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Introduction
There are two released versions of MacAnova for Windows. The first runs
under Windows 98/NT/XP and includes the familiar multi-window features,
menus, dialogs, etc. The second runs in a "command prompt" window (MS-DOS
window) and does not use any Windows features. Both have the full range
of MacAnova commands.
This help topic first describes features or limitations specific to each
version and then describes things they have in common that are specific
to Windows systems.
Windows version (CP)
This version is compiled using the Carapace library which in turn uses
the WxWidgets library. It requires a Win32 system such as Windows
98/NT/XP. It allows multiple command/output and high resolution graphics
windows and uses menus, dialogs, the mouse, and so forth in the usual
way. Commands are typed into the lower pane of a command window, and
output appears in the upper pane. Output and graphics windows can be
printed and/or saved to files.
Text in a command window can be copied to the clipboard. Content of
a graphics window can be copied to the clipboard as a bitmap. The
MacAnova variable CLIPBOARD is connected to text on the clipboard in
the sense that accessing CLIPBOARD returns a MacAnova string containing
the text content of the clipboard, and assigning to CLIPBOARD writes
text to the clipboard.
See topic 'carapace' for details about MacAnova for Windows.
The executable file is usually named MACANOCP.EXE.
shell(command,interact:F) and shell(command,keep:T) do not work under
Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. It is possible that they work under Windows
NT, but that has not been tested. shell(command,interact:T) and lines
prefixed with '!' appear to behave somewhat differently, depending on
the operating system. Problems remain to be worked out. See shell().
DOS version (DJ)
The DOS version is compiled using the DJGPP development suite and
requires a 80386 or better processor. Although it runs under DOS, it
can access all available memory and has no limits on variable sizes.
The executable file is usually named MACANODJ.EXE.
The extended memory version works with a variety of graphic displays,
including VGA. Keyword phrase screendump:fileName on plotting commands
allows you to create PCX files which can be edited under Windows and
included in word processor documents.
It has command editing implemented using the arrow keys and editor
commands based on either the Emacs or Vi editor commands (Emacs and Vi
are Unix/Linux editors). See topic 'unix' for details. The only
difference from the Unix/Linux version is that the special file for
customizing keymaps must be "INPUTRC" (not ".inputrc") in the same
directory as MACANODJ.EXE.
You can execute DOS commands by prefixing the line with '!' in the first
position after the prompt or by using the command shell().
shell(cmd,keep:T) returns output from the program executed. You must
use shell(cmd,interact:T) if the program executed requires any input.
When in doubt, use interact:T. This feature appears to work somewhat
differently under Windows 95.
Macro edit() (see topic edit()) is predefined to allow easy editing of
macros and data without exiting Macanova. By default it uses the DOS
program Edit but this can be changed by setting CHARACTER variable
EDITOR to the path name of a different editor.
Features common to all Windows and DOS versions
MacAnova recognizes '/' in file names (for instance, c:/mv/macanova.dat
instead of c:\mv\macanova.dat). This is desirable, since to use '\' in
a quoted string it must be doubled ("c:\\mv\\macanova.dat"). See
topic 'syntax'.
Various command line arguments are recognized, allowing automatic
restoring of a workspace, suppressing the banner, changing default file
names, etc. On the Windows version, they allow initializing the
command/output window with the contents of a file. See topic
'launching'.
MacAnova uses any default options or file or path names in environmental
variable MACANOVA. See topic 'customize'.
The startup file is MacAnova.ini.txt in you MyMacAnovaFiles directory.
See topic 'customize'.
Unless you use command line option -home (see 'launching') or include
-home in environmental variable MACANOVA (see 'customize'), MacAnova
pre-defines CHARACTER variable HOME to be your home directory (for
example, c:\Documents and Settings\username on Win XP). HOME is used to
expand file names of the form "~/path" or "~\\path" by substituting the
value of HOME for '~'. This allows you to refer to files such as
MacAnova.txt.ini as "~/MyMacAnovaFiles/Macanova.ini.txt", even if you
have changed directories. If you redefine HOME, it changes the
expansion of "~/" and "~\\". See topic 'files'.
Pre-defined variable DATAPATHS is initialized with two path names. The
first is effectively "~/MyMacAnovaFiles" and the second is
"foo/SharedSupport", where "foo" is the full path to the directory that
includes the MacAnova program file. If you use command line argument
"-appdir goo", then the "foo" in the second element of DATAPATHS is
replaced by "goo". You may prepend a search path to DATAPATHS at the
command line by using the option "-path pathName". See topics
'DATAPATHS' and 'customize'.
Gary Oehlert
2005-08-12