.IF NBI .RM70 .LM0 .NOJUSTIFY .ENDIF NBI .IFNOT NBI .RM72 .LM5 .ENDIF NBI .AP .FIGURE 20 .center 70;VPW Version 4.0 .b .center 70;The VAX Professional Workstation User's Guide .b .center 70;by .b .center 70;James G. Downward .center 70;KMS Fusion, Inc. .center 70;Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104 .b .center 70;December 31, 1984 .comment chapter 1 .chapter Introduction to The VAX Professional Workstation .IFNOT NBI .RM72 .LM5 .ENDIF NBI .enable bolding .flags bold .sthl ,0 .ap .hl 1 Introduction The VAX Professional Workstation (VPW) is a collection of programs and procedures designed to provide an integrated workstation environment for the staff at KMS Fusion's research laboratories(1). .Footnote .IF NBI .LM0 .ELSE nbi .LM5 .ENDIF NBI .b .lit (1) Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC08-82DP40152. .end lit .end Footnote This manual documents the various features of Version 4.0 of the VAX Professional Workstation and provides an introduction to using them. While not providing as high a level of integration as Digital's All-In-One (TM) office automation system, VPW provides many of the same features at a moderate CPU overhead, and even lower software cost. Since VPW was first introduced at KMS over a year ago, numerous capabilities have been added including support for Office Graphic Workstations, editing "windows", and additional desk utilities and services. .hl 1 Implementation Considerations KMS uses VAXes for program development work, scientific data analysis and modeling, image analysis, word processing, and various standard business applications. The users of our systems have a wide range of computer skills from novice to systems programmer. A major consideration in implementing VPW was to allow even casual users to productively use our VAX network and to present our technical staff with a simple, consistant user interface, providing a "Personal Computer" like environment. A basic design philosophy of the system is that the user should have to type the least amount of keyboard input and make the fewest decissions necessary to get the job done. Where possible, default values which require the user to simply press carriage return are employed. In general, designing procedures and applications for a workstation environment requires sensitivity to the needs and mental state of the end user. The initial design goals were for VPW to be; .list .le;User-friendly. Computer jargon should be minimized. If an error occurs, the error should be simply explained and the system should provide a means for the user to recover from it. VMS error messages should never occur as they are confusing to the casual user. .le;Easy to learn and consistent. By providing a consistent user interface for all procedures and images, experience gained in learning how to use a given VPW service is easily transfered to new services. .le;Self-Teaching. Experience shows it is far faster to add new functionality than it is to document the new functionality by publishing an updated user manual. Moreover, busy staff may avoid reading existing documentation/manuals prior to trying to use some feature for the first time. Consequently, sufficient HELP must must be available from within VPW so that with minimal training the system becomes self teaching. .le;Easily tailorable to individual user needs. Both personal workstations and user defined functions must be supported. .le;Easily expandable to provide new functionality. In a research environment, needs change rapidly and the system must be able to respond to these needs. .le;The system should be menu-driven but provide methods for bypassing excessive menu displays. .end list To meet these goals, VPW was implemented as a shell of elaborate, modular command procedures integrating a large number of VPW and application specific VMS images. Version 4.0 of VPW continued this effort by; .list .le;Increasing modularity of command procedures to simplify support, allow new services to be added more easily, and decrease menu to menu switching time. .le;Providing more extensive on-line HELP. .le;Providing window services from any menu, many application specific images, and from the editor. .le;Providing support for a wider variety of terminals including, VT125's, VT220's, VT240's, and a foreign word processing system which "almost" emulates a VT100. .le;Providing a framework for integrating a growing range of graphic services for the technical staff. .end list The VAX Professional Workstation currently provides simple, menu driven access to: .b1 .Lm +5 .list 0,"o" .le;The KMS Data Bases .le;Desk Management Services .le;Individual Personal Workstations .le;Data analysis capabilities .le;Office Graphic workstations .le;Computer Aided Instruction .le;Many VAX utilities .end list .Lm -5 The menus and the various functions which may be performed from them will be discussed in subsequent chapters. .hl 1 Assumptions The VAX Professional Workstation is designed to work primarily on VT100 (ANSI mode) compatible terminals with the advanced video option. VPW will not work on hard copy terminals. Since VPW is menu-driven, the terminal baud rate should be at least 2400 baud. During the system wide login procedure, TERM.COM is invoked to identify the terminal type for later use by VPW. Because the users terminal must be polled to discover its type, typeahead is disabled during logon until the "$" prompt first appears. A limited number of functions may be done from NBI Word Processing workstations in VT100 emulation mode or from Tektronix 4014 terminals. This NBI support is provided mainly so that documents can be transfered between the VAX and the NBI word processor. Tektronix 4014 support is provided so those terminals can be used as graphic workstations. It is assumed that each VAX user accessing the VAX Professional workstation has a separate, unique account/directory. This assumption is necessary because from time to time the VAX Professional Workstation creates temporary files. These files would not be unique if multiple users were using VPW on the same account. .comment Chapter 2 .chapter Common VPW Suport Services .IFNOT NBI .RM72 .LM5 .ENDIF NBI .HEADERS ON .sthl ,0 .HL 1 Introduction .AP .enable bolding .flags bold Supporting VPW's infrastructure are a wide range of modular service procedures and images which