How to start?
Once SpinRCP is successfully installed, the following steps have to be done before
using the tool.
- After launching the product, a workbench with the default SpinRCP perspective
opens. In the Title Bar, the SpinRCP's version
and release date are shown. If the path to Spin is already set in the PATH environment
variable, the Spin version and its release date are shown as well. Below the Title Bar,
the Menu Bar, and the Tool Bar there are three empty visual components:
a Model Navigator View at the left side, a Promela Editor at the upper right side,
and a Console View at the bottom right side. The Model Navigator View is activated.
If you move a cursor on its highlighted title bar, a tooltip Workspace appears.
This means that the Model Navigator shows the contents of your workspace folder,
which is currently still empty, of course.
- In order to recognize each change in the workspace (creation or deletion of a
file) without the need to refresh it manually, you should enable auto-refresh by
opening the Window > Preferences > General > Workspace preference page and checking
the Refresh using native hooks or polling option.
- Currently, SpinRCP does not support in-place (i.e. embedded) system editors as OLE
documents. In order to hide the option to open a file with an in-place editor, you should
open the Window > Preferences > General > Editors preference page and uncheck the
Allow in-place system editors option.
- By default, line numbers are not shown on the left side of the text editor.
It is highly recommended that you turn this useful option on by opening the
Window > Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors preference page and
checking the Show line numbers option.
- SpinRCP needs four external tools: Spin, C compiler, Java, and Graphviz dot.
It is highly recommended that you update the PATH environment variable of your system
with the paths to these external tools. Set these external tools' paths in SpinRCP by
opening the Spin preference page Window > Preferences > Spin and enter or select
individual paths using Browse... buttons. If the PATH environment variable of your
computer system includes paths to Spin, C compiler, Java, and dot, you don't need to
enter their absolute paths but just their names (e.g., spin, gcc, java, dot). For Spin and
Java their default paths are preset to spin and
java, respectively. If it is necessary, correct them. Paths with spaces are also
allowed. SpinRCP recognizes such paths and encloses them in double quotes.