0.54
Released September 16., 2009In this release we have focused on making SeqZap more accessible to new users, this has resulted in improvements which make it even easier to get started with SeqZap.
This release also fixes several user interface improvements we have wanted to do for a long time to make SeqZap easier to use, most notably this is the improvements to the active tools view and the addition of a device browser.
But of course we have also found the time to add support for new hardware, this time we have added a general tool for interfacing with timers and counters.
We have also focused on speed improvements, expression editing and the XY terminal are now several times faster.
The overall quality of SeqZap has also improved significantly, much of this can be attributed to our users, so let us end this changelog by thanking our users for their excellent bug reports!
Guided tour/lessons
As part of our on-going work to make SeqZap even easier to approach for new users we have started to add lessons or guides which introduce you to SeqZap one step at a time.
So far our initial response to the new lessons have been very positive so we are planning on expanding our set of lessons in the future.
The lessons are actually just normal SeqZap script files which contain a guided tour within the file. This guided tour feature is of course also available to our users so you can create your own guided tours, for example to introduce a new project member to the important parts of a project.
Graph viewer enhancements
Through the last few releases we have seen a large interest for our sample array viewer, commonly referred to as the graph viewer. Since this is a component that many people use, and will continue to use for the years to come, we decided to devote a great deal of development to making it even better for this release.
This means that navigating, zooming and analyzing the graphs have become much easier, and people used to working with oscilloscopes will feel right at home since many of the concepts from that world has been re-used in SeqZap.
Device browser
As our toolbox grows and grows it becomes increasingly difficult to get an overview of the different devices supported and used by SeqZap, to remedy this we have introduced a device browser which shows all the devices currently connected to your computer.
This makes it easy to get an overview of your devices, but the device browser does even more, it provides you with a live-updated view of the state of your devices. An example of this can be seen in the digital IO tool, where the state of the IO ports/channels can be seen updating live in the view.
Implementing a device for support in the device browser is easy for third-party tools, and makes SeqZap an even more integrated experience.
Active tools view
SeqZap's active tools view has received a major face-lift to make it more usable, it is now possible to do everything that you normally do using the workbench from within the active tools view.
Tools can be setup, simple method can be executed and panels can be opened from the view. This provides a nice and central place where all your tool instances can be managed.
Timer/counter tool
In this release we also found time to expand our ever-growing toolbox, we have now added support for counters. Counters are important when you need to count external realtime hardware events. Since SeqZap is running on a modern operating system we simply do not have the timing/scheduling support for counting, for instance, 1000 pulses every second, but with a connected peripheral device this is now possible using SeqZap.
TCP Socket Server
For a few releases now, SeqZap has had support for TCP sockets from the stream toolbox. In release 0.54 we have improved this support to also include server sockets, also known as listening sockets.
This opens up many new possibilities for testing a product which takes contact to a central server to request new information, or to deliver measurements.
