Developer's Corner


Visual Calculator for SansGUI

Why do we need a calculator that shows the computational relationships among the operators and operands in a graph? Wouldn't it be easier to type in the formula in textual format? Wouldn't it be more efficient to write programs in textual code rather than using a visual/diagrammatic language? There are always arguments between textual and diagrammatic representations of computational programs. We created Visual Calculator for SansGUI not because we want to claim the success or failure on either side, but to use it for the following purposes:

Examining Visual Calculator Schema Definition

The Schema Definition file of Visual Calculator, named Calc.sgs, is located in the samples\Calc subdirectory of the SansGUI installation directory. We created it with the SansGUI Development Environment. If you have the SansGUI Run-Time Environment (SGrun) or the Demonstration Edition (SGdemo), you will not be able to open the Schema Definition nor to create one of your own. You are encouraged to go to ProtoDesign's web site and register for a 30-day evaluation license key to activate the SansGUI Development Environment. To know the license option you currently have, run SansGUI and select Help>About SansGUI... from pull-down menu to obtain a informational dialog.

To examine the Schema Definition, please open the Calc.sgs file. Here is a summary of how we created it:

Simulator Identification

We entered the simulator identification when we created Visual Calculator. The Simulator Identification dialog can be accessed by selecting Action>Change Identification... from the pull-down menu. The password is Calc. If you want to extend the Visual Calculator, please change the information here to include a new name for the calculator, along with your own company and group names. If you are just examining it, simply click on the Cancel button to close the dialog.

Simulation Control Class

Having created a new Schema Definition for Visual Calculator, we created SimControl.Cycle.Calc simulation control class to indicate that it is for an in-process, cycle-driven simulator. To examine it, click on the first Simulator tab in the Left Pane, and click on the name or the icon of class Calc. A Grid View in the Right Pane will show all the attributes in this class. There is, however, no local attribute created for class Calc -- all are inherited from the Cycle intrinsic class. Double click on class Calc to see the Document Location and Memo field we entered for this simulator control class. Click on the Cancel button when you are done.

Unit Object

Double click on the Angle object below the Unit class to see the unit conversion table in a Object Properties dialog. We created this unit object for the sine wave generator. Again, click on the Cancel button when you are done.

Base Component Classes

The calculator operations are implemented in eight Base component classes. A summary of the classes can be found in the Introduction section. Here we examine the contents of the classes, especially how their attributes, port definitions, and class functions are specified. We created these classes by right clicking on the Base class in the Component (middle) tab in the Left Pane and selecting Create Subclass from the context menu. For you, simply double click on the name or the icon of class Add, or select Properties from the right click context menu.

generate/devcmpn.jpg

Some notes regarding the base component classes in Visual Calculator follow:

Please go to the reference section of each class to find out more details. You may compare the reference information with the class definitions and the accompanying source code to gain more insights.

Link Class

The Connector class is defined to include one single attribute -- Value. It is used to pass the value from one component to another.

Generating Object Library

After we have created all the classes, we use the SansGUI Development Environment to generate an Object Library with the default name Calc_<Major>_<Minor>.sgo. Also generated are C/C++ and Fortran source code for the class functions in each component class. We selected Action>Generate Next Build, Generate Test Release, or Generate Official Release from the pull-down menu to perform this task. By default, both C/C++ and Fortran code are generated and stored in a subdirectory named:

Calc_<Major>_<Minor>_<Patch>_<Build>, where

You can look into the Generating Object Library section in Chapter 3 of the SansGUI Developer's Guide for more details.

Coding Class Functions

The generated source files were then inserted into two Win32 DLL Projects, one for Visual C++ and the other for Visual Fortran. The two project were developed independently; therefore, you only need Visual C++ or Visual Fortran but not both. To examine the code in the class functions, perform the following steps. Please note that you don't need to close the SansGUI environment. SansGUI can work with Visual Studio in coordination, especially when you are debugging your code.

The Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide classes do not contain any attribute. The code in the evaluation functions demonstrate how to process input links and deposit resulting values to output links. To learn how to access class attributes, you can start with the evaluation function in class Constant or class Variable because they have only one attribute, Value (fValue). Once it is understood, you can look into the evaluation function of class SineGen for a more elaborated coding example.

Consult Chapter 4 Developing In-Process Simulators in the SansGUI Developer's Guide, Chapter 2 SansGUI Data Object Format and Chapter 3 SansGUI Application Programming Interface in the SansGUI Reference Manual for more coding details. It is also a good idea to go through the code in other examples in the Getting Started guide and from ProtoDesign's web site.

Writing On-Line Documentation

The on-line documentation you are looking at right now was created by a 3rd party HTML authoring tool. It does not have to be all in HTML. You can include other types of files as long as you enter them correctly in the Document Location field in the Class Properties dialog (as shown above). SansGUI will invoke the associated application according to the extension settings in the user's Windows registry.

Details of Preparing On-Line Documentation can be found in Chapter 3 Generating and Maintaining Object Libraries in the SansGUI Developer's Guide.

Packaging and Distributing

The distribution files in Visual Calculator for SansGUI are described in the Welcome page. We created a directory structure for all these files and used a zip utility program to create and convert the zipped archive file into a self-extracting executable program. When the program is run, all the files are extracted and put in the corresponding locations, preserving the directory structure.

Please consult Chapter 7 Deploying Simulators in the SansGUI Developer's Guide for more details.

 



Welcome to Visual Calculator Example 4: Damped Sine Wave Generator Add

Visual Calculator for SansGUI Version 1.1

Copyright © 2001-2003 ProtoDesign, Inc. All rights reserved.

http://protodesign-inc.com