Doc/libpanel.tex

   1 \section{Standard Module \sectcode{panel}}
   2 \stmodindex{panel}
   3
   4 \strong{Please note:} The FORMS library, to which the \code{fl} module described
   5 above interfaces, is a simpler and more accessible user interface
   6 library for use with GL than the Panel Module (besides also being by a
   7 Dutch author).
   8
   9 This module should be used instead of the built-in module
  10 \code{pnl}
  11 to interface with the
  12 {\em Panel Library}.
  13
  14 The module is too large to document here in its entirety.
  15 One interesting function:
  16
  17 \renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(in module panel)}
  18 \begin{funcdesc}{defpanellist}{filename}
  19 Parses a panel description file containing S-expressions written by the
  20 {\em Panel Editor}
  21 that accompanies the Panel Library and creates the described panels.
  22 It returns a list of panel objects.
  23 \end{funcdesc}
  24
  25 \strong{Warning:}
  26 the Python interpreter will dump core if you don't create a GL window
  27 before calling
  28 \code{panel.mkpanel()}
  29 or
  30 \code{panel.defpanellist()}.
  31
  32 \section{Standard Module \sectcode{panelparser}}
  33 \stmodindex{panelparser}
  34
  35 This module defines a self-contained parser for S-expressions as output
  36 by the Panel Editor (which is written in Scheme so it can't help writing
  37 S-expressions).
  38 The relevant function is
  39 \code{panelparser.parse_file(\var{file})}
  40 which has a file object (not a filename!) as argument and returns a list
  41 of parsed S-expressions.
  42 Each S-expression is converted into a Python list, with atoms converted
  43 to Python strings and sub-expressions (recursively) to Python lists.
  44 For more details, read the module file.
  45 % XXXXJH should be funcdesc, I think
  46
  47 \section{Built-in Module \sectcode{pnl}}
  48 \bimodindex{pnl}
  49
  50 This module provides access to the
  51 {\em Panel Library}
  52 built by NASA Ames (to get it, send e-mail to
  53 {\tt panel-request@nas.nasa.gov}).
  54 All access to it should be done through the standard module
  55 \code{panel},
  56 which transparantly exports most functions from
  57 \code{pnl}
  58 but redefines
  59 \code{pnl.dopanel()}.
  60
  61 \strong{Warning:}
  62 the Python interpreter will dump core if you don't create a GL window
  63 before calling
  64 \code{pnl.mkpanel()}.
  65
  66 The module is too large to document here in its entirety.