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
5.
| 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, Info Tools for viewing
linkages between graphs, reuse of designs, and locking information (in the
multi-user version), and the Changes & Versions Tool for viewing and
documenting changes and making
versions. |
| 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 metamodeling 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 in Section
3.1 at the tools you
see first: the Launchers, and the Options Tool with which you set various
environment and system preferences. Then in Section
3.2 we examine the four Browsers, which
give an overview of the repository, and the Graph Manager, which exports graphs
into files. In Section
3.3 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. In Section
3.4 we look at the Changes & Version
Tool for creating and comparing versions within MetaEdit+, and in Section
3.5 at how MetaEdit+ integrates with
external Version Control
Systems.
