Configuring Classes with options.wrm
The special configuration file wspec/options.wrm is read
in conjunction with the database models when the acedb application
starts up.
It holds the class definitions necessary to the applications.
The kernel classes are defined in the program code.
Most options can be changed freely to configure the behaviour
of certain aspects of the program.
File format
All lines starting with _V<class> are parsed, where <class>
is a valid class name from the database models or the name of
a kernel class, if it is wise to change its configuration.
This token is followed by a set of parameters which is written
like a Unix style command line, i.e. each option starts with a dash '-'
followed by the option name. Option names can be abbreviated down
to the shortest possible length where no ambiguity is possible.
Class options
- -Visible
- This class will automatically appear in the class chooser of
the acedb main window.
This will only affect the default class layout when the
program first starts. The final layout of the classes
in the main window can be configured in the
Layout editor or in the configuration
file wspec/layout.wrm
- -Hidden
- This class is not shown automatically in the main window
class chooser, but will be listed in the class-menu in the
button 'Other class...' in the main window.
- -Array
- The class is of type 'A' (a class containing fixed sized
elements in the style of arrays or tuples.)
An example is the built-in DNA class, which contains a sequence
of special characters A, C, T, G.
The user will not typically use this option.
- -Btree
- The class is of type 'B', which are the user-defined classes
in models.wrm, which have a tree-like structure.
As this is the default for classes that appear in models.wrm,
The user will not typically use this option.
- -Display <displaytype>
- An important option to configure the behaviour of the graphical
acedb applications. All 'B' class objects are usually shown
in the textual Tree display, when the
object is fecthed by a double click in a graphical display.
However special displays like the Map displays have been written
for certain classes to present the object's information
graphically.
This option is used to configure, which display will be used by
default. There are a number of displays, but to give an example,
the type GMAP is used for the Map class, or the type FMAP for the
Sequence class. The option 'Show as Text' which is available
in the KeySet window and also in map
displays will force the display in the default TREE display
if necessary.
- -Title <Tag>
- If present in some object of that class, the text following it
will be used preferentially when referring to that object.
- -Symbol <Tag>
- If present in some object of that class, the text
or key following it will be used preferentially
when referring to that object in Maps.
- -Rename <otherName>
- Other name will show in lists, old and new
name will be recognized in ace files and queries, old
is used in the code. In case some newName
matches some old name, the new name takes precedence.
- -CaseSensitive
- The names in this class will be case sensitive
(case-insensitivity is the default).
This applies to all queries. A case-sensitive class
can have an object called 'aa' and another object 'AA'.
By default a class is not case-sensitive, so in that class
any mention of 'aa' will refer to the same object as 'AA'.
Never undo this option once it has been used, as it may corrupt
the integrity of the database. Imagine you have a case-sensitive
class with two object called 'aa' and 'AA'. If this class was
now made ce-insensitive, you would have to fuse the two objects
'aa' and 'AA' into one object, because in the case-insensitive
class noth names would refer to the same object.
This can be achieved by hand, if the whole class in dumped,
then you unset this option and destroy the class in the database
before reading in the dump file. The parser would then fuse the
objects as necessary but with unforseen consequences.
- -Known
- Prevents indirect creation of new object in ace files
You can't enter a new object in this class directly
but not by quoting it in another object.
The default options for each user-defined classes are
-Btree -Hidden -Display TREE.
Every 'A' class has a special function the program that defined how the
array elements are to be read from an ace-file and how they are dunped out to an ace-file. These classes are therefor built into the program code
and probably shouldn't be re-configured.
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last edited: April 1999