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<HTML> |
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<HEAD> |
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<TITLE>ASCEND HELP</TITLE> |
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<BODY> |
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<!--- |
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Last modified by $Author: ballan $ on $Date: 1996/09/12 00:38:23 $ |
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---> |
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<!---LINK_BACK_TO_MAIN_HELP_PAGE_TOP---> |
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<H1>utilities menu</H1> |
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<LI><a href="#ascendhelp.path">ASCENDHELP path</a> |
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<LI><a href="#scratch.directory">Scratch directory</a> |
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<LI><a href="#working.directory">Working Directory</a> |
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<LI><a href="#text.edit.command">Text edit command</a> |
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<LI><a href="#postscript.viewer">Postscript viewer</a> |
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<LI><a href="#bug.mail.command">Bug mail command</a> |
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<LI><a href="#plot.program.name">Plot program name</a> |
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<LI><a href="#plot.file.type">Plot file type</a> |
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<LI><a href="#text.print.command">Text print command</a> |
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<LI><a href="#www">Help mail command</a> |
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<LI><a href="#font.selector">Font selector</a> |
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<LI><a href="#spreadsheet.command">Spreadsheet command</a> |
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<PRE> |
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Last $Author: ballan $ |
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</PRE> |
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Utilities is a window which displays and allows modification of the global |
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variables which control the interaction of ASCEND with UNIX. |
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Below are explanations of the buttons and then some of the options. |
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<p> |
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|
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<pre> |
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Buttons: |
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OK: This will close the window. If the sanity checks fail, the window |
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will not close. Currently the only sanity checks are that the |
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Scratch directory and Working directory must exist out in UNIXland. |
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Save: This writes the current set of options to a file called |
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~/.ascend-config. (~ is your home directory.) ~/.ascend-config is |
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read on starting ASCEND to get your UNIX defaults. |
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EXCEPTION: The variables with names in ALL CAPS, e.g. PRINTER, are |
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UNIX environment variables. You may change them interactively, but |
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their interactive values are NOT saved. Your environment variables |
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are typically set in your .login, .profile, .[ba,c]shrc, or .environ |
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file and are used by programs other than ASCEND. |
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Read: Fetches the values in ~/.ascend-config. This is in case you want to |
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edit ~/.ascend-config by hand while running ASCEND or you want to |
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verify that the changes you saved were properly saved. |
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More: Rotates you through the pages of options. (2 at present.) |
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Help: Is how you got here. |
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</pre> |
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<p> |
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|
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|
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<a name="WWW"> |
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<H2>WWW stuff</H2> |
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We need the WWW variables explained here. |
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<p> |
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|
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<a name="scratch.directory"> |
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<H2>Scratch directory</H2> |
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Typically this is /tmp or /usr/tmp but it can be any existing directory you |
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have write access to. |
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The scratch directory is used to write temporary and plot files ASCEND |
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creates. The temporary files are automatically deleted before you leave |
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ASCEND, but the plot files are not (since people often want to save plots.) |
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Other users on your system may be disturbed if you clog up /tmp with |
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plot files. |
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<a name="working.directory"> |
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<H2>Working Directory</H2> |
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Typically this is the directory you start ASCEND from but it can be any |
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existing directory you have write access to. Our handling of the |
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working.directory is a bit flakey at the moment because the commandline |
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allows the user to cd without telling the rest of the interface about it. |
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Intermediate files are sometimes written to working.directory. |
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|
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<a name="text.edit.command"> |
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<H2>Text edit command</H2> |
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This is a command to spawn your favorite text file editor. |
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The default is vi in an xterm, but you can change it to your |
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favorite flavor of emacs or whatever you like. Only one of us |
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here actually uses vi, but since he wrote the Utilities window |
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code he chose the default. |
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|
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<a name="postscript.viewer"> |
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<H2>Postscript viewer</H2> |
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This allows you to specify your systems command for looking at Postscript |
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files. Some ASCEND concepts are only rapidly communicable by pictures and |
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we do such documentation via PostScript files. Ghostview (aka gv) is the |
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viewer around here. (CMU) |
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|
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<a name="plot.program.name"> |
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<H2>Plot program name</H2> |
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This is the name of your plotting program. It should be able to take |
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the file type given in plot.file.type as input. |
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|
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<a name="plot.file.type"> |
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<H2>Plot file type</H2> |
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The supported plot types are: plain_plot, gnu_plot, and xgraph_plot. |
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(These may be abbreviated xgraph, gnu, and plain.) |
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If you do not have gnu-plot or xgraph or xmgr, try selecting |
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plain_plot and seeing if the output will work with your own |
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plotting package. Gnu-plot, xgraph, and xmgr are all available |
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for free on the net. We are not experts in building any of these |
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3 packages. |
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|
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<a name="text.print.command"> |
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<H2>Text print command</H2> |
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<p> |
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<pre> |
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Printing to a file: |
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Set the print command to be |
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> filename.you.want cat |
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|
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<p> |
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|
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Printing to a printer: |
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lpr -Pprintername |
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|
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<p> |
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|
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Landscape printing: |
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xa2ps -Ppostscriptprintername |
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enscript -2rGPpostscriptprintername |
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<p> |
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|
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You may safely omit the -P[postscript]printername part of |
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these commands if you normally do so in your Unix shell. |
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Note that ASCEND (TCL, really) does not know about your |
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Unix environment aliases. |
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<p> |
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|
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Printing from the probe or the display execute.print buttons |
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to Unix is done by TCL executing a script consisting of |
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$printcommand $scratchfilename. |
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where $printcommand is the string you've set on the utilities page |
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and $scratchfilename is set by ASCEND internally. |
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<p> |
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|
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</pre> |
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<a name="font.selector"> |
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<H2>Font selector</H2> |
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This is a program that allows you to interactively determine font |
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names available to ASCEND. The default (xfontsel) is the only |
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program we know of which does this properly. (Xfontsel has it's own |
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set of bugs, so we suggest you tamper with nothing to the right of |
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ptSz on the xfontsel widget.) Once you have found fonts you like with |
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xfontsel, you may wish to set the Font values in ~/.ascend.ad. |
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Beware: fonts are Xserver dependent. The fonts available on one workstation |
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often differ from those on another. ASCEND will make some substitution |
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for unavailable fonts if it can, but the results are not always pretty. |
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In at least one case we have found the default ASCEND comes up with to |
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be Katakana (a Japanese typeface.) We find most machines know some sort |
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of helvetica font. |
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<a name="spreadsheet.command"> |
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<H2>Spreadsheet command</H2> |
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We have not been content with any of the free UNIX spreadsheet programs. |
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The thing to be done is to write out the desired variables as columns |
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of numbers suitable for import to any spreadsheet. Nobody gets PhD |
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points for doing this code, so it's not done yet. If you want to |
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do it, let us know and we'll be happy to consult. ballan@cs.cmu.edu |
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has pseudocode for this laying around someplace. |
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<p> |
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