor.

To get a first impression also visit the screenshot page.

Opening with the TextEditor

The TextEditor competes with the current graphical Event-B editor when it comes to the selection of a default editor for the double click action to open a model file. To explicitly select which editor should be used please select Open with... in the context menu of the component you want to open. In this menu you can select which editor is used. After opening a component with one editor this editor will be the default until you select another one.

Syntax

The text syntax for machines and contexts is closely related with the pretty-print you might know from the graphical Event-B editor. See the grammar's EBNF for details.

As you might notice in the grammar it only describes the structure of machines and contexts. For the terminals predicate, expression and action you can use the syntax for formulas which you already know from editing models with the graphical Event-B editor. You can use the ASCII representation of mathematical symbols or their unicode. See the Rodin help for details about the mathematical symbols and their ASCII counterparts.

Editing

The TextEditor currently offers the following features:

• Syntax error marking: Syntactical errors are highlighted in the input text.

• Mathmatical language: You can type formulas in ASCII syntax and the TextEditor will replace ASCII symbols with their unicode counterparts as soon as you stop typing for a short while.

• Syntax highlighting: Keywords (structural and in formulas), labels and comments are highlighted. This happends directly when typing.

• Semantic highlighting: Identifiers are highlighted based on their semantic meaning, i.e., as variables, constants, parameters, sets, local variables. This highlighting is updated when you stop typing for a short while.

• Configuration of highlighting: In the Rodin preference pages you will find a page for the highlighting in the TextEditor. It allows you to change color and style of highlighted text.

• Code completion: The following elements are available for code completion (invoked by Ctrl+Space on the most computers)
  • Keywords
  • Identifiers
  • Templates (very few so far, please let us know which templates you would like to add)

• Outline View: An outline view gives you an overview of the model's structure.

• Quick Navigation: The outline view allows clicking on an element to jump to its position within the text.

Of course the TextEditor offers the common features you know from other text editors, such as: copy, paste, moving of text (try Alt+Up or Alt+Down), undo, redo, ...

Restrictions

Due to some design decisions and its combination with the Rodin platform the TextEditor comes with a few restrictions:

• Semantic analysis (for highlighting and code completion for example) can only performed if the overall structure of the input is parsable. Therefore you might experience situtions when the semantic highlighting or the code completion produces unexpected results because it is based on outdated parsing information.

• Parsing for formulas, i.e., predicates, actions and expressions can only be performed if the overall structure of the input is parsable. If the structure is not parsable ascii symbols will not be replaced until you correct the overall structure.

• Also see the EBNF page for some restrictions in the syntax.

Bugs and Features

Please use this section to report any bugs you find and let us know about features you would like to see in the TextEditor.

Regarding feature requests: Any feature request is welcome! But please keep in mind that we are preparing for a first stable release of the TextEditor. So we might not start working on your feature request in the next weeks. The focus until the first release is on stability!

Bugs

• On Mac the relational override symbol is not displayed properly.
• After undoing all changes the editor still has the dirty flag (* marker in editor tab)
• Undo is behaving unexpectedly for formula symbols which are replaced. Reverting the replace is one undo step. But the symbol is replaced again if no second undo is invoked quickly enough.
• The list of code completion proposals sometimes doesn't show expected (matching) results because the context at the cursor position is not evaluated correctly.
• In an event name 'find_max' the 'max' part is highlighted as a formula keyword
• Bookmarks can be created, but they disappear when saving.
• [Bosch] There seems to be a problem parsing witnesses. Error reported is: [...] with @P_Env_ControlSignals' P_Env_ControlSignals' [...] "Unknown token: '"
• [Bosch] It is not possible to extend contexts "extends" keyword is not parsed correctly
• When inserting a template the special editing mode for the template is left to quickly, i.e., without user interaction.
• Pretty-print putting comments before context header causes a parse error
• The token declaration for labels is too strict.
• The token declaration for identifiers is too strict.

Feature Requests

• Add hovers with additional information, such as the declaring machine/context
• Add jump-to-declaration action
• Select complete element (e.g. event) with double- or triple-click
• Lock keywords so they cannot be changed anymore
• Highlight matching paranthesis
• Make TextEditor an Eierlegende Wollmilchsau... ;-)
• [Bosch] Provide folding for Event-B model elements (similar to folding of Java methods)
• [Bosch] Provide refactoring of Event-B model elements
• [Bosch, R1] Provide symbol table; see http://bscw.cs.ncl.ac.uk/bscw/bscw.cgi/d100429/DEPLOY_082_1th_ReportToolReq.pdf
• Due to the restriction that the editor only accepts labels without whitespaces some models do not parse in the text editor. Informing the user about this problem when opening such a file would be helpful. An alternative is to automatically change labels and replace a whitespace with a '_'. The latter is only reasonable if the user knows what happens (might lose proofs) or when a refactoring is available which preserves proofs.

Comments

Of course any other feedback is welcome too! We appreciate when you let us now what you think about the TextEditor.

Release Notes

Version 0.0.5

not yet released

• Bugfixes:
  • After undoing all changes the editor still has the dirty flag (* marker in editor tab)
  • [Bosch] There seems to be a problem parsing witnesses. Error reported is: [...] with @P_Env_ControlSignals' P_Env_ControlSignals' [...] "Unknown token: '"
  • [Bosch] It is not possible to extend contexts "extends" keyword is not parsed correctly
  • Pretty-print putting comments before context header causes a parse error
  • The token declaration for label is too strict.
  • The token declaration for identifiers is too strict.

• Improvements
  • Generating better error messages for misplaced comments, i.e., explain error in understandable way.
  • Problems when opening the editor are reported in a better way now. The real reason is shown in the UI. This will help when examining error reports in the future.

Version 0.0.4

30th May 2009

• Fixing more bugs.
• Full integration with graphical editor (both open) now working.

Version 0.0.3

29th May 2009

• Fixing first reported bugs.
• Reinstalling, i.e., including Rodin is recommended.

Version 0.0.2

27th May 2009

• Fixing some bugs.
• Updating this page due to syntax changes and new version on update-site.
• Announcement on the DEPLOY tooling mailing list.

Version 0.0.1

13th May 2009

• Initial beta-release.
• Presentation at refocus meeting in Southampton.