Abacus Editor

The Abacus Editor debuts in read-only form, with features added to make them more efficient…

Tile Alignment

New feature: Automatic Tile Alignment: With an abacus editor window active, the Icon menu features a new four-way alignment command. The alignments are designed to eliminate 99.9% of the ‘crossover’ arrows and tile overlaps that occur when creating an abacus calculation, and each one approaches the task in a slightly different manner in order to accommodate most design styles.

• Align Left: Command-L — This alignment arranges the tiles in a ‘left-leaning’ orientation for designs that tend to have additional tiles inserted into the leftmost socket of the following tile.
• Align Right: Shift-Command-L— This alignment arranges the tiles in a ‘right-leaning’ orientation for designs that tend to have additional tiles inserted into the rightmost socket of the following tile.
• Align Left with Overlap: Command-Option-L — This alignment is similar to Align Left, but in a more compact layout that uses a subtle overlap of some of the tiles.
• Align Right with Overlap: Shift-Command-Option-L — This alignment is similar to Align Right, but in a more compact layout that uses a subtle overlap of some of the tiles.

Datatype Colors

New feature: Color: The abacus editor now uses color to indicate datatype compatibility, making it easier to identify which arrows can be placed in which sockets, and what the final output of the abacus is. The default colors (shown at right) are:

• Text: Blue
• Styled Text: Light Blue
• Number: Green
• Fixed Point: ‘Sea’ Green
• Date: Yellow
• Flag: Purple
• Picture: Red
• Document: Light Red
• — A future release will provide the ability to modify these default colors.

Abacus Editor

The input sockets (formerly ‘black holes’) of each tile use these colors to indicate the datatypes that are accepted. When more than one datatype is possible, diagonal bands of color indicate the acceptable datatypes.

The output arrow of each tile uses these colors to indicate the datatype it outputs. When more than one datatype is possible, diagonal bands of color indicate the acceptable datatypes. Note: the presence of multiple colors in an output arrow indicates that the tile is incomplete. All valid tiles result in a single datatype output.

When connecting tiles, the color of an arrow must match the color for the input socket, or the arrow will not be accepted and the abacus will be invalid. In the case of multiple color options, the two elements (arrow and socket) must contain at least one color in common, or the arrow will be rejected and the abacus will be invalid.

General Improvements to Other Areas

General Fixes

• R7071: Closing a view while Helix is in the background no longer results in a crash.

  Also, when a collection was closed without saving the changes, Helix was left in a state such that opening another collection would cause closing views to fail to ask whether changes should be saved. This has also been fixed.

• R7474: An abacus created or modified via the Abacus Expression Language now arranges the tiles in a proper cascade.
• R8001: Adding a comment to a relation icon no longer results in collection damage.
• R8008: The Structure Check log now correctly reports the number of maintenance fixes and properly details them as maintenance instead of as errors.
• R8016: Removing a form or power query from view that has a Quick Query open with the ‘also use’ option checked and then deleting that query no longer results in collection damage.

  This fix also eliminates the minor maintenance that was required whenever a Quick Query was changed.

• R8020: Modifying an abacus used in a dynamic popup of an open view no longer results in a hang.
• R8028: It is once again impossible to create a custom label for a checkbox until both the ‘true’ and ‘false’ values are defined.

Template Fixes

• R7665: A blank template is no longer considered invalid.
• R7917: Attempting to change a template reference in an abacus via AEL no longer fails.
• R7976: Defining custom labels for a rectangle while a view that uses its template is open no longer results in a crash.
• R8002: Moving a group box to a nonsensical position no longer results in a crash.
• R8017: Enlarging a subform template no longer leads to a crash when a data rectangle overlaps the subform.

  As part of this fix, the template that is using the subform now properly refreshes to show the resized subform template.

• R8021: A repeat rectangle containing a group box that is flush left or top is no longer considered illegal.
• R8021: Closing a collection that has both a view and its template open should no longer crash.
• R8023: Deleting a command rectangle via AppleScript no longer results in collection damage.
• R8024: Pressing CMD-Delete while editing text in a label or command rectangle now deletes the rectangle instead of crashing.
• R8027: Duplicating a group box on a template no longer results in collection damage.
• R8030: Changing a rectangle’s custom label while its template’s “where used” window is open no longer results in a crash.

AppleScript Fixes

• R7928: AppleScript can now set the location of the ‘dangler’ (output arrow) of an abacus.
• R8038: AppleScript can now set the ‘jog height’ property for Styled Text tiles.