handle menus, user prompting, terminal recognition, error display and recovery, help displays, terminal independent text display and screen erasure, menu bypassing, broadcast services, window editing (with clip boards), mail and appointment notification, compressed directory and library index displays, privileged command procedures, and exit cleanup. For the user, this means that VPW's behavior is predictable as on goes from one function to another. Modularity also allows new functionality to be added very easily to VPW and provides the framework by which many VMS services, and applications are integrated into a simple-to-use system. .hl 1 Menu Displays The VAX Professional Workstation's menus have a standard, self-explanatory format. Keywords appear on the left with the minimum acceptable abbreviation displayed in bold letters. On the right of each keyword is a description of the function to be performed. At the bottom of each menu, the user is prompted for a "Choice:". If an invalid choice is entered, a warning message is displayed at the user's terminal, and the user is again prompted for a choice. Direct cursor addressing is used by all tasks and command procedures to provide a consistent, form-like display and to minimize the amount of I/O to the user's terminal screen. Standardized code blocks exist to accept user input, validate it, and dispatch commands or activate functions as appropriate. A command is valid if it either matches the highlighted 'n' character sequence, or if it translates into a valid DCL Foreign command. However, excess input is not flagged as an error as long as it can be interpreted correctly. If a command is not recognized, an error message appears at the bottom of the screen explaining that the command is not valid and requesting the user to try again. Control-Y is always allowed as an immediate exit from the current menu except when so doing would leave the users process or a database in an undeterminate state. Control-Z on an input is taken to mean that the user wants to quit what is currently being done and to return to the previous logical function. Because getting mail notification invariably happens at the most inconveneint times, a MAIL option is available from all primary and secondary menus even though it may not be displayed as an explict selection. .hl 1 User Prompting The VMS INQUIRE command is far too limited in its ability to input terminal data to be used within the VPW command procedures. A seperate image, ASK, is used to prompt the user (or terminal) for input. ASK can prompt and input standard text or escape sequences, force defaults if no data is input, force upper case, distinguish between a null input and Control-Z, or timeout if there is no input within a specified time period. .hl 1 Terminal Recognition VPW must know the type of terminal it is running on. Allowed terminals are VT100 terminals with the advanced graphic board, VT100 "emulators", VT200 series terminals, and Tektronix 4014 terminals. When a user logs on the system, the type of terminal the user is using is identified either from the permanently set terminal characteristics for foreign and hardcopy terminals, or by a procedure (TERM.COM) which runs as part of the system-wide login procedure and which querries the terminal to discover its terminal type. Depending on the type of terminal, the global symbols TERMINAL__TYPE and TERMINAL__FLAVOR are defined. TERMINAL__TYPE defines whether or not the terminal supports standard VT100 escape sequences and Terminal__Flavor allows the different "flavors" of VT100 compatible terminals (ie. VT220, VT240, VT125, or attached word processor in VT100 emulation mode) to be identified. In addition to DEC VTxxx terminals, VPW also supports, to a limited extent, Tektronix 4014 terminals and non-DEC word processing workstations having a VT100 emulation mode. At present only support for NBI word processing systems exists. .hl 1 Terminal Control Services Where possible, many VPW internal functions support a degree of terminal independent terminal control and cursor addressing. For example the PAGE function, erases the screen (or ejects page) on any of the terminals supported on our VAX. Likewise, cursor positioning and control symbols are established when VPW first starts up. This allows terminal independent command procedures to be developed in a very straight forward manner. .hl 1 Error Display and Recovery Extreme care is taken to avoid situations which will result in DCL error messages appearing on the user's terminal. If a given input could lead to an error, the input is first checked for reasonableness and then explicit DCL error trapping is used to allow the user to be reprompted in the event an error occurs. The same philosophy is followed both for command procedures and images. If any action could lead to an error message, it is trapped. When serious problems occur, the user is told in English what the problem is, and what to do. The display of error messages relating to non-problems (deleting a non-existant file for example) should never occur. If a user observes strange error messages appearing while using VPW, more than likely an error exists somewhere in one of the VPW service modules which should be looked into. To insure that such errors get fixed, the user noticing the problem should submit a VAX Problem Report (VPR). Use of VPR is described later in this manual. .hl 1 Menu Bypassing Two forms of menu bypassing are provided to fill two somewhat different needs. The first need is to be able to drop into an application menu without ever displaying the main menu and to also exit from the that menu without returning to the main menu. This can be accomplished in two ways. First, the input line to the VPW DCL command is parsed to extract a command line (if any). The command line (if any) is then taken as the "Choice:" input instead of prompting the user. For example, if VPW is started up with the command .lit $ VPW [Menu_Keyletters] .end lit (where the Menu__Keyletters is optional), and if the Menu__Keyletters correspond to a valid "Choice:", VPW will bypass the primary menu display and drop the user into the requested secondary menu. For example, the DCL command VPW DESK will invoke the Desk Management Menu and the command VPW PERSONAL will activate the Personal Workstation menu without