Visualization Tools User's Guide


Working with Objects in the Widget Scope List

To work with the objects listed in the Widget Scope, you select an object by clicking its line in the scrolled window of the Widget Scope, and then clicking one of the buttons at the bottom of the Widget Scope.

The Flash button lets the user flash the selected object in order to verify that it is in fact the object that the user thinks.

For example, after step 5, you could:

  1. Click the first line (which is the one for the object that was hit by the Probe operation).
  2. Click the Flash button in the Widget Scope. The upper-left pane of the hierarchy browser disappears (!)
  3. Click the Flash button again. The upper-left pane reappears. (Phew!)
  4. Click the Parent - CwForm(form) line, and then click the Flash button twice.Watch which part of the display flashes, as you click the Flash button.
  5. Click the Parent - CwTopLevelShell(...) line, and then click the Flash button twice.

(Note that you can use the pop-up menu of the Widget Scope scrolled window instead of the buttons at the bottom of the Widget Scope.)

The Inspect button opens an inspector on the selected object, the Snoop button lets the user snoop through the selected object (see "The Snooper"), and the Browse button allows browsing of the class of the selected object.

The CompEdit button opens the VisualAge Composition Editor on the selected object (or its containing composite visual part) (assuming that the selected object is a VisualAge part -- such parts usually appear in the Widget Scope scrolled window on lines containing strings like Abt...View e.g AbtShellView).

For example, you could:

  1. Open a Widget Scope (as above).
  2. In the Widget Scope, click the Probe button.
  3. Click in the text area of the System Transcript.
  4. In the scrolled window of the Widget Scope, click the first line: Hit - CwText(text).
  5. Click the Snoop button at the bottom of the Widget Scope. This opens a Snooper on the CwText object.
  6. Click the Probe button of the Widget Scope again.
  7. This time, click in the text area of the Snooper window.
  8. In the scrolled window of the Widget Scope, click the last line. It should contain something like ...Callback - an AbtShellView(...)....
  9. Click the CompEdit button at the bottom of the Widget Scope.

After a bit of a delay, a Composition Editor should appear showing Snoop's internal structure.

Don't touch it!!! Close it right away.


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