StateWORKS Newsletter 2/07
Topics:
1. Welcome
The major event is the introduction of the StateWORKS Studio version 6.2. This version contains several improvements and changes which increase the comfort of specification. Users of the StateWORKS Studio LE version may upgrade to the new version without a new registration.
The other important change is the introduction of a password in the RTDB. Details of this measure and its implications on the RTDB clients are described in the technical note available on our web site.
I hope you will enjoy working with the new StateWORKS Studio.
Regards
F. Wagner
2. StateWORKS version 6.2
The version 6.2 of StateWORKS Studio contains several changes and improvements. The most visible ones are:
- Outlook and error messages for some windows changed.
- Export and Import have been completed: XML files of exported project regenerate the project (XML files may be used as an alternative to the project file).
- Unpredictable behaviour when the number of OFUN objects exceeds 100 has been corrected.
- TAB object type as entry in TI/CNT/ECNT Const/Object name. This expansion allows for instance the use of a single timer with several timeout values. It is simpler than using a different timer object for each timeout or defining the timeout value via the OFUN object.
The accompanying simulation tools have been adapted to the password in RTDB. As the SWLab can be used only without a password the changes are rather negligible for the users of the StateWORKS Studio: when using monitors we just ignore the password entry in SWMon and SWQuick. The only exception is SWTerm which requires a (dummy) password after "connect": see details in the document "TerminalClient.pdf" available in the download package.
In addition to the "password" changes:
- SWQuick monitor generates a log file which may be used as a command file in SWTerm.
- SWTerm command list has been improved.
All changes are documented in corresponding documents and Help files.
If upgrading to the version 6.2 please uninstall the old version before installing the new one. The new version will assume automatically the unlimited license.
3. Password in RTDB based applications
The RTDB can be now guarded by a password. Its use is simple and similar to other password guarded applications. When starting the RTDB based application the user may specify a password. A TCP/IP client which wants to connect to RTDB must send this password after connect; otherwise the connection will be cancelled. The details of setting the password in the RTDB and implementation details in RTDB clients are described in the technical note "Password in RTDB based applications" available on our web site.
Note that we have not adapted some old RTDB client applications to the RTDB with password. For instance the SWTuring client can be used only with RTDB without password (for example SWLab). The password is intended to protect run-time systems from inadvertent or malicious interference.
The introduction of a password is the most "visible" change in the RTDB. Behind the scenes another important change has been implemented. The RTDB code uses now only STL library and is fully POSIX conformant. The same code without any conditional compiling is used to build the library under Microsoft and GNU C++ development environments.