The GUI library

The GUI library contains basic functionality for the graphical tools in the toolset. The toolset is built using the Qt framework (https://www.qt.io). The functionality of the GUI library resides in the namespace mcrl2::gui and mcrl2::gui::qt.

Architecture of mcrl2ide

The qt_tool class

The main class in the GUI library is the qt_tool class that allows to construct a new graphical tool efficiently, using the tool construction framework of the mCRL2 toolset.

The CodeEditor class

mcrl2::gui::qt::CodeEditor (libraries/gui/include/mcrl2/gui/codeeditor.h) is a text editor widget shared by all graphical tools in the toolset that need to display or edit mCRL2 specifications or mu-calculus formulas.

It is built on top of QPlainTextEdit and bundles three cooperating classes:

CodeHighlighter: A QSyntaxHighlighter subclass that applies keyword, operator, number and comment formatting rules to mCRL2 specification text or mu-calculus formula text. The active rule set and colour palette are selected via changeHighlightingRules().
LineNumberArea: A QWidget that is painted alongside the editor and displays the current line numbers.
CodeEditor: The main widget. It creates a LineNumberArea, instantiates the appropriate CodeHighlighter, and implements standard editing operations: selecting, copying, cutting, pasting, undoing, redoing, zooming and syntax highlighting. The purpose of the editor (specification or formula) is set with setPurpose(), which also switches the highlighting rules accordingly.

Although it is used extensively by mcrl2ide, the CodeEditor lives in the GUI library rather than in the tool itself, so that other GUI tools can share it.