2.11. Details of Edit Commands

2.11.1. Undo and Redo

When the user selects Undo from the Edit menu, the system undoes the effect of the most recently confirmed updating command. When the user select Redo from the Edit menu, it removes the effect of a previously executed Undo command. An updating command is any Test Tool command that leads to an a change in the current data contained within the program. For any of these actions, the precise definition of Undo is that the Test Tool workspace is restored to the state that existed immediately prior to the confirmed execution of the action. If no confirmed updating command has been executed since the Test Tool was invoked, Undo has no effect.

If Redo is executed with no intervening confirmed update between the two executions, the effect of the latest Undo execution is undone. That is, the state of the workspace is restored to the state that existed immediately prior to the execution of the Undo command.

Undo only applies to the updating commands and itself, not to any other commands. Specifically, Undo does not apply to:

2.11.2. Cut, Copy, and Paste

Operating systems typically provide a "clipboard" area through which cut and paste editing commands operate. This clipboard holds values that are cut, copied, and pasted in tools such as the Test Tool. Hence, the Test Tool Cut, Copy, and Paste commands operate through such a clipboard.

To execute the Cut or Copy command, the user must first select a segment of text in a text box. Text selection is performed using click and drag with the mouse, or by other environment-specific means such as double or triple clicking in a text box.

After text selection, when the user selects the Cut command from the Edit menu, the system removes the selected text from the edit box and copies the text into the clipboard. When the user selects the Copy command, the selected text is copied to the clipboard, but is not removed from the display in which it is selected and the text remains selected. A particular segment of selected text is unselected by selecting another text segment or by single-clicking the mouse anywhere in the Test Tool display. Other environment-specific means of unselecting text may be available.

The Cut command can only be executed in the context of a display where the text boxes are editable, i.e., where the user may type in the text boxes. In contrast to Cut, the Copy command can be executed in any dialog in which text boxes appear, including read-only text boxes.

To execute the Paste command, the user must first execute a Cut or Copy and then place the typing cursor within some editable text box. After these steps, when the user selects the Paste command from the Edit menu, the text stored in the clipboard is inserted at the point of the typing cursor, as if it had been entered by the user from the keyboard. Pasted text appears in normal font, i.e., it is not highlighted as selected text.

If the user attempts to execute a Cut or Copy command without first selecting text, the commands have no effect. If the user attempts to execute a Paste command without having executed either a Cut or Copy, the Paste command has no effect. The Cut, Copy, and Paste commands operate only on plain text strings within a single displayed text box. In particular, the commands do not apply to whole question items or users in lists.

The use of the clipboard for communication between the Test Tool and the outside operating environment depends on the capabilities of the environment. Specifically, the environment must support the insertion and removal of plain text to and from the clipboard. If this requirement is met, and the operating environment permits inter-tool clipboard communication, then plain text copied to the clipboard from a another tool can be pasted in the Test Tool using Paste. Similarly, plain text cut or copied in the Test Tool can be pasted or otherwise accessed as plain text in another tool, via the clipboard.

2.11.3. Delete

Apart from selectable text fields, the Test Tool also has selectable questions and users when they appear in tables and lists in the program. If the Delete command from the Edit menu is executed when the user has selected editable text, the selected text is removed. A user can also select a question or a user in a table or a list in the Test Tool and execute the same Delete command. Doing so will prompt the user with the same dialog as removing a question or a user using the buttons in the program.

2.11.4. Select All, Find

If the user executes the Select All from the Edit menu all editable data in the current display will be selected.

Executing the Find command from the Edit menu performs a search for a given text string. The search is performed in the current display. Successive invocations of search with an unchanged search string searches for further occurrences of the string until all occurrences are found.




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