newandnoteworthy/New-and-Noteworthy-30.html - www.eclipse.org/gef - Git at Google

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 <title>New and Noteworthy in GEF 3.0</title>
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 <h1>GEF 3.0 - New and Noteworthy</h1>
 <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="600">
 	<colgroup>
 		<col width="20%" valign="top" align="right">
 		<col width="80%" valign="top" align="left">
 	</colgroup>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Rulers and Guides</b></td>
 		<td>GEF viewers can now display accessible rulers along their top and left
 		edges. A ruler can display pixels, centimeters or inches. Guides can be
 		created on the ruler by clicking on an empty spot on the ruler or via its
 		context menu. Parts in the graphical editor can be dragged and attached
 		to the guides. They can also be attached when resizing. Alternatively, snapping
 		can be disabled by holding down the <i>Alt</i> key while dragging. Feedback
 		is shown in the form of a red line when a part is being attached to a guide.
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/rulers-guides.gif" alt="Screenshot showing a circuit being attached to a guide" title="Rulers and Guides"></p>
 		<p>Parts that are attached to a guide will then move with the guide.</p>
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/guide-drag.gif" alt="Screenshot showing parts being dragged with a guide" title="Dragging Guides"></p>
 		<p>A mechanism is available to show or hide rulers.</p>
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/rulers-menu.jpg" alt="Screenshot showing rulers enabled on the view menu" title="View Menu"></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Grid</b></td>
 		<td>GEF now provides a grid. Parts can be snapped to a grid during creation,
 		moving or resizing. It is also possible to have connection bendpoints snap
 		to it. (Note that snapping during creation and snapping of connection bendpoints,
 		although possible, have not been implemented in the logic example.) Alternatively,
 		snapping can be disabled by holding down the <i>Alt</i> key while dragging.
 		Grid snapping and visibility are two distinct properties, and it is possible
 		to enable one without the other. Like the rulers, the grid can be turned
 		off, if so desired.
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/grid.gif" alt="Screenshot showing a resized part snapping to grid" title="Grid"></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Snap to Geometry</b></td>
 		<td>The Snap to Geometry feature allows you to quickly align parts being
 		dragged to other parts in the diagram. Edges of parts being resized can
 		be snapped as well. A blue feedback line shows what the part is snapping
 		to. In the screenshot below, the circuit being dragged is aligning to the
 		vertical center of the topmost circuit, and the bottom of the other two
 		circuits.
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/geometry.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the Snap to Geometry feature" title="Snap to Geometry"></p>
 		<p>As with the other snapping features, it can be disabled by holding down
 		<i>Alt</i> while dragging, or can be permanently turned off.</p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Constrained Move and Resize</b></td>
 		<td>Holding down the <i>Shift</i> key while moving a part will restrict
 		that part&#39;s movement to one of the primary eight directions (N, S, E, W
 		and the intermediaries). Doing the same while resizing will cause a proportionate
 		resize: the height to width ratio will be maintained.<p></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Centered Resize</b></td>
 		<td>Holding down the <i>Ctrl</i> key while resizing will cause a resize
 		to happen in the opposite direction of the drag as well, such that the center
 		of the part being resized will not change after the resize is done.
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/centered-resize.gif" alt="Screenshot showing centered resize" title="Centered Resize"></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Cloning</b></td>
 		<td>Holding down the <i>Ctrl</i> key while dragging activates cloning. Instead
