PWCT 1.9 Art Documentation ( http://doublesvsoop.sourceforge.net ) 2006-2013, Mahmoud Fayed ( msfclipper@users.sourceforge.net ) _____________________________________________________________________________________

In this lesson we are going to learn how to use the Time Machine The Time Machine Features :-

Move backward/forward during the application construction process Run programs at a point in the past Play programs as movie to know how to create the program step by step Play programs as movie (Steps Only) to read programs faster Order time frames on the latest order of steps inside steps tree Refresh steps based on the latest components updates Generate documentation explains how to construct the program step by step

[1] Move backward/forward during the application construction process When we run PWCT we have the default project Start.SSF

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Fig. 4 Using the slider beside the Time Machine we can move backward/forward during the application

construction process

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Fig. 6 [2] Run programs at a point in the past We can run the program in the past (a point during the application construction process) For example when we run the application in a point before creating the button event procedure we see

that clicking the button doesn’t close the application.

Fig. 7 Again we can go forward and return to the present When we run the application in the present

(the last time frame during the application construction process)

clicking the button will close the window.

Fig. 8 [3] Play programs as movie to know how to create the program step by step When you open a project using PWCT you can play this project as movie to

know how to create the visual source step by step The playing process will starts from the first step and you will see

how to generate every step starting from selecting the component Using the components browser window and moving to entering

data to the interaction page You will see the result of every interaction process as new

steps are generated to the steps tree after the end of the interaction process

Fig. 9 [4] Play programs as movie (Steps Only) to read programs faster Playing programs as movie (Steps Only) will hide the construction details from

the playing process and will let you concentrate on the steps Generation process and this is useful when you want to read programs

instead of knowing how to create it.

Fig. 10 [5] Order time frames on the latest order of steps inside steps tree When we create programs we may generate steps in the top then in

the bottom then in the middle for example The order of step generation is random because we may find that we want

to modify at any location inside our program After all of that when we play programs as movies we may find that it’s better

to see the construction process step by step from top to bottom We don’t need to move our focus to random positions (top-middle-down,..etc) and to avoid

this we can order the time frames based on the Latest order of steps inside the steps tree and by doing that the playing process will go

always from top to bottom so we can focus better on getting The meaning behind the program according to the latest status

Fig. 11 [6] Refresh steps based on the latest components updates This feature is very powerful and important in many ways

If you have old programs developed using old versions of PWCT then you can use

this feature to upgrade your visual source using the new components This means that every step will be refreshed using the new script behind the component

and this leads to code upgrade and steps name update. If you are modifying visual components by changing generated

steps names and generated code then all what you need is to upgrade your programs by doing This refresh process The first point refers to visual source upgrade and this feature is very important for

developers having old PWCT programs. The second point refers to two great features, the first is multi-human language

support and the second is translation from programming language to another [1] Multi-Human Language Support (Steps Names)

The step name is written using natural language (English/Arabic,...etc) and the step

name is generated as a result of interaction process and the generation process Is controlled by a script behind the component and we can modify this script

So you can modify the generated steps names and uses the words that you would

like to read using the human language (English/Arabic....etc) that you know After doing that you will refresh your programs to be readable using your human language If you distributed you visual source based on components generate steps names

using English language for example this will not prevent the others from using the human

language They know or like to read your programs because all what they need to do is to

open your visual source then they will do the refresh process based on the components

They have and these components maybe in any human language different from

the original human language used during the visual source construction process. [2] Translation from programming language to another The step code is written using textual programming language and the step code

is generated as a result of interaction process and the generation process Is controlled by a script behind the component and we can modify this script So you can modify the generated code and uses any textual programming language

that you want (Harbour, Python, Ruby,...etc) After doing that you will refresh your programs and the code in the background

will be refreshed using the new code (written in another language)

Fig. 12 [7] Generate documentation explains how to construct the program step by step

Play program as movie and this will generate screen shots and database

file contains description of every step run the code extractor application to generate text file contains the steps tree run the application and get screen shot during the runtime run the time machine documentation tool

The code extractor extracts the code and the steps tree from the visual

source (program goals). To run the code extractor, select the popup (Goal) from the menu bar then

select the item (Invoke Code Extractor)

Fig. 13 Select the goal (Main) by dragging it to the selected goals listbox.

Fig. 14 Click Ok

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Fig. 17 Click the button ( Save steps tree to c:\ssbuild\pwctshots\steps.txt )

Fig. 18

Run the application using the run button [!] in the toolbar or click CTRL+R Then press the PrntScr button to get screen shot of the application during the runtime Then open the paint and save the screen shot to C:\SSBUILD\PWCTShots\runtime1.JPG

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Fig. 21 Now we are going to run the Time Machine documentation generator

Fig. 22 Write the introduction then click the (Save) button to generate the file

C:\SSBUILD\PWCTShots\about.txt

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Fig. 24 Click the button (Create HTML file) to generate the documentation file.

Fig. 25 Now we have the documentation inside the folder c:\ssbuild\pwctshots

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