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I D C
Chapter 2:
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D O C U M E N T A T I O N
Te c h n i c a l I n s t r u c t i o n s
Operational Procedures
This command tells the ARS application to use the color grey85 for its background
color. Other parameter values specify the fonts, window sizes, and even the menu
contents for the applications. Up to three resource files may contribute to an interactive application’s X resources. The .Xdefaults file is located in the user’s home
directory and is the first file searched. The app-defaults file is named after the application, for example, ARS is located in the directory specified in the user’s environment variable $XUSERFILESEARCHPATH. For the Interactive Analysis Subsystem
this file is maintained by the software developers and provides the minimum
resources for a running application. It is generally not modified at a site. The third
file is the app-resources file. This file is also named after the application and is
located in the directory specified in the user’s environment variable $XAPPLRESDIR.
This file generally defines a site’s look and feel. Because it is the last file read, the
resources it defines take precedence over resource definitions in the other files. For
example, the ARS app-resources file re-defines all the menus and toolbar buttons
giving the IDC ARS a much different user interface than the minimal ARS.
A complete description of modifying X resources is beyond the scope of this user
manual. The series of X window manuals published by O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. is
recommended ([Fer93], [Hel94], [Nye92a], and [Nye92b]).
Adding Functionality
A number of the applications (ARS, Map, and DFX) provide a Scheme user interface. The Scheme interface provides an interpreted software layer and an interactive text window that is accessible while the interactive application runs. The
interpreted Scheme software provides the “glue” that connects actions in the
graphical user interface to the compiled code. The Scheme interface therefore provides a means of adding or customizing site-specific functionality. [IDC7.2.2] provides an introduction to the ARS Scheme interface and a listing of all the available
Scheme functions.
Another avenue for extending functionality in the Interactive Analysis Subsystem is
through the use of scripting languages such as those provided by the C or Bourne
shells or languages like Perl or Tcl. The ORACLE database provides an SQL-Plus
scripting language. Several scripts for purging log files or temporary database
Interactive Analysis Subsystem Software User Manual
328
May 2001
IDC-6.5.1