displaying the main menu. After the specifically activated menu function has been completed, VPW immediately exits rather than return to displaying the main menu. If the Menu__Keyletters entered does not correspond to a valid menu selection, VPW will exit immediately. As an alternate method of bypassing the main menu, on can also activate each menu as a foreign command. In this event, each menu will appear and on exit, there will be no return to the main menu. This method can also be used within VPW to jump from menu to menu without traversing the built in menu tree structure. Since each command is checked to see if it is a valid Foreign command, and since most menus can be activated as a Foreign command, typing the menu-activating Foreign command to the "Choice:" prompt will result in the selected menu being activated. Menu activation Foreign Commands include; .lit DATABASE - Invoke the KMS Data Base menu DESK - Invoke the VPW Desk Management menu GRFmaster - Invoke the Graphics Work Station menu INSTRUCT - Invoke the VAX Instructor menu RESEARCH - Invoke the Research Assistant menu TOOLBOX - Invoke the VAX Tool Box menu TVGmaker - Invoke the TVGmaker menu VPR - Invoke the VAX Problem Report menu VPW - Invoke the VPW main menu WP - Invoke the VAX Document Preparation System menu .end lit .hl 1 HELP Displays VMS HELP is used to provide help for the user at the menu level. Pressing ^*PF2\* displays help appropriate to the the menu currently being used. After displaying primary help information, available additional topics are displayed and the user is prompted for additional requests. The user may likewise access HELP information from within a number of the VPW specific images. For example both the Notebook probram and the Desk Top Calendar program provide help which is context sensitive to the function currently being performed by the user. .hl 1 Window Services There is nothing more frustrating when using a computer workstation than being interrupted in the middle of doing something. There you are after answering all the menu questions, and waiting (and waiting) for the EDT to read in your 500 block file, finally ready to do some constructive work. Needless to say, fate immediately queues up an interruption. Typical situations include, "Beep","New mail from XYZABC" or "Beep, Beep", "XYZABC is phoning you on ZEUS::", or "Pardon me, but I don't understand this error message. What's DCL?". VPW tries to minimize the frustration caused by such interruptions. So that it is not as often necessary to loose the context of what one is doing to handle an interruption, VPW provides a new command window from any menu, the editor, or from a number of the utility tasks. When one presses the PF4 (or F20 on the LK201 keyboard) key, the current display vanishes, and a window banner appears followed by a DCL prompt. For example, you are in the editor, and "Beep" you are notified of incoming mail. Press the window key (GOLD V on VT100s and F20 on LK201 keyboards) and presto, you have a new DCL window. Then you read the mail and realize you have to dash off a quick memo in answer to the problem presented you. No problem. Enter VPW again and access the document preparation menu, create the memo, transmit it to the secretary, and exit. At this point, the window banner returns to remind you that you are in your alternate window and since you have completed work on the memo, you exit it (Control-Z) and immediately return to editing your original document. The window services are provided by a customized version of EDT V3.0 (VPWEDIT) and window procedures used both by EDT and VPW command procedures. As a related service, VPWEDIT also supports a clipboard in which the output of any single-shot DCL command can be pasted into a clipboard buffer for use. .hl 2 Establishing VPWEDIT as the Default Editor On the KMS VAX, the default editor is VPWEDIT which is a version of DEC's standard EDT V3.0. It supports windows. If for some reason your default editor gets changed back to standard EDT, VPWEDIT can easily be restored as your default editor at any time by issuing the command .lit $ DEFINE SYS$VPWFILES:VPWEDIT EDT (local) or $ DEFINE/SYSTEM SYS$VPWFILES:VPWEDIT EDT (system) .END LIT Once this is done, VPWEDIT will become the default editor for your process (or all users). To activate its new features (windows, clipboards), a number of keypad definitions must be made. These definitions should be placed in SYS$SHARE:EDTSYS.EDT. The relevent definitions include; .lit DEFINE KEY GOLD H AS "EXT SET HELP HELPLIB ;- HELP ?*'System HELP Topic: '; SET HELP EDTHELP." DEFINE KEY GOLD V AS "XLATEVPW>^Z." DEFINE KEY FUNCTION 33 AS "EXT SET HELP HELPLIB ;- HELP ?*'System HELP Topic: ';- SET HELP EDTHELP." DEFINE KEY FUNCTION 34 AS "XLATEVPW>^Z." DEFINE KEY GOLD CONTROL D AS "XLATE?*'DCL to CLIPBOARD command: '^Z." .end lit Note the two wrapped lines. For the real EDTSYS.EDT file, the "-" should be missing and the wrapped line, one continuous line. With these keypad definitions; .lit GOLD H Access VMS system HELP from within EDT HELP Access VMS system HELP from within EDT GOLD Control D Issue a DCL command the output of which will be included into the Clipboard buffer. F20 Start up a window (VT2xx). GOLD Control-V Start up a window (VT1xx). .end lit .hl 2 VPW Window Display Format The window display for a VPW window is the same whether or not it is activated from within VPW or the editor. At the top of the display is a header showing the current process name along with instructions on how to exit from the window. The top three lines of the display are reserved for this header. The bottom of the display acts as a normal VT100 terminal from which one can issue commands, edit a program, or even invoke a new VPW function. Each time a commmand is entered to the "$" prompt, the command is executed and the I/O for the command is restricted to the lower 21 lines of the display window. In order to maintain the window no matter what the user does, it is necessary to read the cursor position before reading each command. Consequently, typeahead does not work quite normally in "window" mode. Window mode typeahead is covered in the next section. The VPW Notebook Program which handles phonelists, the drawing file, etc., also has limited functionality windows which bears mention. Again the PF4 key activates