4diac IDE: Improving the Reliability of the Graphical Editors for Eclipse 4diac

The 4diac IDE is an extensible, IEC 61499 compliant engineering environment for distributed control applications. The current state of its graphical editors presents challenges, as they timely result in poor user experience and frequent errors. To overcome these issues, there is a strong need to introduce an automated test suite specifically for the graphical editors. These test suites will detect errors that will enhance the overall reliability of the editors. Through automated testing, we can effectively implement error indicators within graphical models, ensuring timely identification and resolution of issues. With that, these test suites will provide support to features characterized by deep hierarchical nesting, which directly complicates interaction within the graphical editors. By systematically addressing these challenges, we aim to significantly improve the usability and reliability of the graphical editors within the 4diac IDE.