Adding and removing context

Each node fits within its context. The context changes depends on the current layer that the node is at.

As an analogy, imagine a photograph of two football teams. If you are pointing at one football team, and remove context, the other team is no longer shown. Point at one player within the team, and remove the context, and only that player is shown. Point to that player's mouth, and remove context, and all that is shown is the player's face. You do not have to move through this step by step. Instead, from the full photograph, point at a player's thumb, and remove context, and only the player's hand is shown.

ASMPUT lets you do the same sort of thing with the control flow graph.

When you remove context, ASMPUT shows you just a part of the original control flow graph. This makes it simpler for you to follow the control flow within the displayed elements.

When you add context, you see how the segment of program interacts with other elements in the program, but you add complexity.

Removing context

Right-click a node you want to isolate from the context.
From the pop-up menu, click Remove Context.

Alternatively, if the node is selected, on the Control Flow Graph window Selected menu click Remove Context.

In the resultant control flow graph, some nodes may have two lines of text in them. The first line of text is, as before, the name of the entry point or the line number of the code. The second line of text is the name of a linked node that is not displayed, because it is in the removed context.

You cannot remove context if the resultant control flow graph has only one node. In this case, consider using the Expand to Window option, which expands the selected (three-dimensional) node by one layer, and then removes the context.

Showing context

On the Control Flow Graph window View menu, click Show Context.

Alternatively, click the Show Context icon or right-click the white area of the graph, and from the pop-up menu click Show Context.

This option is not available if there is no removed context.

Redisplayed nodes retain the same layer at which they were removed from the context.

Collapsing to context

On the Control Flow Graph window View menu, click Collapse to Context.

Alternatively, click the Collapse to Context icon or right-click the white area of the graph, and from the pop-up menu click Collapse to Context.

The resultant control flow graph shows all the nodes collapsed into one, and the context for this node. In the previous control flow graph the context was not shown.