SECTION 1 -- GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1 DOCUMENT SUMMARY

This document, the "TAE Command Language (TCL) Programmer's Manual," addresses the following areas:

• General concepts for implementing applications that will run under the Terminal Monitor (TM). (Section 2).

• Rules for writing TAE procedures (Section 2).

• Descriptions of all procedure-oriented commands for the TAE command language (Section 3).

• Rules for creating TAE menus (Section 4), help files (Section 2.15), and message files (Section 2.16).

NOTE: for historical reasons, the terms "TM", "TAE Monitor", "Terminal Monitor" and "Applications Executive," are considered to be synonymous. We will use "Terminal Monitor" here.

This document contains all the information needed to write procedures in the TAE command language, to provide help information, and to write TAE menus. It also provides general information for programmers writing C or FORTRAN programs that will run under the Terminal Monitor (that is, TAE processes). For subroutine calling sequences in C, see "TCL Runtime Services, Volume 1: C"; for FORTRAN programmers, "TCL Runtime Services, Volume 2: FORTRAN", should be used. Ada programmers should refer to the "TAE Plus Ada Reference Manual (UNIX, VMS)".

The reader is assumed to be familiar with the information in the "TAE Command Language (TCL) User's Manual." The reader is also assumed to have basic knowledge of developing software under the host operating system.

For information on the use and general concepts of TAE, see the "TAE Command Language (TCL) User's Manual"; for information on host dependencies, see Appendix A to this document and Appendix A to the "TAE Command Language (TCL)User's Manual." For information on system management of TAE, see the "TAE Plus System Manager's Guide (UNIX, VMS)."

1.2 DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS

In this document, where examples of user command lines are shown, the characters typed by TAE are bold-faced; the part not bold-faced is an example of text typed by the user.

For information on writing procedures and programs under TAE, see the TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services Manuals (2 Volumes), TAE Plus Programmers Manual, and the appropriate language-specific reference manual.

The following set of documents were prepared by Century Computing, Inc., under contract to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The following set of documents was prepared by Century Computing, Inc., under contract to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

1. Getting Started with TAE Plus, NASA/GSFC. This document should be read first by all TAE Plus users. It includes a readership table for all other documents, as well as other last minute special instructions. The document describes how to extract the tape contents, how to setup your environment, how to access on-line manual pages, which window manager version to use, where to find demos, and other useful information. Consult this document before you attempt to install TAE Plus.

2. TAE Plus Overview, NASA/GSFC. This document provides a brief overview of TAE Plus including the WorkBench, presentation types, demos, the Terminal Monitor, and TAE Command Language (TCL).

3. Release Notes for the Transportable Applications Environment, (TAE Plus Version 5.2) (UNIX, VMS), NASA/GSFC. This document describes all changes and additions to TAE Plus that have been implemented between releases 5.1 and 5.2. This document is a must for all 5.1 users who are converting to 5.2. New users need not refer to these Release Notes.

4. TAE Plus User Interface Developer's Guide, NASA/GSFC. This document provides a detailed description of TAE Plus features and concepts. Topics include the TAE Plus WorkBench, the program development environment, and the prototyping process. A tutorial and several examples are included. This document is essential reading for all developers of TAE Plus graphical user interfaces.

5. TAE Plus Presentation Types Reference Manual, NASA/GSFC. This manual collects all of the on-line presentation type man pages (TAE_pulldown_menu, TAE_icon, etc.) which describe programming details concerning each interaction object: target count and data types, event generation, getting and setting target values, constraints, presentation specific resources, common resources, and code examples.

6. TAE Plus Programmer's Manual, NASA/GSFC. This document is a coherent single manual written specifically for programmers regardless of their programming language. Topics include discussions of TAE Plus and X Window system terminology, descriptions of the callable functions, including the Window Programming Tools (Wpt) and the Co and Vm packages, programming details concerning each of the TAE Plus presentation types, and various tips and tricks useful for the application developer to update the interface at runtime. This manual is necessary for all programmers developing graphical user interfaces.

7. TAE Plus C Reference Manual, NASA/GSFC. This document contains the UNIX-style man (manual) pages for all the Wpt (Window Programming Tools), Co (Collection), and Vm (Variable Manipulation) functions, macros such as StringParm, and miscellaneous functions such as sequal. Note that the language independent conceptual material appears in the TAE Plus Programmer's Manual.

8. TAE Plus C++ Reference Manual(UNIX, VMS), NASA/GSFC. This manual explains and specifies the C++ language interface to the TAE Plus application-callable functions.

9. TAE Plus Ada Reference Manual (UNIX, VMS), NASA/GSFC. This manual explains and specifies the Ada language interface to the TAE Plus application-callable functions.

10. TAE Plus Code Generation Manual, NASA/GSFC. This manual explains the goals, options, and usage of the Code Generator, and describes the structure of the generated code.

11. TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services, Volume 1: C, NASA/GSFC. This manual explains and specifies the C language callable routines associated with the Terminal Monitor (TM). In general, programmers developing graphical user interfaces need not refer to this document.

12. TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services, Volume 2: FORTRAN, NASA/GSFC. This manual explains and specifies the FORTRAN language callable routines associated with the Terminal Monitor (TM).

13. TAE Command Language (TCL) User's Manual, NASA/GSFC. This is the reference manual for end users of the TAE application executive, called the Terminal Monitor (TM). It describes TM concepts and operations, and is the reference manual for end user TAE Command Language (TCL) commands.

14. TAE Command Language (TCL) Programmer's Manual, NASA/GSFC. This is the reference manual for programmers using TM and TCL. It includes TM programming concepts and is the programmer's reference manual for TCL commands.

15. Guidelines for Adding a New Presentation Type (UNIX, VMS), NASA/GSFC. This document provides a procedural description for programmers with certain well defined areas of expertise on how to design a new presentation type (interface object) and integrate it into the TAE Plus WorkBench.

16. Building TAE Plus from Source Code (UNIX, VMS), NASA/GSFC. This document describes how to compile, link, and install TAE Plus. Most sites do not need to build TAE Plus; see the Getting Started with TAE Plus document.

17. TAE Plus System Manager's Guide (UNIX, VMS), NASA/GSFC. This guide provides a TAE Plus system manager with the information necessary to maintain TAE Plus under UNIX and VMS systems. Topics include how to load the tape, setting up user accounts, post tape restoration tasks, tailoring the software for your site, resource requirements, and a description of the TAE Plus disk directory structure.