RADE

Principles

Frameworks and Modules vs. Workspace and Projects

IRAD uses the concepts of workspace and project.
A workspace is an area that contains projects. A project is defined as a set of files that produces a program/library or a final binary file.
CAA V5 tools manipulate related concepts:

• In both cases the workspace represents the area where development projects are stored. A workspace is considered as an entity with a name and a single owner.
• IRAD projects are similar to CAA V5 Modules, since modules are a set of files intended to produce a program (a library or an executable).

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What Kind of CAA V5 Commands Have Been Mapped?

The customization of IRAD includes:

• The CAA V5 Code Builder mkmk (and related tools).
• Some CAA V5 wizards: They help you create new components and files based upon CAA V5 components.
• If some CAA V5 commands or special options are not available through the Dashboard menus, it is possible to open a DOS window (with a proper environment) in which all commands can be run.

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Where Are These Commands?

They are located:

• In the File/New wizards, under the category CAA Elements.
• In the menus Window, Source Code Management and CAA Project as well as in the contextual menu of a project in the Navigator view.

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Synchronous and Asynchronous Commands

There are two kinds of CAA V5 commands:

1. Synchronous commands: You must wait for their completion to continue to work with the environment. A log window opens while a synchronous command runs. You can swap between the Show Details >>/Hide Details << mode of the window to browse or hide the feedback of the command. At the end of the command, if successful, this window disappears automatically in Hide Details mode. If the Output is displayed, the Break button switches to Close. Push that button to force the window to close. If the command fails, close the window manually.

   

2. Asynchronous commands: These commands are launched in the background and you can continue to work within the dashboard.

   For the Java Interactive Dashboard, the output is sent to the CAA View in IRAD: Traces are kept visible until a new command is run, allowing you to consult these messages, especially when an informative command has been run, in the example below we asked for the list of existing workspaces. The traces are also saved in files in your workspace and can be retrieved using the Window->Show View->Other->Other->CAA View command. The lifetime of these files is of approximately one day. Asynchronous commands are piled in the Command Manager and executed sequentially. The CAA Command Manager window opens whenever an asynchronous command is running or waiting for execution. In this window you can see commands done, running or waiting. You can cancel a running command by selecting it in the list and using the Stop button. The Stop All button cancels all commands and closes the window. When all commands have stopped, the CAA Command Managerwindow is closed. CAA Output window for IRAD

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What Do You Want to Do?

This section, based on a scenario, explains most of the RADE commands. Through this scenario, you will be able to create/open/migrate a workspace, copy an existing framework and its modules (framework CAABskDocument.edu), build it with mkmk and execute it.

Creating a Workspace

We consider here the case where you are starting from scratch. If you already have a workspace on your file drive, report to Customizing IRAD [1] to learn about how to migrate a CAAV5 File Tree to a format which can be handled by Developer Studio.

1. Activate the IRAD Customization. To do so, see Activating IRAD Customization.
2. In the Navigator view, right-click a project and select New CAAV5-SCM Workspace.
3. Select the tool you want to use in the With combo box.
4. Enter the path of the workspace root directory using a drive letter. You can also click the ... button to open a directory browser.
5. Select the tool level in the Tool level combo box. If there is only one level available, Default should be displayed in the combo box.

In the New CAA V5 Workspace window, Build On UNIX may be available depending on how you have customized the RADE tools. To find information on how to use the Setup tool to enable Build On Unix, refer to Building your software on UNIX.

After creating the new workspace, the following window is displayed, allowing you to create a new framework in this workspace, or to copy an existing one. You can also cancel this step if needed.

Copying and modifying frameworks through the Workspace Manager can be performed only for workspaces created through the workspace manager. Copying and modifying frameworks from a reference workspace enables you to copy a framework from a reference workspace, or create a new one. You can also directly define prerequisites for your workspace.

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Opening a Workspace

We consider here the case where a project has been already set up, see Customizing IBM Rational Software Development Platform [1] to learn about how to migrate a CAA V5 File Tree to a format which can be handled by IRAD.

1. In the Navigator view, right-click a project and select the Open V5 Workspace command.
2. Select the tool you want to use in the With combo box.
3. Enter the path of the workspace root directory using a drive letter. You can also click the ... button to open a directory browser.
4. Select the mkmk level in the Tool level combo box. If there is only one level available, Default should be displayed in the combo box.

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Copy a Framework: CAABskDocument.edu

We are going to learn how to copy a framework from a workspace to another. We are going to copy framework CAABskDocument.edu, available in official CAA V5 education frameworks and which have been downloaded under E:\install\CAA2 directory.

