Tom Sawyer Perspectives, Java Edition

Release 4.0.0

Overview

Tom Sawyer Perspectives introduces an advanced data-driven graphics architecture that offers a flexible run-time approach. The drawing canvas background, nodes, edges, connectors, and labels each can have rich attributed graphical decorations. Customer applications can provide graphical drawings with "level of detail" support, enabling the end user to expose additional graphical detail as zooming thresholds are passed.

The drawing canvas now supports new hover, select, and highlight metaphors. New precise shape clipping improves drawing resolution.

Also, for large drawings with thousands of nodes, layout performance is markedly improved.

Additionally, a timeline view shows events in chronological order, for use in link analysis applications. A new path trace view supports network management applications. New blinking graphical decorations support network monitoring applications.

This release supports Eclipse SWT, and offers integration with Objectivity InfiniteGraph and Google Earth.

New

Technology

• Added Apple Mac OS X Lion Launchpad support
• Added JDK 7.0 support
• Introduced new JavaScript APIs

Designer

• Added ability to disable actions

Drawings

• Added drawing templates
• Added precise shape clipping
• Improved curved edge handling

Graphics

• New hover, select, and highlighting graphics
• New scene-based graphics
• Added blinking graphical elements

Drawing Styles

• Added timeline view
• Added path trace view

Documentation

• New tutorials
  • Eclipse SWT application
  • Objectivity InfiniteGraph integration
  • Google Earth integration
  • Semantic zooming
  • Constraints
  • Timeline

Improvements

Installers

• Refined installers
• Improved installation directories

Designer

• Greatly reduced memory usage
• Improved tooltip rendering

Previewer

• Improved tooltip rendering

Drawings

• Easier meta-edges configuration

Graphics

• New support for network monitoring applications
• Improved curved edge route handling
• Improved tooltip rendering

Interaction

• Resizable embedded Overview

Layout

• Circular layout
  • Enhanced rotation of disconnected components
• Hierarchical layout
  • Faster performance with constraints and nesting
  • Enhanced integrated labeling with orthogonal routing
  • Integrated orthogonal routing across nesting levels
  • Polyline routing refinements
• Orthogonal layout
  • Twenty percent performance improvement
  • Enhanced integrated labeling
  • Integrated orthogonal routing across nesting levels
  • Directed multi-edge bundling refinements
• Symmetric layout
  • Thirty-five percent performance improvement
  • Enhanced rotation of disconnected components
• Labeling
  • Improved labeling precision
  • Respects edge segment bounds
  • Respects edge thickness
  • Respects arrowheads

Documentation

• Improved documentation startup scripts
• Tutorials reworked to use drawing templates

System Requirements

• Added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

• Dropped support for Red Hat Enterprise LInux 5

• Added support for JDK 7.0

• Dropped support for JDK 5.0

Fixes

• Unselected edge labels remain fixed during edge routing
• Multi-edge spacing respected

Issues

• Hover effects have been disabled in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 and 8.0.