Design handling deals with issues relating to manipulation of design and its corresponding files within ESE. It allows for tracking of design meta-data over the whole lifetime of a design. A design contains design-specific settings that can override or extend application-specific compiler settings (see Section 4.1). Specifically, a design contains the following information:
A list of source files. The list of sources contains the union of all C and/or SystemC source files from which the models that are part of the design have been compiled. For each source file, the location (path) of the file on disk is stored in the design.
A set of design-specific options for preprocessing and parsing SystemC source files. Compiler settings contain include paths, import paths, compiler options, and macro defines and undefines. Design-specific compiler settings generally overwrite or extend the corresponding application-specific settings. In the case of paths, design paths are prepended to the standard paths defined in the application settings (i.e. they are prepended to the directory search list). In all other cases, options or macro defines/undefined are appended to the compiler command line after the standard options and macros defined in the application settings.
Designs are stored as ESE Data Structure (EDS, *.eds) files on disk. The design file format is the same for all tools in the ESE environment, i.e. a design file can be read, modified and written by any ESE tool.
Design can be read from and saved as design files at any time in the ESE application. At any time, however, at maximum only one design can be open and loaded. While a certain design is open and loaded, its settings apply to all actions performed during that time. In addition, certain actions will automatically update and add data in the currently opened and loaded design.
![]() | All paths in the design settings are defined to be relative to the location of the design file, i.e. relative paths in a design file are converted into absolute paths by appending the design file's directory during loading/opening of a design file. During saving/writing of design files, absolute paths are in turn converted back to relative paths if they point to a location below the target design file directory. |
In order to deal with management of design files, ESE supports a set of file handling functions. Design handling includes opening, saving, and closing of design files on disk. Design handling is closely related to Design Canvas (Section 3.2) and Design Canvas Management (Section 4.7). In general, there is a one-to-one association between design models, design files on disk and design canvases in the Workspace. Each Design Canvas represents a view onto one loaded design file which in turn stores the data of one design model, and vice versa. For example, both file closing (Section 4.2.5) and window closing (Section 4.7) will close the design file and the Design Canvas and unload the design from ESE's memory.
Specifically, file handling consists of the following tasks:
Design Creation to create a new design (see Section 4.2.1).
Design Opening to open and load existing design files from disk (see Section 4.2.2).
Design Saving to save the current design on disk (see Section 4.2.3).
Design Closing to close the current design (see Section 4.2.5).
Design Reloading to reload the current design's last saved instance (see Section 4.2.4).
Design Exporting to create a compressed archive file of the current design (see Section 4.2.6).
Design Settings to display and edit the settings of the opened design (see Section 4.2.7).
ESE Exiting to exit the ESE application (see Section 4.2.9).
Users can create a new design by selecting Main::File->New.... This action will clear all windows (Design Canvas, PE, Channel and Database Windows) in preparation for a new design.
Error/Information Messages: Assuming before design creation, users have opened another design in ESE, the currently opened design has been modified and the opened design is not saved yet. When users select Main::File->New, an Information dialog will be popped up querying whether to save the current design first before creating a new one. If the users accept the recommendation, a Design Saving action (see Section 4.2.3) is performed first. In case of errors creating the design file (file errors, wrong file format), an error dialog with a corresponding error message is popped up. Upon confirming the error, the file creating action is cancelled.
Operation: Users can open an existing design file on disk by selecting Main::File->Open.... The Design Open dialog window will pop up in which users can choose and select an existing file on disk to open and load. The Design Open dialog is illustrated in Figure 4-4.
Users should first specify the directory of the file in Look-in box. The content of the directory will be automatically displayed in the display box in the center. The file type defaults to EDS files (*.eds). All the files with the specified type will be displayed in the display box. Users then further select the file name in the File Name box. Finally, by clicking the Open button, the file with the specified name will be open. If users click the Cancel button, the action of file opening will be cancelled. Either clicking Open or Cancel button will close the File Open dialog.
Opening and loading a design file will result in a corresponding design appearing in the Design Canvas.
Error/Information Messages: If the specified design file does not exist before clicking Open button, then clicking Open button has no effect.
In case of errors reading the design file from disk (file errors, wrong file format), an error dialog with a corresponding error message is popped up. Upon confirming the error, the Design Opening action is cancelled.
Assuming before design opening, users have opened another design in ESE, the opened design is modified and the opened design is not saved yet. When users open a different design, the Information dialog will be popped up to recommend users to save the previous design first and, if the recommendation is accepted, a Design Saving action will be performed. This is the same as the case in task Section 4.2.1.
Operation: Users can save opened and loaded design files (Design Windows in the Workspace) by one of the following three methods:
Selecting Main::File->Save will save the file of the currently active Design Window using its current name.