1. From the CAA Project menu, select the Copy Framework...command.
2. Enter the information required.

   The information you have to enter is: The location of the origin (where is the workspace containing the framework to copy). The name of the framework to copy. The parts of the framework to copy: You can filter out the modules, the data directories, the derived objects (results of a build in the origin workspace), test objects (cf. Copy Function Test directory), etc... When the origin directory is located on a Unix machine, it is not visible from the current Window workstation. In this case the Add... buttons are useless and you have to enter the usual information to allow a remote copy from the Unix machine.

Once the copy is completed, the new framework and module are not directly managed by the dashboards. You must update its description files to make the new data appear. To do so, select Update/Generate Source Folders... from the CAA Project menu.

A new window is then displayed in which you can select the framework(s) and module(s) for which a project must be generated.

For the Java Interactive Dashboard, the new frameworks and modules are displayed in the first pane of your main window. You can generate projects for all modules of a framework or simply for a subset of them.
If you check a framework, all corresponding modules are considered as checked.
If you just want to add some of the modules to your workspace, simply check the modules that interest you. Note the difference between the checkmarks of a framework when all its modules have been selected or when only a subset of its modules have been selected. In the second case, the checkmark is partly grayed out. This allows you to distinguish between the two cases when the file tree of the framework has not been expanded. Be aware that whenever you generate a project for a module, a project is necessarily generated for its containing framework.

The generated workspace will replace the one you are currently working in, so if you want to add some new modules or frameworks to your current workspace, make sure that the ones already in your project are checked. In most cases, this should already be the case. Whenever you use this functionality, your selection is recorded and will become the default selection the next time.

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Setting up Prerequisites

The prerequisite frameworks/modules must be managed in a CAA V5 File Tree, for instance, the directory where data have been copied from a CAA V5 build-time CD-ROM can be considered as the root of a CAA V5 workspace and can be specified as the location of prerequisites needed by a new application.

Setting up prerequisites consists in indicating the root directory(ies) of workspace(s) where the code builder (mkmk) will find necessary code to build your objects. This action can be performed several times, the last settings replace the previous ones.

1. From the CAA Project menu, select Get Prerequisites.... The Prerequisites dialog box is displayed.
2. Select the mode to reference your prerequisites.

   The first 2 radio buttons in the mode frame give you the choice to copy or to reference prerequisites: The choice is not so simple and we advise you to consult the following article to find out more information about prerequisites management: Prerequisite frameworks. The third mode is for more advanced users, where you can mix both copy and concatenation modes. This is based on Build-time and Run-time considerations and should only be used by those with a good understanding of CATIA V5. In short, this mode performs a copy of your buildtime prerequisites in a local directory (different from your workspace directory), and then performs a concatenation of this directory with other workspace(s) mandatory for runtime.

3. Click Add to add the prerequisites.
4. Click OK when done.

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Building Your Workspace Using mkmk

The first time you compile your program, use the mkmk builder which does not only compile your program but also generates information that will be used afterwards to accelerate compilations or to compile just one file.

If your program is based upon components that are not present in your workspace (we call them prerequisites) you must first set up your workspace by specifying the location of these components. Then you can run mkmk.

1. From the CAA Project menu, select mkmk.
2. Check the options you require.

   Update makefiles (-u) is required at least for the first compilation. Debug mode (-g) is required for debugging purposes. Mode dbg Edit/Continue (-ge) enables you to activate the edit and continue debug mode while compiling. Display warnings (-w) enables you to activate the detection of warnings while compiling. Display traces while debugging enables you to Produce java source archive files .zip while compiling.

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Running a Program

When you write a CAA V5 application, your application needs external resources like dictionaries, message files, graphic resources and the like. Those resources are delivered in data modules but scattered among many frameworks (either your frameworks or prerequisite frameworks). So the first thing to do before running a program is to gather resources into a common directory that we call the Runtime View.

To create this Runtime View:

From the CAA Project menu, select Create/Update Runtime View.... Check Copy file if... if you want to reduce the amount of data to copy from the Buildtime to the Runtime View. Check Remove destination before processing to clean up the Runtime View before copying files. Select the type of the framework that you want to copy. Depending on where you work, some kinds of frameworks may not be meaningful. Other Options: For advanced users (see mkCreateRuntimeView command for other options).

In Short

• A CAA V5 workspace corresponds to an IRAD workspace.
• Frameworks and modules are mapped to IRAD projects.
• A workspace is opened by giving the path to its root directory (mkmk is available)
• Commands are run in synchronous or asynchronous mode, 2 kinds of windows have been defined to handle their outputs.
• The mkmk Code Builder is used instead of usual compilers, one advantage is the support of the concatenation (prerequisite components can be searched in other workspaces).

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References

History

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