the "Command Screen". However, until a substantial rewrite of Notebook is done, full functionality (and full screen) windows (which will permit video editing) will not be available. .hl 2 Window Typeahead Because the window procedure must query the terminal to discover the current cursor location, it is difficult, but barely possible, to keep the user input and the terminal input separate if the user is typing ahead. To do so requires the window procedures to extract the cursor position output from its current input line, store any excess (the user's input) in an internal typeahead buffer, and finally merge the internal typeahead buffer with the typeahead buffer received from the terminal driver. The window procedures attempt to do this and typeahead seems to work almost normally at least one command level deep(and probably more). However, nothing is for free. Additional code had to be added to the window procedures which may decrease response time slightly. Also once input has been entered into the procedures typeahead buffer (but a RETURN has not yet been pressed) a Control-U will not cancel the input. Now this is somewhat confusing (sorry folks) because if one is entering data at the prompt, a Control-U will cancel the input (it is still in the Terminal Drivers typeahead buffer, not the procedures). However, if one has issued a command, and while it is executing, enters a new command, that new command will get placed into the window procedure's typeahead buffer and be displayed on the terminal following the next prompt. This text can not be canceled with Control-U. To flush the procedure typeahead buffer, enter Control-Y to abort the command or press the REMOVE key on the VT2xx terminal keyboards. Either action will flush the buffer and you will be prompted for a new command. .hl 2 Editing Windows By themselves, the minor improvements in window handling by VPW would not be significant. However, users can access full function windows from within our standard EDT editor by using VPWEDIT. This means that while editing, one may temporarily halt the editing session in progress, create a new window, answer or send mail, request help, issue VMS commands, access VPW, or even start editing a new file. .hl 3 Creating an Editing Window To create a window while in the editor the user should press GOLD#V on a VT100 style keyboard or F20 on the newer VT2xx keyboard. When this is done, the screen will erase, and the window banner will appear at the top of the screen. The process name displayed at the top of the screen tells which window level you are currently in. In response to the "$" prompt, users may enter any valid VMS command. However, continuation lines are not yet allowed. The user may return to the editor by typing either Control-Z, EXIT, or LOGOUT. Typeahead does not work within a window because the system must request from the terminal its current cursor location after each operation. If EXIT, or LOGOUT is typed, the current window is deleted and the user is returned to the editor. However, if ^Z is typed, the window is retained for subsequent use. Since creating a window involves creating an VMS subprocess (a rather time consuming process), if the window is to be used again soon, leaving it around between uses is advantageous. However, if inactive windows are left around, AUTOLOG will issue warnings that the subprocess (window) is idle. If left idle long enough, AUTOLOG will delete the subprocess. This will have no effect on your work since the next time you need it, it will be recreated again. .hl 1 Document Orientated Directory Displays A goal of VPW is to "hide" VMS from the user. For example, file name extensions are hidden from the user using the Document Preparation System. Since the procedures know what file name extensions they need, there is absolutely no reason why the user should be subjected to them without reason. VPW knows about document files, file folders, graph files, viewgraph files, SPRs and Problem Reports, etc. And while each of these is a VMS file having both a file name and a file extension, when asked to display a brief directory of these entities, VPW presents only the names of each entity in a display listing four entities per row. Likewise, when prompted for a name (document, file folder, viewgraph, problem report), the file extension is never required. .hl 1 Protected, Privileged Command Procedures It is often desireable to allow a user to perform a function for which they do not have sufficient privilege. It is easy to do on a per image basis image by installing the image with the required privilege. However, because VMS does not explicitly provide this service for command procedures, it was necessary for VPW to provide this functionality. On a system account, SYS$COMFILE:, a catalog of allowed command procedures exists (SYSCOMCAT.FIL). To invoke a command procedure with privilege, VPW invokes an installed privileged image with SETPRV privilege which in turn spawns a subprocess which reads the catalog, and if a match is found invokes the command procedure with the required privilege. Because only system logical names are carried over to the spawned subprocess, it is not possible for a non-privileged user to misuse this facility to invoke command procedures other than those cataloged in the system catalog. This facility is used as part of a problem reporting system which takes problem reports submitted by a user and deposits them in a system owned data base. .hl 1 Uniform Exit Cleanup Different images and procedures may at different times place the terminal in a wide variety of states (Scroll regions set, smooth scroll, 132 column mode). Also a number of open or temporary files may exist at any one time. Regardless of which menu or image in which the user elects to exit from VPW, uniform exit procedures insure that the terminal is returned to its a initial state and all files are closed. .comment Chapter 3 .chapter The VPW Menus .IFNOT NBI .RM72 .LM5 .ENDIF NBI .HEADERS ON .sthl ,0 .AP .enable bolding .flags bold .hl 1 Introduction Menus are organized in a tree structure branching off of the main menu. The main menu procedure sets up required symbols needed by both it and subsequent menus. However, since each menu can also be independently activated as a foreign command, each procedure tests to see if the