furrtek / waimea

Compact chronogram editor for Windows

Waimea

Compact standalone chronogram editor for Windows using OpenGL, written in good ol' VB6. Inspired by Wavedrom.

Download v0.20 HERE.

Why VB6 ?

• I still live in 1999
• Super fast dev cycle for GUI apps
• Small executables
• No framework, only requires a 1.3MB dll (msvbvm60.dll)
• Rather slow execution, but here we only need fast drawing
• Can't be worse than Java !
• I believe that a web browser is a program to browse the web, not an application host
• Not portable :( But should run in Wine :)

Also: No install, no registry keys.

Features

• Markdown syntax very similar to Wavedrom's
• Fast and clean OpenGL rendering
• Drag-scroll for large chronograms
• Rulers
• Time measurements
• Popup notes (pins)
• Modifiable layout/appearence (not as flexible as Wavedrom)
• To come: Export to image (and svg ?)

Usage

• Holding Alt shows all popup notes (if enabled)
• Right click and drag to measure time
• Double left click to reset view to origin

Syntax

A wave name starts with name: and a string.

A wave definition starts with wave::

• . (dot): Repeat last block (except for H and L, they become h and l`)
• z : Hi-Z
• x : Undefined
• l : Low
• h : High
• L : Falling with arrow
• H : Rising with arrow
• n : Clock negative
• p : Clock positive
• N : Clock negative with arrow
• P : Clock positive with arrow
• = : Data (grey)
• 0~5 : Data (colored)

Text for data zones starts with data: and strings separated by commas. A vertical ruler can be set with ruler:, a x position, and a color index. A note can be added with pin:, a x position, a color index, and a string. A wave group is started with group:, a string, and a color index. A group is ended with groupend. Groups can be nested.

Layout.txt format

A block definition starts with the DEF keyword followed by the letter assigned to the block. Any text after the letter is ignored, it can be used as a comment to describe the block.

The drawing commands follow on the next line. The currently supported commands are:

• SP: Start Point. Required, defines the block's starting point for hookup. Takes x,y.
• EP: Ending Point. Required, defines the block's ending point for hookup. Takes x,y.
• L: Line. Simply draws a line. Takes x1,y1:x2,y2.
• LS: Line strip. Draws multiples lines, one connected to the other. Takes x1,y1:x2,y2:x3,y3...
• SH: Shape. Draws a filled polygon. Takes x1,y1:x2,y2:x3,y3...
• LC: Reset color to line color. Useful for colored blocks (data).

Coordinates 0,0 are top-left. Sizes should be normalized to 16x16.

For example, drawing a filled square clockwise: SH 0,0:16,0:16,16:0,16

known bugs

• Might crash on badly formatted layout.txt file.
• Drag-scroll not well optimized, can be laggy on some setups. Will have to draw in a buffer and scroll the buffer instead of redrawing everything each time.

waimea's Issues

Arrays not cleared when creating new file

Signal names are kept, for example. After having a file opened, just writing "wave:" in a new file shows the name of the first signal in the previous file.

Only the first "ruler" keyword is parsed each line

Add curvy arrows

To link state changes to others + notes

Commas are parsed in text parameters

For example, the last parameter of the "pin" keyword shouldn't take commas as parameter delimiters.

Any plan to rewrite it using Qt ? (will be amazing)

Time measurment is wrong when scaling != 1