I have just installed the latest version of my RCLIB package in the
Birmingham poplog ftp directory
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/
RCLIB is browseable in
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib
or downloadable in a gzipped tar file
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rctar.gz
This package, all implemented in Pop-11 using the objectclass
extension and the Poplog Widget set, enables creation of various kinds
of control panels, popup menus, sliders, text input fields, number input
fields, scrolling text panels, along with object oriented graphical
facilities for creating static or movable picture objects that can be
made mouse or keyboard sensitive. There's also a graphical version of
showtree, i.e. you can display trees in a graphic window instead of a
Ved window.
There are also some demo libraries, e.g. a simplified variant of
Winograd's SHRDLU, a painting palette, etc.
RCLIB is used for graphic interface mechanisms in connection with the
sim_agent toolkit. It can also be used on its own. For instance, several
student projects here in Birmingham have used it successfully. The demo
subdirectory includes an example: the game of connect4, implemented by a
cognitive science MSc student in the summer of 1997.
Although RCLIB is all written in Pop-11, it can be linked to Prolog, or
Lisp or ML in the Poplog environment.
Rclib (unlike Propsheet) makes no use of motif libraries and therefore
can be used on Linux poplog without having to buy motif.
The most recent change (May 1999) has been the inclusion of a scrolling
text facility based on the Pop-11 XpwScrollText library. The
documentation and code are in
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib/help/rc_scrolltext
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib/lib/rc_scrolltext.p
(Set tab stops at 4, 8, 12, etc. before viewing the code!)
It has also been made easy to include one RCLIB graphical window inside
another, which can be used to support walking menus, etc.
There's an overview of RCLIB in
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/help/rclib
RCLIB gives far more control over layout, fonts, colours, etc. than
the Pop-11 Propsheet package although it does not (yet) include all
the Propsheet mechanisms, notably walking menus.
The text input, number input and scrolling text fields use a novel
interaction style: comments welcome.
Like everything else in the package this is easily extended by users at
the Pop-11 level, e.g. if you wish to define a new response to a
particular function key you can do so by redefining a method for your
subclass.
The RCLIB sliders are not restricted to being horizontal or
vertical. You can specify arbitrary locations for both ends, and
also locations for attached labels and the panel showing the current
value. They are a subclass of the constrained_mover class which can
also be used to define circular sliders, etc.
You can use RCLIB to build control panels for driving VED or XVED,
and for asynchronous control of programs, friendly user interfaces,
etc.
The compressed tar file is updated from time to time. I try to keep the
news file more or less up to date:
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib/help/rclib_news
To install the tar file: Un-tar into
$poplocal/local/
then in Pop-11 compile this file to make everything accessible.
$poplocal/local/rclib/rclib.p
I have tried to make it completely independent of our local
pop-11 libraries at birmingham but may have slipped up. Please let
me know if you try it out and find problems.
Email A.Sloman @ cs.bham.ac.uk
I would like to hear from anyone who has tried it out.
The code and documentation can be browsed online using a web browser
pionted at
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib
To get a feel for what's there look at the introductory tutorial
file
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib/teach/rclib_demo.p
and the main overview help file
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/rclib/help/rclib
This package is being used to provide graphical input and output in
connection with the SIM_AGENT toolkit for exploring complex agent
architectures, also available from the ftp directory. See
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/README
and
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/cog_affect/sim_agent.html
Comments and suggestions welcome.
Aaron
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Aaron Sloman, ( http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/ )
School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
EMAIL A.Sloman AT cs.bham.ac.uk (NB: Anti Spam address)
PAPERS: ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/groups/cog_affect/0-INDEX.html
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