required set up has been performed, and if not does its own initialization. Because each menu can be activated as a foreign command, it is possible to invoke any menu at any point from within VPW by entering the menu name at the choice prompt. .hl 1 The VPW Main Menu To invoke the VAX Professional Workstation from any VT100 compatible terminal, type .lit $ VPW [Menu_Keyletters] .end lit The Menu__Keyletters is optional but if provided, will bypass the primary menu display and drop the user into the requested secondary menu. For example, VPW DESK will invoke the desk menu. When VPW is invoked without a command line,the main menu is displayed along with the number of scheduled appointments for that day and the number of unread mail messages. On an NBI workstation or Tektronix 4014 terminal the menu is slightly different and reflects those functions which are allowed from those terminals. For example, on a VT100 terminal a user with two unread mail messages and one appointment scheduled would have the following menu displayed. .tp15 .nj .nf .b .rm+10 ^*The VAX Professional Workstation\* .b Choose: .b ^*DA\*tabase - The VAX Databases ^*DE\*sk - The VAX Electronic Desk (*2 messages *1 appointment) ^*I\*nstruction The VAX Instructor ^*LOG\*off - Logoff the VAX ^*PE\*rsonal - The VAX Personal Workstation ^*R\*esearch - The VAX Research Assistant ^*UT\*ility - The VAX Utility Tool Box ^*E\*xit - Exit ^*PF2\* / ^*PF4\* - HELP / New Window .b Choice: .rm-10 .f .j Each option in the primary menu (except LOGoff, PF2, PF4, and Exit) drops the user into a secondary menu. Once in a secondary menu, the user stays there until either Exit, Control-Z, or carriage return is depressed in response to the "Choice:" prompt. Each of the main menu options is explained in a subsequent section. .hl 2 NBI Workstation Support Secretaries accessing the VAX Professional Workstation from the word processors access a slightly different menu, allowing them to transfer documents between the VAX and their word processors. To send or receive a document to or from a VAX user, a secretary does not need to know anything about using the VAX except how to log on from their workstation. When an NBI workstation accesses VPW, the following menu is displayed. .lit The VAX Professional Workstation You may choose: Calculate - Use the VAX calculator DTC - Use the VAX Desk Top Calendar Exit - Exit menu and use VAX directly Logoff - Logoff the VAX Mail - Use the VAX Electronic Mail Phonebook - Use the Phonebook System Send - Send a document from the NBI to the VAX Reminder - Send a Reminder TOday - Check DateBook for today's events TRansfer - Transfer a file from the VAX to NBI Choice: .end literal All functions except "Send" and "Transfer" are discussed as part of the VPW Desk Management Menu or the Research Assistant Menu. The Send and Transfer options are unique for NBI terminals. For the transfer option to work, the document for transfer ^*must\* have been prepared for transmission to the NBI using the VAX Document Preparation System (Option WP on in the Electronic Desk menu). The reasons for this requirement are twofold. First, the Document Preparation System sets the correct margins for transmitting the document to the NBI. If the margins are not set correctly, a significant amount of work is required by the secretaries in reediting the document after it has been transmitted. Second, when a document is prepared for transmission to the NBI, a special index file is updated, placing that document in a queue for the NBI. When the transfer option is selected, the file for transfer can not be found if the index has not had the file name placed in it. When the NBI user requests to transfer a document from the VAX, the user is prompted for the name of the individual to transfer a document for. If the name entered is correct, and that user has submitted a document for transmission, each document name available for transmission by that user is displayed and the NBI user is asked if it is the desired document. If it is, the NBI user is told how to setup the NBI and to "Hit RETURN when ready". Setting up the NBI involves exiting from communication mode temporarily (hit the MODE key), turning logging on, and returning to communication mode (hit CANCEL key). When a carriage return is pressed while in communication mode, the file is transmitted to the NBI and captured in -COMLOG on the user's NBI directory. Following transmission, the user is told to turn Press MODE, Turn Logging off, return to conversational mode and to "Press Carriage Return when ready". The operator is then asked if the file was transmitted correctly. If it was, the entry requesting transmission in the index file is deleted and the sender of the document is notified that the secretary has removed the document from the transfer queue. If the file was not transmitted and captured, the operator is given another chance to get it. When the NBI operator requests to Send a document to a user, a temporary document is created on the NBI operator's VAX account and that document is MAILed to the VAX user. The temporary document is then deleted from the account. .hl 2 Available VPW Foreign Commands Many facilities of the VAX Professional Workstation may either be accessed via the menu system, or individually via foreign commands. During the system wide login command procedure, the procedure SYS$SYSVPWFILES:SETVPWSYM.COM is invoked. Once logged on, the user has the following foreign commands available. .tp15 .lit ALIST - Display a phone number and address BROADCAST - Broadcast a message to a user BROWSE - A EDT V3 keypad file browser CALC - Use the VAX Calculator DATABASE - Invoke the KMS Data Base menu DECALC - Use DECALC DESK - Invoke the VPW Desk Management menu DTC - Use the VAX Desk Top Calendar GRFmaster - Invoke the Graphics Work Station menu INSTRUCT - Invoke the VAX Instructor menu KLIST - KMS Phone Extension List LARGE - Switch terminal to 80 column mode MLIST - Display name and address in mailing list format NOTEBOOK - Use the VAX NoteBook PAGE - Erase any terminal screen PHONEBOOK - Use the VAX PhoneBook PLIST - Display a phone number REMINDER - Send a reminder message RESEARCH - Invoke the Research Assistant menu SMALL - Switch terminal to 132 column mode TEKgraph - Use TEKgraph TVG - Use TVG for making a viewgraph TVGmaker - Use the