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Submitted by ErikT on Wed, 10/22/2014 - 10:32

EDIT: I also submitted this as feedback through the GalilSuite form.

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Hi everyone. I've decided to finally start playing with GalilSuite after using GalilTools for years (I jumped ship from whatever came before GalilTools the second I could - that was pretty terrible.)

Anyway, my main experience so far has been with GalilSuite 1.0.3.953 and 1.0.3.957 doesn't appear to change anything with respect to my compaints so I won't bother re-testing. Here's what I have to say, in no particular order.

The new Watch window in terms of FEATURES is nice. Watching variables and array values is great, as well as being able to monitor more than one device simultaneously. (Even just GalilSuite in general being able to connect to more than one device - fantastic.)

But why does the Watch window use up SO MUCH ON-SCREEN SPACE? If I only have one IO in the Data Record column, I have this massive window that is like 15x bigger than it needs to be. You should, at the very least, be able to toggle the Variable and Array columns on and off - or even better, condense them down into one list the same way you can condense multiple controllers into one list. Why can't I just list a variable in the same list as a DR value?

The 'multiple floating windows' concept as a whole is quite annoying because it makes alt-tabbing from GalilSuite to another program frustrating. You end up with one part of GS instead of the whole thing, and then you spend 20 seconds rearranging stuff the way it was before. See Adobe Photoshop vs GIMP and the user project "GIMPShop" to make the image editor GIMP into a single window like Photoshop. GalilTools is much better in this respect.

The GS editor is improved over GT, although I still use Notepad++ most of the time due to the dual-pane view I can have on the same document and the more advanced features in general. The only thing N++ is really missing is your syntax highlighting (which I have partially recreated) and your syntax autocomplete (not in GT anyway).

The ability to jump to a subroutine is a huge improvement, but the fact Find is no longer assigned to ctrl+F is absolutely baffling... and typing in a phrase, pressing enter to find the first one, then pressing enter again and expecting to find the next occurrence but instead finding it has DELETED THE TEXT and replaced it with the enter key is absurd (check out the behaviour of [i]]every other text editor[/i]).

The Terminal and Editor having the command auto-completion buttons ("DMC Helper") is also a nice feature, but again, they seem to use an awful lot of screen space. They also seem to be feature-incomplete (for example, TR tells me it has no operands on a DMC4080 when I know for a fact that it does.).

I'll add to this as I find more, but for now these are the outstanding issues that really bug me about GalilSuite as a tool. I haven't purchased the full version of GS yet so I haven't been able to try the scope or tuner yet, but I am sure I will use those once GS matures - I use the GT scope all the time.

Next - developer questions. If I'm writing a program in, say, .NET 4.5 that connects to a DMC4080, I currently use the COM library, which I believe is the same thing that GalilTools is built around. [b]Is this what GalilSuite uses? Are there changes coming?[/b] There are a lot of annoying problems, like multiple communication handles from the same PC - I can't have GalilTools and my HMI open and both receiving the data record simultaneously, for example, even though UDP data ought to be able to be thrown everywhere without batting an eye. Is this what the system tray helper program is about?

Finally, is it possible for a bug-fix version of GalilTools to be released? There is an infuriating "feature" where it starts up and resizes itself to be slightly larger than the size of your screen even though the window isn't maximized (you can still move the window around, grab the edges, and make it smaller). I am perfectly OK with GT being small and then using the Maximize button myself.

Thanks!

Comments 4

KaushalS on 11/04/2014 - 09:33

Thank you for providing feedback on GalilSuite and GalilTools. Your feedback has been forwarded to the software department. To receive notification when new software or firmware is updated, I suggest you register on the web site:
http://www.galil.com/user

Paul on 12/08/2014 - 11:55

I'm working on a language file for Notepad++. I have it almost there, but without getting into the more complex back end of NPP, I don't have Labels showing up in red yet.

ErikT on 12/09/2014 - 09:42

To add to this ongoing discussion of my concerns re: GalilSuite, here's one that bugs me:

Why is it called "GalilSuite" (no space) EVERYWHERE - marketing, web site, start menu FOLDER, program files folder, etc, but then the SHORTCUT is "Galil Suite" (space) and the title bar is also "Galil Suite" (space)? If I type "galilsuite" into my start menu to search for it to launch it, it does not show up. This, although minor, is one of those "annoying things" about usability of programs. Ultimately, I don't care whether it's called GalilSuite or Galil Suite, it's consistency I'm looking for.

KushalP on 12/19/2014 - 08:23

Hi Erik,

Thank you for your feedback. We are actually going to be addressing the "galilsuite" start menu issue you mentioned in the upcoming releases.