This chapter provides an introduction to the main environment
and information management components of MetaEdit+. Here we describe the
functionality and capabilities of the Startup and Main Launcher, the Browsers,
Graph Manager, Property dialogs and the Info Tool. The various editors are
covered in Chapter
4 and generators,
import/export and API tools and command line parameters in Chapter
1.
| 1) | Environment
and information management tools include two Launchers for managing the
environment and other tools, browsers and the Graph Manager for browsing
information stored in the Object Repository, property dialogs for viewing and
editing information about single design elements, and Info Tools for viewing
linkages between graphs, reuse of designs, and locking information (in the
multi-user version).
|
| 2) | Editors,
which are tools for viewing, editing and managing design data. MetaEdit+
includes a Diagram Editor, Matrix Editor, and Table
Editor. |
| 3) | Generators
and integration tools, including generator for transforming repository data
to various output formats, tools for importing and exporting language
definitions and design data between repositories, API tool and command line
operations. Information about Generator Editor and more advanced topics on XML
import/export and API tool can be found in ‘MetaEdit+ Workbench
User’s
Guide’. |
| 4) | Language
development tools, which form the metaCASE part of the environment allowing
users to modify the environment. These development tools are described in a
separate manual: ‘MetaEdit+ Workbench User’s
Guide’. |
In this chapter we look first at
the tools you see first: the Launchers, and the Options Tool with which you set
various environment and system preferences. Then we examine the four Browsers,
which give an overview of the repository, and the Graph Manager, which exports
graphs into files. Finally, we look at two classes of tool that are generic and
used throughout MetaEdit+: the Property dialogs, where the details of individual
design elements can be viewed, reused and edited; and the Info Tools, which show
how a given design element is used by and linked to other design
elements.