TVG viewgraph design procedure TOOLBOX - Invoke the VAX Tool Box menu VPR - Submit/Answer a VAX Problem Report VPW - Invoke the VPW main menu WP - Invoke the VAX Document Preparation System menu .end literal Usage of some of these Foreign commands is explained in the appropriate following chapters. Other commands (LARGE, PAGE, SMALL) are sufficiently simple that trying them out is the best way to learn how to use them. .hl 1 The VAX Databases Menu The Databases menu provides users with easy access to a variety of KMS-specific data bases relating to different aspects of our operations. In addition to the KMS-specific data bases, however, staff also has access to our on-line VAX Problem Reporting System and SPR Data Base. When selected from the main menu, the following menu appears. .tp 12 .nf .nj .rm+10 .b ^*The VAX Databases\* .b You may choose: .b ^*DM\*s - The DMS Databases ^*DR\*awing - The Drawing file ^*DT\*r - VAX Datatrieve ^*MI\*S - The MIS Reporter ^*P\*roblem - Submit/Read a VAX Problem Report ^*SP\*R - VAX SPR (Bug Report) index ^*ST\*aff - Staff phone directory ^*E\*xit - Exit menu to DCL ^*\* - Return to previous menu ^*PF2\* / ^*PF4\* - HELP / New VPW Window .b Choice: .b .f .j .rm-10 The DMS Databases are described in a separate memo by Fred Schebor. DMS users may read, write, modify and search through any DMS database. Non-DMS users, however, may only read and search in the databases. The Drawing file data base is implemented as a Notebook function. Any VAX user is allowed to use it to search for drawings, however, only Engineering and Drafting are allowed to update and modify the database. The DTR option drops the user int VAX Datatrieve The MIS option drops the user into the MIS Reporter procedure. From the MIS Reporter, managers can browse financial reports relating to the status of projects they are managing. The VAX Problem Reporter provides VAX users with a simple method of reporting and receiving answers to problems they encounter using the VAX system. When a problem report is added to the problem report data base, the problem manager is automatically notified that the problem exists. When the problem is solved and the problem report is answered, the original sender is automatically notified that the answer exists. An index of all problem reports and their disposition is kept by the system. The use of the VAX Problem reporter is described in a subsequent chapter. The SPR option allows users to browse the SPR index to look for problems which might relate to their own, to read the SPR problem submittal, and to read DEC's answer, if any. The Staff phone directory provides a similar function to the Phonebook system except that instead of providing a personal phonebook, this phone directory contains information only relating to KMS Staff, their home address and phone number, their work phone extensions, their department, and their location. All staff have access to the directory for updating it as they see fit. .tp17 .hl 1 The VPW Desk Management Menu VPW Desk Management menu provides users with a selection of standard office automation tools. When the VPW Desk Management menu is selected the following menu is displayed. .keep .rm+5 .lm-5 .nofill .b ^*VPW Desk Management\* .b (*2 messages, *1 appointment) You may choose: ^*C\*alculator - Desk Calculator ^*SU\* - Spreadsheet and Utilities ^*D\*TC - Desk Top Calendar ^*TA\*lk - Terminal Teleconference ^*K\*MS - KMS Staff Directory ^*TO\*day - Check for today's events ^*MAI\*l - Electronic MAIL ^*W\*p - VAX Document Preparation ^*MAS\*s11 - Mass-11 WP ^*E\*xit - Exit menu to DCL ^*P\*honebook - Personal phone book ^*\* - Return to previous menu ^*R\*eminder - Send a Reminder ^*PF2\* - Help ^*S\*preadsheet - DECalc Spreadsheet ^*PF4\* - New VPW Window Choice: .b .nokeep .lm+5 .rm-5 .fill At the top of the menu display, the number of unread mail messages and the number of half hour appointments scheduled that day are displayed. Each of the menu options will be discussed in subsequent sections. .hl 2 ^*Calculate\* The Calculate option invokes the VAX calculator program which signifies its presence with the prompt CALC>. Exit from calculator mode by entering Control-Z. A list of valid commands may be obtained by typing ? to the CALC> prompt. The use of the VAX Calculator program is explained in detail in a subsequent chapter of this manual. .hl 2 ^*DTC\* The DTC option invokes the VAX Desk Top Calendar. DTC replaces the Datebook procedure which kept a personal calendar in the previous version of VPW. DTC provides very comprehensive calendar management services including Day-At-A-Glance, Week-At-A-Glance, Month-At-A-Glance, and Year-At-A-Glance displays. In addition, context sensitive HELP is available for all of its functions by pressing the PF2 key or the HELP key on LK201 keyboards. A subsequent chapter is devoted to a detailed explanation of how to use DTC and its services. .hl 2 ^*KMS\* The KMS command invokes the KMS Staff Directory program which in operation is very similar to Phonebook. Both programs provide information on phone numbers and addresses. However, the Staff Directory is a public data base which any staff member may access either interactively (from this menu) or by using the KLIST command from DCL or a VPW window. The KLIST command has the format .lit $ KLIST name .end lit where name is the name of the KMS staff member you are looking for. If the name is found the phone extensions for that staff member are displayed. In addition to storing the work extensions for each staff member, the Staff Directory also stores the employee's home address and phone number, their department, and the building in which they work. The first time one wants to enter a new employee into the system, it must be done by the VAX staff. However, any time after that, any KMS VPW user may modify any entry in the staff directory. Consequently, staff should take care to only update their own record. Users can gain information on how to use the Staff Directory program by reading the chapters on using Notebook and Phonebook in this manual. .hl 2 ^*Mail\* At the top of the menu, the number of unread mail messages is displayed. The MAIL command can be used to either read these messages or to send mail to users connected to VAXs anywhere on our network. A detailed description of the VPW interface