UX stands for User Experience. Enhancement of UX is the theme of the new Xsemble release 4.1. There were some preliminary UX improvements made in release 3.7 and release 4.0, but the new release 4.1 take them much further. They are aimed to make Xsemble much more enjoyable and productive. Please download and install the new release of Xsemble from the downloads page.

Enumerated below are the improvements that have gone into the new release.

Guessing the Name and Data Type

  1. In the Developer’s Workbench, when creating or editing a function argument (inarg or outarg), as you key in the name, Xsemble provides guesses based on earlier names used in that context.
  2. The same facility is provided also in Assembler’s Workbench, while creating or editing a data node, where guesses for the name of the data node are provided by Xsemble.
  3. From the name, Xsemble also guesses the data type. It is selected in the list of data types in the function argument edit box.
  4. Similarly, the guessed data type gets automatically selected in the “Select Data Type” dialog box in the Data node edit dialog box.

During the design step, there are many instances where the names are repeated (or are almost the same to the ones typed earlier), and their data types are the same. This new feature aims to make this process painless.

Replaced Dialog Boxes

New dialog boxes completely replace the earlier ones in following places:

  1. New Select package dialog when the add component button is clicked in Test Bundle export dialog
  2. New Select package dialog when moving a component from one repository to another

Changes in Dialog Boxes

  1. Function argument edit dialog and Exit path edit dialog are now simplified, especially with respect to the Function’s connectivity information.
  2. Change in the display of unconnected external arguments in node edit dialogs in the Assembler’s Workbench
  3. Mouse double-click on selected tree node (for selecting base component of a node, or for opening a repo or a project) now triggers OK action.
  4. Repository open and Project open dialogs now have case-insensitive sorting of the namespaces and elements contained within them.
  5. This case insensitive sorting of components and nodes is the norm in other places too. It helps quickly find the desired node in the Search node dialog box (in all three Workbenches), and in Function Argument edit box.
  6. The node list box in the Search node dialog box (in all three Workbenches) responds better to typed keys. It helps you zero in to the desired nodes instead of having to scroll to that position. This is especially helpful in Projects or Repositories hosting a large number of nodes.
  7. The same dialog is reused for selecting the type in a type member definition, and selecting the base type of a data node. So the above improvements are automatically reflected in those too.
  8. Another improvement in the same dialog box is that double-clicking an element selects that element and also triggers closing the dialog. Many times people instinctively do a double-clicking hoping to close the dialog box. Now it responds to it in appropriate fashion.
  9. In a similar fashion, one can use the keys to quickly find the type in the Function Argument edit box. Again, it helps where there are a large number of types.
  10. The user is not asked to confirm component status when they just changed it in the component implementation dialog. This reduces one mouse click.
  11. In Assembler’s Workbench, the dialog box that is used for connecting an exit path had a facelift, with the labels becoming bold. The same facelift was applied to another dialog box that is used for connecting an In Variable or Out Variable.
  12. The ordering of connecting node candidates that appear in these two dialog boxes is now case-insensitive.
  13. Component name followed by its repository is displayed in the component implementation chooser dialog box. This dialog box is used for choosing the base component and implementation from many kinds of nodes in the Assembler’s workbench.
  14. In Type member edit dialog boxes also, now component names are followed by their repository. This stresses the component name above their containing repository name, and facilitates a quicker search.

Behavior Changes

  1. If a component has ‘Unimplemented’ status, then auto-updation of its template code is not attempted. It is still attempted for other statuses, based on whether auto-update is enabled for the component implementation level.
  2. Constant definition for generated code templates for robustness
  3. Use of these constants in generated code where possible (esp in exit path definitions)
  4. Change in top comment in the generated code

The last 3 changes are applied on the Xsemble cloud. They are applied retrospective to earlier (4.0) release too.

Documentation Enhancements

Xsemble comes with a comprehensive documentation in terms of its User guide and Reference manual. (Open Xsemble and click F1 to launch the help.) Apart from the changes in response to the changes in features, there are some more changes that bring better clarity to the reader.