Syntax Directed Editor for RSLWindows C/C++ Source and Master Thesis in PDF fully available

Abstract

The Syntax-Directed Editor for RSL (the RAISE Specification Language)- RSLED for short - was created as part of my Master Thesis from the Danish Technical University in 1994. RSLED is a Windows application for creating and editing RSL specification language documents.

RAISE is an acronym for Rigorous Approach to Industrial Software Engineering. You can find more about

• RAISE at Terma - http://spd-web.terma.com/Projects/RAISE
• RAISE at United Nations University - http://www.iist.unu.edu/raise

Introduction

The RSLED application was originally written in 1993-1994 with the very first 32-bit Symantec C++ compiler and used Win32s - a subset of the Windows Win32 Platform Software Development Kit (SDK) - that made it possible to actually run the program on Windows 3.11 - a 16-bit operating system! 

The program actually works quite well on the Windows platform - even though its still a rough beta version. It do contain a lot of programming errors, but so be it. It was my very first attempt into Windows and C++ programming and it uses the Win32 SDK blankly without having any class libraries etc for the user interface.

I can only recommend to learn Windows programming by trying to do basic SDK programming. In that way you actually learns all the basic Windows concepts in a way you will never do when using today's more advanced class libraries. The good old Petzold book was my bible at that time.

I would probably implement it completely differently today; using more object-oriented design principles and design patterns (like the visitor pattern).

Download RSLED

If you just want to try it out you can download a zip file with the RSLED application Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP including a sample input RSL file and the RSL symbols font, which - if you want the proper RSL characters - must be installed into your Windows Font via the Control Panel.

rsled.zip (162 KB).

Note that my master thesis below includes a user manual chapter for RSLED.

Download Master Thesis

The master thesis itself is also available in Adobe PDF format. Note however that it unfortunately doesn't' contain the RSL specifications; I used RSL in the report to specify the RSLED. The reason is simply that I have lost them - luckily I have them on paper.

thesis.pdf (1.4 MB) the Master Thesis in Adobe PDF format (269 pages).

Download C/C++ Source

Okay, so you want the source. So be it. But beware it is fairly hideous - and do contains a lot of bugs. 

rsled_source.zip (263 KB).