Please note: this is work in progress! Send corrections and suggestions to the contact address below.
Last modified on Tue Aug 3 12:20:00 PDT 2004 by stoffler
Author: | stoffler |
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contact: | stoffler@scripps.edu |
You have 3 choices:
Everything you need to know about Network Nodes.
Left-click on the node icon in the node library, drag-and-drop the node icon to the network canvas, then release the left mouse button.
There are multiple ways to delete a node:
Select the nodes to be deleted. Then use the same mechanism to delete a single node.
Draw a selection box around the node: left-click on the network canvas, move the mouse while keeping the left mouse button pressed down. A selection box is drawn. A node has to be completely within the selecion box to be selected. Selected nodes are highlighted yellow.
Draw a selection box around multiple nodes.
Left-click on the network canvas, then press <Shift> and move the mouse while keeping the left mouse button pressed down.
Everything you need to know about connections between nodes.
Note: Releasing the left-mouse button while the rubber-band is not connected to any input port aborts the operation.
Note: if the mouse pointer is not exactly over the connection line, the pull-down menu of the network opens.
Pressing this button generates a postscript file of the current network called "network.ps", saved in the directory Vision was started. It is up to the user to send this file to a printer.
Click the black "Binoculars" icon in the toolbar to open the "Search Nodes Panel".
The "Search string" is matched against the node's name and it's documentation string. All matches are displayed as node icons in the "Found Nodes" panel, from where the nodes can be drag-and-drop-ed to the network. Starting a new search clears the "Found Node" panel and adds the new matches.
Vision node libraries contain the source code for Vision nodes and also define specific data types.
Choose the menu entry "Load Libraries..." in the main menu entry "Libraries". The Load Libraries panel then displays a selection of libraries as defined in the Vision resource file _visionrc (see "The Vision Resource File").
A library can be loaded by:
Unlike "Load Libraries", the "Browse Libraries" panel allows to load node libraries which were not defined in the _visionrc file. Because we search for Vision node libraries in all available Python packages, this operation can be slow on older computers.
These are the steps to load a library:
Yes. In order to gain some "real estate" on the screen, one can completely hide Vision's node library panel. Use the menu entry "Hide Libraries" which will hide the node library panel and change the menu entry to "Show Libraries".
Nodes can still be added to the network using the "Search Nodes Panel" (see FAQ).
This equally distributes (resizes) the category paned widgets in the currently selected node library.
Modified nodes or macros can be added (and saved) only in User Libraries.
Although this is a rather advanced operation, simply follow this easy step-by-step guide. Basically, you create a new Python package from which Python can import your new node library.
Please follow this protocol:
Now, start Vision. We are ready to create a new node library!
Now, fill out the form. As an example, here is how this correlates to the Standard library:
Prerequisites:
Now, in the main menu "Libraries" choose "User Libraries", then "Add Node...". A panel pops up. Fill out the form:
Finally, press the "Add Node..." button. This writes the node source code to to your library file, adds a node icon to your user library, and replaces the selected node on the current network with the new library node (check if the node's color changed: main menu "Edit"->"Color Node by Library").
The _visionrc file is used to customize your Vision session. Mainly, it is used to define which node libraries are loaded by default, which libraries are displayed in the "Load Libraries" panel, and the path to your user-defined node libraries. Upon starting Vision, we check for a _visionrc file in the current directory, then in your home directory, and finally in the Vision package. The first one found is sourced.
Vision comes with a default _visionrc file which can be found in the Vision package.
To customize the default _visionrc file copy it from the Vision package to your current directory or your home directory and open it with your favourite text editor. Read the comments in the _visionrc file which explain in detail how to customize the file.
To convert this file from restructured text to html, use the rst2html.py script from python's docutils project as follows:
rst2html.py -stg FAQ.txt FAQ.html
The -stg flags direct the translator to add the footer seen below.