AIPS HELP file for XVSS in 31DEC24
As of Fri Apr 26 13:41:00 2024
HELP SECTION
XVSS
Type: XVSS is an older TV server for AIPS. XAS is preferred.
Use: If your AIPS installation is set up to use XVSS instead of XAS
(this is NOT the default), XVSS is started automatically by the
procedures that run on your host machine when you start up AIPS.
It uses the Openlook X-Windows toolkit to talk to the X-Window
server on workstations in order to provide the functional
equivalent of a TV-display device. Like XAS, XVSS has four
graphics overlay planes and one to four (usually 2) grey-scale
channels. On most workstations it uses grey levels 0-111 (XAS
has more gray levels, up to 236).
XVSS has "button" widgets along the top. When AIPS and its tasks
specify "press button ..", you may move the cursor with the mouse
up to the correspomding widget and then select it by pressing the
left button. As with XAS, You may also press special function
keys on the top of your keyboard. For most systems, these keys
are F3, F4, F5, and F6 for AIPS Buttons A, B, C, and D,
respectively (XAS allows "a", "b", "c", "d" to be pressed also).
Again, like XAS, to switch between full-sized and a smaller
window (whose size you set with your window manager's tools),
press the F2 or F7 keys. There are also 2 debug states which may
be turned on and off by hitting the F8 and F9 keys. The former
shows the commands coming from AIPS and friends, while the latter
shows the window-manager interupts.
XAS and XVSS have the ability to tell AIPS what its window size
and other basic parameters are. Whenever you switch between
AIPS' screen servers (XAS, XVSS, SSS), it is a very good idea to
issue a TVINIT call. This clears the image catalog and
checks/resets the server parameters. In fact, whenever you bring
up a new server, it is a good idea to issue a TVINIT. Otherwise,
the image catalog will tell AIPS that there are images visible
when there are not.
Options:
In your home directory, the X-Window Manager reads a file called
.Xdefaults when it starts up. It can be ordered to re-read it
with the command
xrdb
where refers to your home-directory .Xdefaults or to
any other appropriate file. You could put this in your login
command file. When XVSS starts, it asks the Window Manager if
the user has specified certain parameters in his .Xdefaults or
other xrdb file. They control the initial size and placement of
the window and the initial placement of its icon. They also
control the cursor shape and color and the colors of the graphic
channels. The XVSS part of your file could look like:
AIPStv*cursorShape: 34
AIPStv*cursorR: 255
AIPStv*cursorG: 0
AIPStv*cursorB: 255
AIPStv*graphics1R: 255
AIPStv*graphics1G: 255
AIPStv*graphics1B: 0
AIPStv*graphics2R: 16
AIPStv*graphics2G: 255
AIPStv*graphics2B: 0
AIPStv*graphics3R: 255
AIPStv*graphics3G: 171
AIPStv*graphics3B: 255
AIPStv*graphics4R: 0
AIPStv*graphics4G: 0
AIPStv*graphics4B: 0
where the names of things are obvious, the case is
important, and the values shown here are the defaults.
Colors must be between 0 and 255 for the cursor and
graphics channels 1, 2, and 3. Graphics channel 4 is
used as a background and is limited to 0 through 63.
The cursor shape numbers are defined in the Xlib
Reference Manual (Volume Two of The Definitive Guides to
the X Window System). Even numbers from 0 through 154
are legal, but not all are desirable. Possibilities
include 30 (a cross with 2 lines in each direction), 40
(a square with a central dot), 128 (an ellipse with a
central dot), 132 (arrow like the default cursor) and
many others.
When XVSS begins, it asks the workstation for its
dimensions and available intensities and then tells you
the parameters it will use. These have been entered
already in the TV parameters file by your AIPS Manager,
but may be of interest to you as well. A TVINIT command
in AIPS will make sure that AIPS knows what these values
are.
EXPLAIN SECTION