How to start?

Once SpinRCP is successfully installed, the following two steps have to be done.
  1. After launching the product, the SpinRCP's splash screen appears first and then the Workspace Launcher dialog prompts you for what workspace to use for this session. A workspace is a folder where SpinRCP stores your projects. According to a platform, a default workspace is set in your home directory. The dialog will allow you to browse for or manually enter a new workspace location. After clicking the OK button, the chosen workspace with the default SpinRCP perspective opens. If there exists any previously created workspace, you may just select and reuse it. Note: Reuse of an existing workspace created with SpinRCP Version 2.x.x within SpinRCP Version 3.x.x is not possible. In this case, create a new workspace and copy the existing projects thereinto.

    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 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. It is empty if the workspace was newly created.

    You can rearrange the layout of SpinRCP's windows by dragging and dropping views and editors to different positions within the Workbench window, resize them by dragging the sashes which separate them, or even detach any window by dragging and dropping it outside the Workbench. A detached window is very useful if you have two monitors and you maximize it to the full screen on the second monitor. Any detached window can be attached back to an arbitrary position within the SpinRCP's Workbench window by using drag and drop operation again.

  2. SpinRCP needs to know the paths to three external tools: Spin, C compiler, 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 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, and Graphviz dot, you don't need to enter their absolute paths but just their names (e.g., spin, gcc, dot). The default path to Spin is preset to spin. If you have given the Spin executable a different file name, change the path accordingly. In addition to the latest Spin version you may have installed some of its previous versions (e.g. Spin Version 5.2.5, Spin Version 6.1.0, and Spin Version 6.4.3 under file names titled spin525, spin610, and spin643, respectively) in your Spin directory. To analyze your models with different versions of Spin, switch between versions by either entering or selecting the chosen executable file name into the Spin path text field. Paths with spaces are also allowed. SpinRCP handles them correctly.