 		of moving the parts being dragged, copies of those parts will be created
 		at the new location.&nbsp; During cloning, the cursor will also change to
 		indicate creation. </td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Palette View</b></td>
 		<td>GEF 3.0 introduces the Palette View. This allows users to customize
 		the size and placement of the palette, and even close it when not needed.
 		Moreover, that size and placement remains the same between multiple GEF-based
 		editors.</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Fly-out Palette</b></td>
 		<td>For clients that require the palette to be always visible, and to provide
 		further customizability to the end-user, the fly-out palette is also being
 		introduced. The palette flies out over the top of the editor when the user
 		hovers over it (or clicks on it), and auto-hides when not in use.
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/flyout-hidden.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the hidden flyout palette" title="Fly-out Palette Hidden"></p>
 		<p>The user can also pin it open, if so desired.</p>
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/flyout-context-menu.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the fly-out palette pinned open and its context menu" title="Fly-out Palette Showing"></p>
 		<p>It can be resized, docked on either size of the editor, and is completely
 		accessible. The fly-out is only visible when the palette view is not. It
 		automatically comes up when the palette view is closed (or when the user
 		switches to a perspective in which the view is not open), and disappears
 		when the palette view is opened. The palette state (selection, drawer expansion,
 		etc.) is maintained when switching from the view to the fly-out and vice-versa.</p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Palette Stacks</b></td>
 		<td>
 		<p>It is now possible to create stacks of entries on the palette. The active
 		entry in the stack is the one visible on the top. A drop-down menu allows
 		changing the active entry. When the palette is in any layout other than
 		list, the drop-down can only be accessed via <i>Alt+Down</i> .</p>
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/palette-stack.gif" alt="Screenshot showing a palette stack and its drop-down menu" title="Palette Stack" align="middle"></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Shortest Path Connection Routing</b></td>
 		<td>An automatic connection routing technique, that employs the shortest
 		path algorithm to find paths around obstacles, is now available in GEF.
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/shortestPaths.gif" alt="Screenshot showing automatic connection routing" title="Shortest Path Connection Routing Technique"></p>
 		<p>This feature can be activated in the logic example by deselecting everything
 		in the diagram and then changing the connection router via the property
 		sheet.</p>
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/propertySheet.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the connection router in the property sheet" title="Property Sheet"></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Panning</b></td>
 		<td>With the PanningSelectionTool, it is possible to pan by moving the mouse
 		while holding down <i>spacebar</i> and <i>mouse button 1</i> (left mouse
 		button).&nbsp; This is demonstrated in the logic example, which uses the
 		PanningSelectionTool as the default tool, instead of the SelectionTool.</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Match Size of Figures</b></td>
 		<td>New actions are available that can, with more than one part selected,
 		resize all selected parts to have the same height or width as that of the
 		primary selection (the part that was last selected).
 		<p>
 		<img src="images-30/matchSize.jpg" alt="Screenshot showing the actoins on the view menu" title="Match Width of Figures and Match Height of Figures"></p>
 		</td>
 	</tr>
 </table>
 <br>
 <br>
 <p>
 <img src="images-30/cpy.gif" border="0" alt="Copyright 2000, 2004 IBM Corporation and others." width="324" height="14">
 </p>

