SECTION 1 -- GENERAL INFORMATION

This document, the "TAE Command Language (TCL) User's Manual," supplies information required for the interactive user of TAE.

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

1.1 SUMMARY

TAE consists of software that interacts with an end-user and manages the execution of application programs. The purpose of TAE is to:

• Standardize the user interface to application programs. All application programs running under TAE have a consistent interface. Since TAE is to be implemented on several computer systems, the interface is standardized among several computers.

• Shield the user from the host operating system. The TAE user does not have to know the command language of the host computer. TAE manages the entire interactive session.

• Provide an interface that can be understood by a variety of users. TAE is designed to be operated by both the first-time user and the experienced user. Features exist for the user to request assistance from TAE at each stage of an interactive session.

The TAE user may operate in one of two modes:

• Through selection of operations from a menu presented on the user's screen. Each entry on a menu refers to an application function or to another menu.
• Through the TAE Command Language.

In addition, TAE provides the following facilities for the interactive user:

• Tutor mode, in which the user establishes and reviews a a set of parameters to be supplied to an application function.
• On-line "help" information on the use of TAE and applications running under TAE.
• Batch and asynchronous job submission
• Session logging

1.2 DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS

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

1.3 ENVIRONMENT

For a list of the current host systems upon which TAE has been implemented, see Appendix A.

1.4 REFERENCES

For information on host dependencies, see Appendix A to this document and Appendix A to the "TAE Command Language (TCL) Programmer's Manual. "

For information on writing procedures and programs under TAE, see "TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services, Volume 1: C," "TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services, Volume 2: FORTRAN," and the "TAE Command Language (TCL) Programmer's Manual."

For information on system management under TAE, see the "TAE Plus System Manager's Guide"

The detailed references are:

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 app1ication-ca11ab1e 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) Userƅs 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.