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Code review ("242") user's guide
The operation of this application is quite simple. It allows you to load multiple text files and annotate over them in ink. Whenever you load a file, its contents are transmitted to all participants in a session; when you add an ink stroke (whether ink or highlighter), or delete a stroke, that is also transmitted. For comments not belonging to a particular file, there is a small whiteboard that can be popped up, called the Global Comments window.
All files and ink strokes are sent immediately to all users. Thus, everyone should have the same data. However, changing the display by switching to a previously-loaded file (clicking on a file tab) or bringing up the global comments box does not cause the same action on all clients; users must agree orally on what to look at.
The session begins with a signon dialog; see below.
Main file window
After the signon dialog to enter the session (see below), the application window looks like this:
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Open a new text file. The text file will open in the main window, and a tab with its name will be placed in the tab area (the gray area just below the toolbar). You may write on that window and your strokes will be transmitted to all participants in this session (see signon dialog below). There is no facility for editing the text. |
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Close the current text file. Since there is no facility for editing the text, no changes can be lost. However, any ink strokes added as annotations will be lost. Note that the close operation is not transmitted to other participants, so they may still have this file open; in future, if those participants continue to annotate over this file, those strokes will be discarded on this machine. |
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Change to ink mode. Initially black. The system remembers the most recent ink color, and restores it when returning to ink mode. |
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Change to erase mode. The cursor changes to an eraser shape, and any strokes it touches are deleted. |
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Change to laser pointer mode. The pen changes to a thick, bright red. In laser mode, each new stroke causes the previous stroke to disappear; similarly, switching to a different ink mode causes the last laser stroke to disappear. Laser mode is useful for drawing attention to parts of the code without having the screen become cluttered. |
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Change to highlighter mode. The initial highlighter color is yellow. The system remembers the most recent highlighter color, and restores it when returning to highlighter mode. |
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Change to the corresponding color. Works in either pen or highlighter mode. |
| Global comments. |
The global comments button pops up a small shared whiteboard like this:
(See below for further explanation.) |
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Open a previously-created Slice document, using a file dialog. Slice documents have filename extension "xml". |
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Save the current document in xml format. A dialog box opens. The default filename is built from the machine name and the date. |
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End this Slice session. |
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Print all open files. (Print does not, at present, print the global comments.) |
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Clicking on the SLICE logo pops up an About box. |
Global comments window
The Global Comments button pops up a small shared whiteboard as shown above. The four buttons are, from left to right:
- Prev: Go to the previous page in the global whiteboard.
- Add: Add a new page.
- Next: Go to the next page
- Hide: Remove the whiteboard from the screen.
Ink strokes placed on the global whiteboard are transmitted to other participants. To change pen color or edit mode, use the buttons on the main toolbar.
Tab panel
The tab panel is the gray panel just below the toolbar. All the files that have been loaded (and haven't yet been closed) have tabs. Clicking a filename takes you back to that file. The tab for the current file is highlighted in green. Thus, after loading several files, and making annotations, the application might look like this:
Sign-on dialog
To start a code review session, all users engage in a signon dialog. The first window to come up looks like this:
The first person to start must be the server (or, if another computer can be used for this purpose, start it and the run this app before the code review session starts). That person should fill in their name and click the "Moderator" button. He or she should also open a command window, enter the ipconfig command, and record the IP address. Everyone else should fill in that IP address, then enter their own name, and click the OK button. (It is not necessary for the moderator to fill in the IP address; it only matters that all other users fill in the moderator's IP address.) The moderator may not shut down his computer until the entire session is done.