to VMS mail is presented in a subsequent chapter. The MAIL menu is first displayed and presents those options which exist (for example HELP, EXIT, SEND, and READ) and then you are prompted for input. When you are done using MAIL, enter a Control-Z to exit it and return to the Desk Management Menu .hl 2 ^*MASS11\* Mass-11 is a high performance, "what you see is what you get" word processor for VAX systems. If a system is licensed to use Mass-11, this selection will invoke Mass-11 and load the scientific character fonts into VT200 series terminals. If a system is not licensed for use of Mass-11, a message to that effect will be displayed. .hl 2 ^*Phonebook\* The PhoneBook option allows the user to create and access a list of phone numbers and addresses in a data file on their login directory. PhoneBook is implemented using the VAX NoteBook. Phonebook's use is documented in Chapter 9. Pressing the PF2 key on VT100 terminals when Phonebook is requesting input will produce a HELP display. The program is practically self teaching. However, users are should read Chapter 9 for more details. .hl 2 ^*Reminder\* The Reminder option allows the user to send dated and time-stamped reminder messages to users on the VAX. Based on user input, the user submits messages to the reminder queue for delivery at a later time and date. At the appointed date and time, the message is dequeued and the Broadcast utility finds the user and displays the message at any terminal on which the user is logged on. If the user is not logged on at any terminal, Reminder mails the message to the user. A full description of the Reminder option is presented in a subsequent chapter. .HL 2 ^*Spreadsheet\* The Spreadsheet option invokes DECalc. VPW checks to see if a private DECalc initialization file exists. If a initialization file SYS$LOGIN:DECALC.INI, DECalc is invoked using that file. Otherwise it is invoked without an initialization file. .hl 2 ^*SU\* The SU option invokes a Spreadsheet and Utilities menu. Several DECalc utilities exist. The first is DTRwhiz which allows users to convert Datatrieve data into data used by DECALC. The second utilitiy is a DECalc directory repair utility. .hl 2 ^*TAlk\* The TAlk command allows the user to access the VMS PHONE utility which allows users on different terminals (VT100's) to converse with each other using their terminals. When PHONE prompts, type HELP to get help in learning the commands for PHONE. Information on how to use PHONE can be found in a chapter in the VMS Utilities manual .hl 2 ^*TOday\* Typing TOday will cause Desk Top Calendar (DTC) to display all meetings/appointments scheduled for the current day. The use of DTC is documented in Chapter 6 in this manual. .hl 2 ^*WP\* The WP command (for Word Processor) drops the user into the VAX Document Preparation System menu. The VAX Document Preparation system provides users not running MASS-11 with a very complete word processing system using EDT and Runoff. The VAX Document Preparation system is described in a subsequent chapter in this manual. .tp18 .hl 1 The VAX Instructor When the Instruction is selected, the VAX Instructor menu is displayed: .keep .nofill ^*The VAX Instructor\* You may choose to learn about: ^*DA\*tatrieve Introduction to VAX Datatrieve ^*DE\*lete The VMS Delete Command ^*DI\*rectory The VMS Directory Command ^*ED\*it The VMS Edit command ^*F\*ile Specifier The VMS File Specifier ^*I\*ntroduction Introduction to VMS ^*P\*urge The VMS Purge Command ^*R\*unoff The VMS Runoff Command ^*TO\*ouch Typing Learn to Touch Type ^*T\*ype The VMS Type Command ^*EX\*it Exit from this menu Choice: .nokeep .fill The Edit and the Introduction choices invoke the DEC's CAI (Computer Aided Instruction) courses for the DEC Standard Editor and for an Introduction to VMS respectively. The other CAI courses were developed in house and provide a very good introduction to the basic VMS commands which are necessary for general use by every VAX user. All of the CAI courses let you see what the correct working of the commands is, and most provide for testing to see if you have learned the course material. All the courses are entertaining and provide a rapid, nearly painless way to learn how to use the VAX. As an aid in learning to use the VAX we also have a number of introductory books, including a VAX/VMS Primer and the VAX/VMS Users Introduction. .hl 1 The VAX Personal Workstation To avoid the problem of having to create a multitude of command procedures for users requiring different functionality, each user is permitted to have one personal menu option per directory. When the Personal Workstation option is selected for the first time a menu template file, VPWUSER.MNU, is created. Initially the only entries in this menu are to Exit and to return to the VAX Professional Workstation main menu. Users wishing to add a personal menu should edit VPWUSER.MNU to add lines of the following form: .lit key - Text....Text|Key:=@cmdprocedure.MNU .end literal Two features are important here. First the vertical bar, "|", must be used to separate the menu text to display from the foreign command. Second, the foreign command must be of the form .lit Cmdverb:=@command_file_name.MNU .end lit Note that the file type of the specified command file must be .MNU. This special extension (for menu) is used so that VPW knows whether or not the foreign command belongs to the menu. An example of setting up the menu is: .tp 5 .KEEP .NOFILL ^*MY\*report - Text 1|MY_*report:=@MYREPORT.MNU ^*T\*argets - Text 2|T:=@TARGLST.MNU ^*VI\*sicalc - Text 3|VI_sicalc*:=@VCALC.MNU .NOKEEP .FILL When the menu is displayed the following will appear: .tp8 .KEEP .NOFILL You many choose: ^*MY\*report - Text 1 ^*T\*argets - Text 2 ^*VI\*sicalc - Text 3 ^*VPW\* - The VAX Professional Workstation ^*EX\*it - Exit Choice: .NOKEEP .FILL The VPW and Exit command are automatically inserted by VPW. Bold text can be inserted with the editor using VT100 escape sequences. [1m turns on bold mode and [0m turns off all special attributes. However, it is not necessary to make any characters appear bold. Do it only for personal convenience. Note the use of the "_*" in defining the foreign commands. This allows the foreign command to be recognized if more than the minimum number of characters are entered. .tp13 .hl 1 The Research Assistant Menu The Research