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<H2><A NAME="sec:3.1"><SPAN class="sec-nr">3.1</SPAN> <SPAN class="sec-title">Overview</SPAN></A></H2>
<P>The online manual consists of a large set of tools to examine
different aspects of the <font size=-1>XPCE/P</font>rolog environment
and to navigate through the available material from different
view-points.
<DL>
<DT><STRONG>The inheritance hierarchy</STRONG> <I>(Browsers/Class
Hierarchy)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:classhierarchy:80"></A>The `Class Hierarchy' tool allows
the user to examine <font size=-1>XPCE</font>'s class hierarchy. This
tool reads the inheritance relations from the class objects and thus
also visualises application or library classes.
<A class="fig" href="sec-C.2.html#fig:pceclasshierarchy">Figure 42</A>
is created using this tool.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>The structure of a class</STRONG> <I>(Browsers/Class Browser)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:classstructure:81"></A>The most important tool is the
`Class Browser'. It provides the user with a view of material related to
a class. As everything in
<font size=-1>XPCE</font> is an object and thus an instance of a class
this tool provides access to everything in <font size=-1>XPCE</font>,
except for the Prolog interface.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>Search Tool</STRONG> <I>(Browsers/Search)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
This tool provides full search capabilities on the entire manual
contents, including combined search specifications.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>Globally available object references</STRONG> <I>(Browsers/Global
Objects)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:globalobjects:82"></A>The <font size=-1>XPCE</font>
environment provides predefined objects (<A NAME="idx:pce:83"></A><B>@pce</B>, <A NAME="idx:prolog:84"></A><B>@prolog</B>, <A NAME="idx:arg1:85"></A><B>@arg1</B>,
etc.). The tool allows the user to find these objects.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>Prolog interface predicates</STRONG> <I>(Browsers/Prolog
Predicates)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:Prologinterface:86"></A>This tool documents all the <font size=-1>XPCE/P</font>rolog
predicates.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>Instances</STRONG> <I>(Tools/Inspector)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:inspectinginstances:87"></A><A NAME="idx:objectinspecting:88"></A>This
tool is part of the runtime support system. It allows you to inspect the
persistent state associated with objects.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>Structure of User Interface</STRONG> <I>(Tools/Visual
Hierarchy)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:UIstructureof:89"></A><A NAME="idx:consistsof:90"></A>This
tool provides a `consists-of' view of all displayed visual objects. It
provides a quick overview of the structure of an interface. It is a
useful for finding object-references, examining the structure of an
unknown UI and verifying that your program created the expected
structure.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>The manual itself (help)</STRONG> <I>(File/Help)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:helponmanual:91"></A>The manual tools are documented by
itself. Each tool has a `Help' button that documents the tool.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><font size=-1>XPCE</font> Demo programs</STRONG> <I>(File/Demo
Programs)</I></DT>
<DD class="defbody">
<A NAME="idx:demoprograms:92"></A>The `Demo Programs' entry of the
`File' menu starts an overview of the available demo programs. A demo
can be started by double-clicking it. The sources of the demos may be
found in <CODE><<VAR>home</VAR>>/prolog/demo</CODE>, where <<VAR>home</VAR>>
refers to the <font size=-1>XPCE</font> installation directory, which
may be obtained using
<PRE class="code">
1 ?- get(@pce, home, Home).
Home = '/usr/local/lib/pl-4.0.0/xpce'
</PRE>
<P>Note that the DemoBrowser allows to view the sources of the main file
of a demo application immediately. Also consider using the
VisualHierarchy and ClassBrowser to analyse the structure of the demo
programs.
</DD>
</DL>
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