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2.1 Introduction


The Ptolemy interactive graphical interface (Pigi) is a design editor for Ptolemy applications. It is based on tools from the Berkeley CAD framework. In it, Ptolemy applications are constructed graphically, by connecting icons. Hierarchy is used to manage complexity, to abstract subsystem designs, and to mix domains (models of computation). There are three versions of the user interface (pigi, ptrim, ptiny). You should use ptiny, the smallest, but we will refer to any of the three generically as "Pigi."

2.1.1 Setup

Ptolemy uses several environment variables (see page 2-61). In order for Ptolemy to run properly, the following two environment variables must be set in your .cshrc file:

setenv PTOLEMY /usr/eesww/share/ptolemy0.6 setenv PTARCH `$PTOLEMY/bin/ptarch` set path = ($PTOLEMY/bin $PTOLEMY/bin.$PTARCH $path) The above path works on the instructional machines in Cory Hall plus many of the Unix research machines. Once you make the appropriate changes to your .cshrc file, you will need to reevaluate the file:

source ~/.cshrc In the documentation, we will generally refer to the home directory of the Ptolemy installation as $PTOLEMY.

The user interface requires the MIT X Window System. Some X window managers are configured to require that you click in a window before the "focus" moves to that window. This means that the window will not respond to input just because you have placed the mouse cursor inside it. You must first click a mouse button in the window. While it is possible to use pigi with this configuration, it is extremely unpleasant. In fact, it will be rather unpleasant to use any modern program that makes use of the window system. You will want to change the mode of the window manager so that the focus follows the mouse. The precise mechanism for doing this depends on the window manager. For the Motif window manager, mwm, the appropriate line in the .Xdefaults file is:

Mwm*keyboardFocusPolicy: pointer For the open-look window manager, olwm, the line is:

OpenWindows.SetInput: followmouse Alternatively, you can invoke olwm with the option -follow. Typically, the window manager is started in a file called .xinitrc in your home directory.



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