Assistant menu, serves as focal point for those workstation functions explicitly designed to support the research activities of our staff. When the Research Assistant Menu is requested, the following menu is displayed. .keep .nofill .tp 14 .b ^*The VAX Research Assistant\* .b You may choose: ^*C\*alculate - Use the VAX Calculator ^*J\*ournals - Use the VAX Reference Library ^*G\*raph - Graphics entry and display system ^*R\*eport - Use the Target Shot Analysis System ^*T\*ape - Read/Write IBM/VAX interchange tapes ^*E\*xit - Exit menu and use VAX system directly ^*PF2\* / ^*PF4\* - HELP / New VPW window .b Choice: .b .nokeep .fill The following sections describe the capabilities offered by these options. .hl 2 ^*Calculate\* The Calculate option invokes the VAX calculator program which signifies its presence with the prompt CALC>. Exit from calculator mode by entering Control-Z. A list of valid commands may be obtained by typing ? to the CALC> prompt. The use of the VAX Calculator program is explained in detail in a subsequent chapter of this manual. .hl 2 ^*Graph\* Graphics workstation support is provided for two classes of terminals, Tektronix 4014 terminals, and DEC ReGIS terminals (VT125/VT24x). The menu displayed depends on the graphics protocol(s) supported by the invoking terminal. For example, only at the proper Tektronix 4014 terminal, can a user is access the graphics tablet input program. Graphics workstation support functions provide the user with the ability to; .list .le;Use a spread sheet like graphics data editor on ANSI compatible terminals. Binary X-Y graphics data sets used by TekGraph, Datatrieve and the graphics tablet may be created or modified. A line mode editor also exists for hardcopy and Tektronix terminals. .le;Enter data via a graphic tablet (Tektronix 4014 terminal only). .le;Create simple plots with DATATRIEVE or DECgraph on ReGIS terminals or elaborate plots with TEKGRAPH on ReGIS or Tektronix terminals. .le;Explicitly design the format for elaborate or composite graphs with a simple to use high level graph control language. .le;Curve fit the X-Y data in a variety of ways and display the fitted data versus the original data. .le;Create and display viewgraphs on either ReGIS or 4014 terminals .le;Process images via a remote image processors for display on local television monitors. .le;Prepare a high resolution graph from a any VT100/VT200 terminal for later spooling to a Tektronix 4014 terminal. .end list A central assumption in the design of the workstation support is that a user probably will be working with a single data set in a number of different ways. The user will first create (or import a data set from an external program) or modify an existing data set to reflect new data. Then the user will want to display the data and possibly design (or modify) the manner in which that data is to be displayed. Based on the display of the data the user may either go back to modify the data, change the plot display method or try curve fitting the data. This process will continue until the final graph or analysis satisfies the user's needs. To simplify workstation use for our staff, the menu system is designed to minimize the amount of typing. Once a graphics data set is selected for use, it becomes the default data set to be displayed in subsequent prompts by the images activated from the menu. A detailed description of the functions provided from the graphics workstation menu is presented in a seperate chapter. .hl 2 ^*Journals\* The Journals option allows the user to create and access a list of journal articles and references. Journals is Notebook program and in operation behaves similarly to Phonebook except that the data requested, displayed and stored is different. Pressing the PF2 key on VT100 terminals when Journals is requesting input will produce a HELP display. The program is practically self teaching. However, users are urged to read the chapter on Notebook creating and using a private journals data base with the Journals option. .hl 2 ^*Report\* The REPORT option provides the staff with easy access to the Target Shot Analysis System which is used in analyzing the data acquired in our Laser Fusion experiments. The data is filed by experiment number and may be stored either on a PDP-11 system (connected via DECnet), off-line on a removable disk cartridge, or on any one of a number of subdirectories on an RA81 disk. The Target Shot Analysis System either locates where the data is stored and allows the user to run the report programs (over the DECnet, if required) or informs the user which removable disk the data is on so that the disk can be loaded on to the system. .hl 2 ^*Tape\* The TAPE option allows the user to transfer source and data files between our IBM and and our VAX. After answering a few questions as to which files to put on the tape, the files (including wildcard selections) are placed on the tape in a format in which the IBM can extract all transfered files from the tape without knowing what is on the tape to start with. This is accomplished by making the first file on each transfer tape contain all the required JCL for removing the rest of the files from the tape. .hl 1 The VAX Tool Box Menu The VAX Tool Box provides the user with access to a wide variety of less frequently used utilities and procedures which do not do not belong as part of some other menu. Because a great many items could potentially exist as part of the Tool Box menu, the system allows for an unlimited number of pages of menu display through which the user can scroll with either the Up/Down arrow keys or the PREV/NEXT keys on the LK201 keyboard. When a page containing the item sought is found, the user enters the choice and that function is activated. As each item is added to the menu, Help for that topic is placed within a Tool Box help file. Hence, when the PF2 (or HELP) key is pressed, the user is easily able to get help on using the application of interest. Items found on the Tool Box menu include such diverse topics as converting error codes to error messages, converting RMS error codes to a discription of the error, creating UDK load files for the VT2xx terminals, access to VAXnet, compact display of the print and batch queues, resequencing Fortran source files, verifying tapes for reliability, and many, many more.