[Oberon] ALO User Manual V1

Tue Jun 3 15:31:28 CEST 2014

Cc: <USEnet rPi group>

2014 June 2.  What better way to beta-test a new system, than log your efforts
into a User's Manual?

No, the rPi is not just a toy: it's got the use of the thousands of Debian
 supported programs and any other *nix system you chose.

Now ETHO adds that special user interface, for speed use or difficult tasks.
The author has named it ALO.      ARM Linux Oberon.

klux = <Do the appropriate mouse chord>.

Here's a set of questions, with answer from AOL:-

What's the present dir?
A: I have the file: PWD in dirs that launch [different versions of] ALO;
 PWD lists the 'present working dir' and other useful info.
So, `klux  PWD` tells you. That's one mouse action.
----
What's the contents of the present dir?
A: klux your personal Tool/menu: That's one mouse action.
System.Directory  *\d                 [for ls -l *]
----
What's the size of that PWD file mentioned above?
A: klux and modify klux your personal Tool/menu:
System.Directory  PWD\d =
PWD   24.05.2014 16:55:21   8091
PWD.Bak   24.05.2014 03:31:40   8089
ALO0508:PWD   22.05.2014 11:27:17     89

3 files use 16K bytes
----
Why does it list 3 files?
A: ETHO backs-up the previous copy, for every save,
and the 3rd file listed, is in another/different mounted dir,
which is in the background.
klux-ing each of the 3 names, loads [for viewing/editing]
each file.
----
Why does klux-ing PWD show a file with multi-colored text,
 and for ALO0508:PWD just an overflowing single-line?
A: PWD was saved in the default ETHO format, since I
decided to use coloring & font to elaborate the text;
whereas ALO0508:PWD was saved as plain *nix:ASCII.
----
So how do I access ALO0508:PWD as plain *nix:ASCII?
A: klux your personal Tool/menu:
EditTools.OpenUnix ^  ALO0508:PWD
----
Is the ETHO format a Disabling-Monster like pdf & word?
A: No, ETHO formatted text files are easily viewable under *nix by eg:
`cat Filename |strings` or your normal *nix-editor.
To see the actual bytes of PWD, mentioned above:
klux your personal Tool/menu:
Hex.Open ^ PWD
This shows a nice *nix-like `hexdump -C` viewer, which unfortunately
can't be copy/pasted from.  I'll try to rename the viewer as: SYS:Hex
and save it, for reloading to copy/paste. == TRAP 108  HALT statement!
ETHO users hate needing to read and copy type-in long text.
In this case, Hex.Open ^ PWD shows that there's an ETHO header of
288(hex) bytes and then the plain ASCII starts.
In fact, viewing PWD via: EditTools.OpenUnix PWD
shows a perfectly viewable, copy/paste-able Viewer of plain text
after the 8 [in this case] overflowing lines of ETHO-header.
----
What about *htm*?
A: 15 years ago, ETHO inet facilities were superb., but now lack the new
httpS, ssh etc. requirements; so ALO users would use linux's underlying
superior URL-fetching.
And then for viewing/editing the fetched/saved *htm* :
1st find a *htm* to view, by: klux System.Directory *htm* =
  OberonReport.html
  HTM:index.html
...
  HTM2:index.html
20 files
=========
klux:  Desktops.OpenDoc  OberonReport.html =
shows no contents except 2 line header:--
URL: "file:OberonReport.html"
Title: Oberon Language Report
=====
A: let's see the source:
klux: EditTools.OpenUnix OberonReport.html =
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Oberon Language Report</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Oberon Language Report">
...
<H2>3. Vocabulary and representation</H2>
The representation of symbols in terms of characters is defined using the
ASCII set.
...
<HR>
</BODY></HTML>
 This looks OK, and it's perfectly viewable with mc:lynx. Must investige?
=====
Let's try: klux Desktops.OpenDoc   HTM2:index.html
Wow!! various fonts and colours etc:--
URL: "file:HTM2:index.html"
Title: Wily Homepage
The primary location for these documents is http://www.cs.su.oz.au/~gary/wily/
...and a big cartoon, which I can copy/PASTE to my own textViewer;
to this very one that I'm typing to now.
ETHO is just TOO MUCH!!
=====
Let's see if/how the links are extractable for fetching by eg. wget or lynx
klux your personal Tool/menu: HyperDocTools.LinkIndex *
Good!! a Viewer listing the links' names & URLs eg:
 Tcl   http://lila.york.ac.uk/wtcl/
[BTW wily is a brilliant utility that work well on rPi, copied is from ETHO,
by the Plan9 designers, who originated unix - don't call me a name-dropper.]
=========
Let's try: klux Desktops.OpenDoc  HTM:index.html ==
URL: "file:HTM:index.html"
Title: BBC - Homepage
--- only these 2 lines ?
Let's examine the source: EditTools.OpenUnix HTM:index.html ==
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML+RDFa ...
<script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/
window.orb = window.orb || {};
(function() {
...
OK: ETHO doesn't do javascript. Perhaps ETH:A2 does ?
Yes, I edited, compiled test-ran Hello.World under ALO.
...to be continued...