Eclipse-Based Object Bench (E-BOB)

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: Eclipse-Based Object Bench Version 0.3.3

Notes:
Copyright (c) 2004 Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html



Eclipse-Based Object Bench Plug-in

Authors: Justin Braga and Liam Morley
Website: http://ebob.sourceforge.net/
E-Mail:  ebob-discussion@sourceforge.net
Version: 0.3.3

This first prerelease version of the Object Bench is an "alpha-quality" prerelease.
Accordingly, there are several restrictions on features and functionality.

FEATURES
A user may perform the following actions:
-  Add an instance of a class to the Object in one of the following ways:
   * selecting "Add to Object Bench..." in the Object Bench contextual menu of
     an eligible object
   * dragging an eligible object from an external view (i.e., the Package
     Explorer or Outline) to the Object Bench
   * pressing the "Add an object to the Object Bench" button on the toolbar in
     the Object Bench view
   An "eligible object" is any public non-abstract class with a public
   constructor.

-  Inspect an instance in the Object Bench in one of the following ways:
   * right-clicking on an instance and selecting "Inspect"
   * double-clicking on an instance
   * selecting an instance and then viewing the "Instance Properties" view
     directly

-  View the methods (including inherited methods) that may be performed on an
   instance by bringing up a contextual menu on an instance in the Object Bench
   view

-  View all fields of the selected instance (using the "Instance Properties"
   view), public private and otherwise.

-  Perform drill-down inspections through the "Instance Properties" view

-  Modify a public field of an instance by selecting the field in the "Instance
   Properties" view and then:
   * double-click on the field
   * bring up the contextual menu and select "Change value..."

-  Remove an instance from the Object Bench in one of the following ways:
   * bringing up a contextual menu on an instance in the Object Bench view and
     selecting "Remove"
   * clicking the "Remove" button in the Object Bench view to remove the
     currently selected instance



PREFERENCE SETTINGS
The following can be changed under Window>Preferences>Object Bench:
* the display of fully-qualified or short class names
* receiving a confirmation dialog before removing an instance from the Object
  Bench
* the preferred font to use in instances
* the preferred colors (background, selected background, and text) to use in
  instances



INTERNATIONALIZATION
All of the text particular to the Object Bench plug-in has been
internationalized. If you would like to translate this plug-in into a language
other than English, we would be grateful if you would follow the instructions in
http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-Internationalization/how2I18n.html#step5
and e-mail us at ebob-discussion@sourceforge.net with your fragment.


LIMITATIONS
A user may NOT yet perform the following actions:

-  Adding an instance to the object bench for a class using a constructor
   with parameters (i.e. only constructors with no arguments currently work)

-  Adding an instance to the object bench for an inner class

-  Adding a user-defined class to the object bench

-  Execute methods associated with instances


VERSION HISTORY

0.3.3				Initial Release
Jan. 12, 2005


Changes: