4.13 The View 'Catalog'

Figure 21: The View 'Catalog'

Selecting tables

From the dropdown list at the top of the catalog, you can select the following items to explore:

• Metrics - lists all design metrics in the table. For each metric, the table shows the name of the metric, its domain (the type of element it measures), its category (the property it measures), and a brief description.
• Rules - lists all design rules in the table. For each rule, the table shows the name of the rule, its domain (the element type it applies to), its category, its severity, its applicable areas, as well as a brief description of the rule.
• Matrices - lists the relation matrices in the table. For each matrix, the table shows the types of elements in the rows and columns, and a brief description of the matrix.
• References - shows a list of literature references and their bibliographic citations.
• Glossary - shows a list of measurement terms with definitions.

Click any row in the table to see a detailed description of the selected item in the lower part of the window.

The detailed descriptions often contain cross-references to other metrics, rules, or matrices, include literature references, or reference terms from the glossary. These references are hyperlinks that take you to the full definition of the referenced item. Use the and arrows in the upper right corner of the catalog view to move back and forth within the previously visited definitions.

Sorting tables

You can sort each table by its columns, e.g., to quickly find all metrics for a particular domain, all rules of certain severity level, and so on. Section 4.3.1 "Common controls in views" describes how to sort tables.