Bugfixes/improvements
| #233 | Make it possible to specify the heading text in StateInfoDisplay progress entries |
|---|---|
| #324 | "No trace info" flag to suppress logging in library procedures and small trivial procedures |
| #581 | Creating Workbench tool using an existing tool instance name throws unhandled exception |
| #677 | Make it possible to disable file elements and procedure steps |
| #753 | Use the "standard" sequanto add/remove/up/down icons in the "get user input" setup pages |
| #761 | Exceptions thrown during SimpleCommand execution are not shown |
| #763 | Graph shows channel-names too low when graph is resized |
| #764 | Add DateTime type to SeqZap |
| #767 | Running Formal Partner returns unset |
| #770 | ZapTool properties returning enums doesn't work, they need to be converted to strings |
| #774 | Do not enable "Add selected" button in failure handling dialog unless there are actually a failure selected. |
| #775 | Add known errors to data tool methods. |
| #776 | Improve XYTerminal's speed |
| #784 | Width of first two columns in errors & warnings view must be fixed |
| #785 | Default-procedure (F5) is not restored after loading project |
| #788 | Enum from procedure parameter cannot be logged i Log Step. |
| #789 | Jump to next File Element in editor with Ctrl + Up & Ctrl + Down |
| #791 | Possibility to keep valid parameters when changin procedure call to other procedure |
| #794 | Ctrl + F4 to close current file |
| #795 | Escape does not work in parameters edit popup dialog |
| #797 | Ctrl + F6 to jump between opened documents |
| #798 | Add Scope-mode to Graph control |
| #801 | Improve readability of textual values in graph. |
| #802 | Make section selection in Graph control work |
| #803 | Error when assigning tool instance return parameter to local tool instance |
| #804 | Dispose step should also be able to dispose arrays of tool instances (of various dimensions) |
| #805 | When accessing the Value property on an Xml element it should return the combined text of all text node sub elements |
| #806 | GetProperty (and probably other ZapTool actions) should report an error if the selected instance does not exist |
| #807 | Socket Server support |
| #809 | Make dragging work in Graph control. |
| #810 | Graph: Add "Zoom to selection" for Y-scale |
| #811 | Make "setup owner" functionality in ObjectSetup |
| #812 | Graph control throws exception when moving mouse quickly over channel list |
| #813 | ZapTool instance == NULL comparison does not work |
| #815 | Properties View should not be brought to top always |
| #816 | Improve Active Tools View |
| #818 | Error-view throws NullReferenceException when action-reference is null. |
| #819 | Create Metec PTS Tool |
| #820 | Create general TimerCounter Tool |
| #821 | HoursMinutesSecondsSelector is setting max value for minutes to zero when range is more than one hour |
| #822 | Make SimplePluginsManager load plugins from loaded ZapTool assemblies |
| #823 | Improve readability of instance names in editor and menu |
| #824 | Step type "Create ZapTool with setup" reports error for missing instance reference |
| #826 | The user is no longer notified when a file safe was unsuccessful |
| #827 | Add FileObject-attachable actions |
| #828 | Add GuidedTour plugin as FileObject-attachable action |
| #829 | Create Acces plugin for DIO and Timer tools |
| #844 | When retrieving a page using the TCP socket stream the "progress indicator" text reads "Reading {0} characters" |
| #845 | Create a NullStream for the Stream tool, a tool which throws all written input away and which is always empty |
| #846 | Exceptions thrown by ZapTool methods should be caught in the Main AppDomain rather than the Execution AppDomain |
| #847 | Clicking the "start execution" toolbar buttons doesn't check if another execution is already running |
| #848 | Procedure Setup: the "Make this a testcase" should only be enabled when it can actually be clicked |
| #849 | Test Step description edit textbox is not reluctant |
| #850 | Inserting a Test Suite is possible in a "no project" file, but the file can not be saved afterwards |
| #852 | Max in Get Statistics on SampleArray doesn't work |
| #853 | Error message when writing to a read-only SampleArray should be better |
| #854 | Interactive methods and simple commands are shown twice in the context menu of workbench tools |
| #855 | Copy SampleArray copies the first channnel to all the new channels |
| #856 | Do not show tools which doesn't have setup methods in the "Create Workbench Instance" list of tools |
| #857 | Static panels are shown in the list of panels when right clicking on an active tools view item |
| #858 | CreateSampleArray is a static method, shouldn't it be a setup method? |
| #859 | Lessons should be avilable through a new File->Lessons menu |
| #861 | Create general device manager in SeqZap Core. |
| #864 | Re-use Scintilla editor control instead of creating a new one each time |
| #865 | Assigning zap tool instance arrays does not work properly (error reportining does not work) |
| #866 | UI dead-lock with "selected object" machanics |
| #867 | ZapTool steps does not check if the type of the selected instance is correct |
| #870 | Move and fix DeviceBrowser |
| #871 | Missing error reporting when trying to assign an enum value to an enum[] variable |
| #872 | Parameters mismatch in Procedure Call is not reported |
| #873 | Unknown enum value is not reported |
| #880 | Add support for bitwise OR for enums in expression parser |
| #881 | Array elements as output parameters |