Please tell us what your experience has been with Do-more...

[Controls Guy]

One glaring problem is that cross reference is using the ladder display colors. In reverse video that works...um...poorly.

Believe it or not, BobO, the current Xref situation is the result of additional work that was done in response to my original griping several years ago, and it's better than it was before.

First of all, I don't agree that cross reference shouldn't follow ladder colors.  If you've chosen foreground colors that contrast well with background colors for ladder, there's no reason they shouldn't work OK in Xref too.  The lack of readability isn't because it's following those of my reverse video selections that it does, but rather the parts it come up with on its own. 

The problem I was complaining about several years ago was that the Xref was halfway between following the ladder and not.  Always white background, always black lines, but use the ladder colors for element, description, nickname.  Not following would have worked.  Following would have worked and looked better.  Half following, not so much.  Totally unusable in reverse video.  So it got partially fixed, but some elements still didn't follow, like some of the lines still being always black instead of element-color.  Not great, but I mentioned it at the time and then let it go.

[Controls Guy]

Is it possible to rename a code block?

[franji1]

Is it possible to rename a code block?

User code-block as a Heap Item - yes.  One of two ways.
1. Right click on the code-block in Project Browser in Edit mode, select "Configure Code Block".  The Name: field should be editable.
2. Open the System Configuration dialog, Memory Configuration entry, select the Heap Item in the bottom list, hit the Edit Heap Item button, and again, the Name: field should be editable.

[Controls Guy]

Thank you, Mark!   

[franji1]

PS.  I still really dislike the roundtangles.  On numeric points, the frame just wastes space, plus I don't like the shrunken font for both the element and status.  On bits it's even worse, because you have the same disadvantages with no corresponding advantage (simultaneous display of address and value) to compensate.  I'd rather just have both address and status in the same font as everything else and expand the box to accommodate.

I forgot that we added this option to the October release of Designer (1.0.2).  In the Ladder Options, UNcheck the Show Element Status in Bit Contacts and Coils box in the Misc. Options group.  Don't forget to ALSO check the Apply options to: New Views check box.  See the attached screen shot.

This will not help with relational contacts and boxes (they will still use round-tangles), but all your "discrete" logic will be readable and understandable w/STATUS ON.

[Controls Guy]

That helps a lot (and declutters the screen besides).  Thanks!

I'd eventually like to get to a place where I can see register address and status at the same time (and be able to read them), but for bits this is exactly what I want.

[BobO]

One glaring problem is that cross reference is using the ladder display colors. In reverse video that works...um...poorly.

Believe it or not, BobO, the current Xref situation is the result of additional work that was done in response to my original griping several years ago, and it's better than it was before.

First of all, I don't agree that cross reference shouldn't follow ladder colors.  If you've chosen foreground colors that contrast well with background colors for ladder, there's no reason they shouldn't work OK in Xref too.  The lack of readability isn't because it's following those of my reverse video selections that it does, but rather the parts it come up with on its own. 

The problem I was complaining about several years ago was that the Xref was halfway between following the ladder and not.  Always white background, always black lines, but use the ladder colors for element, description, nickname.  Not following would have worked.  Following would have worked and looked better.  Half following, not so much.  Totally unusable in reverse video.  So it got partially fixed, but some elements still didn't follow, like some of the lines still being always black instead of element-color.  Not great, but I mentioned it at the time and then let it go.

I don't disagree. We can and should make it right, at least for now. We may or may not be able to support DOS/retro displays indefinitely. There are things we'd like to do in the future that may start to conflict. No immediate knowledge of that, but it really starts to become cumbersome. The current issues are a great example of how this entropy sets in.

[Controls Guy]

I can imagine the kind of dilemma you're foreseeing could certainly arise, and if you were willing to ditch reverse video to enable some new features, then I assume those features would be so compelling that it would be a good trade from the users point of view.

I don't think this is an illustrative case, though.  Assuming I were going to allow the user to configure colors at all, then I would fix it so everything worked when they did so, without relying on any assumptions about what their choices were going to be.  They made some of the colors in the Xref view follow the user choices, all they had to do was do that with all the colors and everything would have been hunky dory.  Or, doing it like the docs view and ignoring all the settings would also have worked.

[BobO]

Like I said, I don't know of a problem at this point. Just be aware that it is already somewhat painful to maintain. Sometimes breaking with the past is necessary to embrace the future.

[Controls Guy]

Understood.  Really liking Do-More so far and can't wait to see what you guys add next!   

[Controls Guy]

Is there a way to create a terminal type window to monitor the traffic to and from a TCP or Modbus serial device?

[franji1]

Is there a way to create a terminal type window to monitor the traffic to and from a TCP or Modbus serial device?

For TCP, we use WireShark.  It's a free utility that has configuration files for deciphering many "standard" application protocols, like SMTP or even Modbus.  www.wireshark.org

For Serial, there are some utilities out there, but I haven't use any, and so I cannot recommend any.  If there is a wireshark for serial ports, that would be awesome.

[Controls Guy]

No, I've got stuff for PC based (recommend SysInternals PortMon among others for serial).

I'm talking about internal to Do-More.  Say I'm talking to a servo or power supply or something and I need to troubleshoot the comms.  How can I monitor the traffic via Designer?

[franji1]

You can use STREAMIN/STREAMOUT to DmLogger device with whatever packets you want to monitor.  That was one of the cool uses of DmLogger is a way to debug comm.

There is also a build-in mechanism to auto-log packets to DmLogger, but I think it is only implemented for the EMAIL instruction.  Bring up the Debug View and press in the Message Dump button.  BobO might know if there are any other instructions that support the "Message Dump" debug mechanism.

[BobO]

Actually everything written to either ERR or MSG is redirected to the logger port, but other than emails, that is mostly error information.

Of course with STREAMOUT and the logger device, it is very easy to roll your own diags.