Steve,
Sorry about this:
> I am doing something wrong, or leaving something out.
No: I've noticed this problem and have been too busy with other things to
work out exactly where to put a fix.
The rc_blocks library is in
$usepop/pop/packages/rclib/lib/rc_blocks.p
Start up Xved, then in the editor mark and run these two commands
uses rclib
lib rc_blocks
You'll then get an xved window 'output.p' containing
TO START THE PROGRAM TYPE:-
blocks_go();
or
ENTER blocks
Try <ENTER> blocks.
You should get a simplified image showing a table top with various blocks.
after the prompt '?' type 'help' <RETURN>
You 'll get examples of sentences (questions or commands) you can type in
at the bottom of the window
Instead of typing them, you can move the editor to one of the examples and
press RETURN. You can also change the example before pressing RETURN.
There's some messy startup code that needs fixing, in
$usepop/pop/packages/rclib/lib/rc_blocks.p
I haven't worked out the logic -- too busy with other things.
Also I find that the small output.p window for some reason is displayed
wrongly, i.e. mostly off the screen, so that only a small strip is visible
at the foot of the screen, which allows the window to be pulled up.
Some xved display defaults need to be fixed, unless the problem is in my
init.p, or vedinit.p file.
> If start up standalone xved and try ENTER blocks, I get an "unknown
> command" error message.
In principle that could be made autoloadable but only for people who have
already chosen the package.
Instead you have to indicate that you want the rclib package:
uses rclib
and then select the blocks demo to be loaded:
lib rc_blocks
In principle, instead of the code being in
$usepop/pop/packages/rclib/lib/rc_blocks.p
it could have been in
$usepop/pop/packages/rclib/auto/....
with a name that could be used to run the package after autoloading.
But the general policy has been for the 'auto' libraries to include only
generally useful parts of a package that can be used without explicit
declaration. My feeling is that the blocks demo should not be promoted
to that status. We need instead to fix the instructions (and parhaps also
the setup code in the rc_blocks.p file).
At present there's a bug that doesn't allow you to choose XVed at the time
you run blocks_go. But if you have already started XVed it works fine.
I hope this helps. If you come up with a better design I'll be happy to
install it in the packages collection.
Aaron
PS
I've also noticed that my documentation on prerequisites needs to say
something about font packages that work in Ved and Xved (e.g. showing
the 'special' graphical characters properly). I have a collection of
fonts set up for my fedora installation, but don't recall which are
required for ved and which are there for other reasons. There may already
be an ancient Poplog or Ved documentation file on fonts that I have
forgotten.