 </body>

 </html>
	<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
	<html>

	<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
	<title>New and Noteworthy in GEF 3.0</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://dev.eclipse.org/default_style.css" type="text/css">
	<style>
	<!--
	-->
	</style>
	</head>

	<body>

	<h1>GEF 3.0 - New and Noteworthy</h1>
	<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="600">
	<colgroup>
	<col width="20%" valign="top" align="right">
	<col width="80%" valign="top" align="left">
	</colgroup>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Rulers and Guides</b></td>
	<td>GEF viewers can now display accessible rulers along their top and left
	edges. A ruler can display pixels, centimeters or inches. Guides can be
	created on the ruler by clicking on an empty spot on the ruler or via its
	context menu. Parts in the graphical editor can be dragged and attached
	to the guides. They can also be attached when resizing. Alternatively, snapping
	can be disabled by holding down the <i>Alt</i> key while dragging. Feedback
	is shown in the form of a red line when a part is being attached to a guide.
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/rulers-guides.gif" alt="Screenshot showing a circuit being attached to a guide" title="Rulers and Guides"></p>
	<p>Parts that are attached to a guide will then move with the guide.</p>
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/guide-drag.gif" alt="Screenshot showing parts being dragged with a guide" title="Dragging Guides"></p>
	<p>A mechanism is available to show or hide rulers.</p>
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/rulers-menu.jpg" alt="Screenshot showing rulers enabled on the view menu" title="View Menu"></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Grid</b></td>
	<td>GEF now provides a grid. Parts can be snapped to a grid during creation,
	moving or resizing. It is also possible to have connection bendpoints snap
	to it. (Note that snapping during creation and snapping of connection bendpoints,
	although possible, have not been implemented in the logic example.) Alternatively,
	snapping can be disabled by holding down the <i>Alt</i> key while dragging.
	Grid snapping and visibility are two distinct properties, and it is possible
	to enable one without the other. Like the rulers, the grid can be turned
	off, if so desired.
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/grid.gif" alt="Screenshot showing a resized part snapping to grid" title="Grid"></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Snap to Geometry</b></td>
	<td>The Snap to Geometry feature allows you to quickly align parts being
	dragged to other parts in the diagram. Edges of parts being resized can
	be snapped as well. A blue feedback line shows what the part is snapping
	to. In the screenshot below, the circuit being dragged is aligning to the
	vertical center of the topmost circuit, and the bottom of the other two
	circuits.
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/geometry.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the Snap to Geometry feature" title="Snap to Geometry"></p>
	<p>As with the other snapping features, it can be disabled by holding down
	<i>Alt</i> while dragging, or can be permanently turned off.</p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Constrained Move and Resize</b></td>
	<td>Holding down the <i>Shift</i> key while moving a part will restrict
	that part's movement to one of the primary eight directions (N, S, E, W
	and the intermediaries). Doing the same while resizing will cause a proportionate
	resize: the height to width ratio will be maintained.<p></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Centered Resize</b></td>
	<td>Holding down the <i>Ctrl</i> key while resizing will cause a resize
	to happen in the opposite direction of the drag as well, such that the center
	of the part being resized will not change after the resize is done.
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/centered-resize.gif" alt="Screenshot showing centered resize" title="Centered Resize"></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Cloning</b></td>
	<td>Holding down the <i>Ctrl</i> key while dragging activates cloning. Instead
	of moving the parts being dragged, copies of those parts will be created
	at the new location.  During cloning, the cursor will also change to
	indicate creation. </td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Palette View</b></td>
	<td>GEF 3.0 introduces the Palette View. This allows users to customize
	the size and placement of the palette, and even close it when not needed.
	Moreover, that size and placement remains the same between multiple GEF-based
	editors.</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Fly-out Palette</b></td>
	<td>For clients that require the palette to be always visible, and to provide
	further customizability to the end-user, the fly-out palette is also being
	introduced. The palette flies out over the top of the editor when the user
	hovers over it (or clicks on it), and auto-hides when not in use.
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/flyout-hidden.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the hidden flyout palette" title="Fly-out Palette Hidden"></p>
	<p>The user can also pin it open, if so desired.</p>
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/flyout-context-menu.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the fly-out palette pinned open and its context menu" title="Fly-out Palette Showing"></p>
	<p>It can be resized, docked on either size of the editor, and is completely
	accessible. The fly-out is only visible when the palette view is not. It
	automatically comes up when the palette view is closed (or when the user
	switches to a perspective in which the view is not open), and disappears
	when the palette view is opened. The palette state (selection, drawer expansion,
	etc.) is maintained when switching from the view to the fly-out and vice-versa.</p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Palette Stacks</b></td>
	<td>
	<p>It is now possible to create stacks of entries on the palette. The active
	entry in the stack is the one visible on the top. A drop-down menu allows
	changing the active entry. When the palette is in any layout other than
	list, the drop-down can only be accessed via <i>Alt+Down</i> .</p>
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/palette-stack.gif" alt="Screenshot showing a palette stack and its drop-down menu" title="Palette Stack" align="middle"></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Shortest Path Connection Routing</b></td>
	<td>An automatic connection routing technique, that employs the shortest
	path algorithm to find paths around obstacles, is now available in GEF.
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/shortestPaths.gif" alt="Screenshot showing automatic connection routing" title="Shortest Path Connection Routing Technique"></p>
	<p>This feature can be activated in the logic example by deselecting everything
	in the diagram and then changing the connection router via the property
	sheet.</p>
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/propertySheet.gif" alt="Screenshot showing the connection router in the property sheet" title="Property Sheet"></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Panning</b></td>
	<td>With the PanningSelectionTool, it is possible to pan by moving the mouse
	while holding down <i>spacebar</i> and <i>mouse button 1</i> (left mouse
	button).  This is demonstrated in the logic example, which uses the
	PanningSelectionTool as the default tool, instead of the SelectionTool.</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td valign="top" align="right"><b>Match Size of Figures</b></td>
	<td>New actions are available that can, with more than one part selected,
	resize all selected parts to have the same height or width as that of the
	primary selection (the part that was last selected).
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/matchSize.jpg" alt="Screenshot showing the actoins on the view menu" title="Match Width of Figures and Match Height of Figures"></p>
	</td>
	</tr>
	</table>
	<br>
	<br>
	<p>
	<img src="images-30/cpy.gif" border="0" alt="Copyright 2000, 2004 IBM Corporation and others." width="324" height="14">
	</p>

	</body>

	</html>