Users can save the file of the currently active Design Canvas under any (new) name by selecting Main::File->Save As.... The selection will pop up the Design Save dialog in which users can choose the directory and file name to save the design under. The Design Save dialog is shown in Figure 4-5.
In the File Save dialog, users should first specify the directory of the file in Look-in box. The content of directory will be automatically displayed in the display box in the center. The file type defaults to EDS files (*.eds). All the files with the specified type will be displayed in the display box. Users then further select the file name in File Name box. Finally, by clicking Save button, the current opened file will be saved as the file with the specified name. If users click Cancel button, then the action of file saving will be cancelled. Either clicking Save or Cancel button will close the Design Save dialog.
Error/Information Messages: When selecting Main::File->Save As... and specifying the file name of an existing design file on disk, an Information dialog will pop up asking whether to overwrite the existing file. If the users decline this, the design saving action will be cancelled.
When selecting Main::File->Save or Main::File->Save As..., errors may occur (file errors, e.g. if no space is available on the disk). In this case, an Error dialog as shown in Figure 3-7 will be popped up, corresponding error messages will be displayed, and the design saving action will be cancelled.
Operation: Users can save reload the current design file (Design Windows in the Workspace) by the following method:
Selecting Main::File->Reload... will save the file of the currently active Design Window using its current name.
Error/Information Messages: When selecting Main::File->Reload..., errors may occur (file errors, e.g. if no space is available on the disk). In this case, an Error dialog as shown in Figure 3-7 will be popped up, corresponding error messages will be displayed, and the design saving action will be cancelled.
Operation: Users can close the file and window of the currently active Design Window in the Workspace by selecting Main::File->Close. Closing a file will unload the design from memory and will close the corresponding Design Canvas in the Workspace.
Error/Information Messages: If the current design is modified and not yet saved, selecting Close will pop up an Information dialog which recommends to save the current design first. If the users accept the recommendation, a design saving action (Section 4.2.3) is performed before closing the design.
Operation: Users can export opened and loaded design files (Design Window) as compressed archive file (*.tbz) on disk by selecting Main::File->Export.... The selection will pop up the Design Export dialog in which users can choose the directory and file name to save the design under. The Design Export dialog is shown in Figure 4-6.
In the Design Export dialog, users should first specify the directory of the file in Look in box. The content of directory will be automatically displayed in the display box in the center. The file type defaults to ESE Exported Design Files (*.tbz). All the files with the specified type will be displayed in the display box. Users then further select the file name in File Name box. Finally, by clicking Save button, the current opened file will be exported to the file with the specified name. If users click Cancel button, then the action of design exporting will be cancelled. Either clicking Save or Cancel button will close the File Export dialog.
Error/Information Messages: When selecting Main::File->Export... and specifying the file name of an existing file on disk, an Information dialog will pop up asking whether to overwrite the existing file. If the users decline this, the file exporting action will be cancelled.
When writing files to disk, errors may occur (file errors, e.g. if no space is available on the disk). In this case, an Error dialog will be popped up, corresponding error messages will be displayed, and the file exporting action will be cancelled.
Operation: Design setting allows users to edit design settings. Unlike application preferences editing in Section 4.1, design setting apply only to the current design. Users start design settings editing by selecting Main::File->Settings.... The selection will pop up the Design Settings dialog, which is displayed in Figure 4-7. In the Design Settings dialog, users can access and edit the TLM Compiler and TLM Simulator tags with corresponding settings stored in the design. The TLM Compiler tab contains line edit boxes for all compiler settings. The Compile Options and Link Options lines allow users to customize compilation and linking of design source files. The text in the Include Path and Import Path lines defines the directory lists (separated by colons ":") for the project-specific include and import paths, respectively. The text in the Defines and Undefines lines define the list of macro defines and undefines (separated by semicolons ";"), respectively. The text in the Options line defines the project's compiler options/switches. Finally, Verbosity Level and Warning Level define verbosity level and warning level so that all tasks performed are logged and warning messages are enabled, respectively. See Section 4.1 for more details about compiler settings. Similarly, the TLM Simulator tab includes the following options for output display of simulation (Output): No terminal, Terminal window, or outputting in the External console defined by users. Further, users can enable simulation logging by checking the appropriate check-box. Finally, line edit boxes Simulation Options and Post-simulation command define directives to the simulation engine during and after TLM simulation.
Operation: The source file of the design can be viewed via View->Source.... The result of View->Source... is shown in Figure 4-8.
Operation: Selecting Main::File->Exit will exit the ESE application and close the ESE GUI.
Error/Information Messages: If there is an open Design Canvas that is modified and not yet saved, an Information dialog will pop up querying whether to save the corresponding design. The users will be able to cancel the whole exit action via the corresponding dialog button. If the users accept the recommendation to save the file, a file saving action will be triggered (see Section 4.2.3). Note that the design saving action can trigger additional Error dialogs which in turn can abort the whole exit operation in case of file errors during saving.