daVinci [-display <X11 display>] [-font <normal | large | extra_large>] [-graphbg <X11 color>] [-graphedit] [-graphedit_old] [-help] [-init <filename>] [-log <filename>] [-nocache] [-nogui] [-pipe] [-server ?port?] [-speedy] [-startappl <directory> <filename/options>] [-verify] [-version] [-window_api] daVinci-file
With this option, the grapheditor is started in the new user-interface mode, as if the -nogui option would have been set for daVinci. Additionally the grapheditor is connected via TCP/IP sockets, if the option -server is supplied to daVinci as well.
The syntax of the file is just a list of API commands, defined for
daVinci_commands.
With this option set, the
API command category Graphical User-Interface
must be used and the
API command category Application Menu
can't be used. If the option is not set, this is true vice versa.
So for example, if you have installed daVinci in your home
directory /home/me, then you have to set the environment variable
$DAVINCIHOME to /home/me/daVinci_V2.1.
daVinci will not come up, if this environment variable
is undefined.
Note: Be careful with moving the daVinci distribution to
another location on your filesystem later. You can do so (by setting
$DAVINCIHOME to the new location), but users may have problems accessing
the help system afterwards. The reason is that daVinci stores the
current location of the online documentation when
the user saves the options with menu
Options/Save Options,
so these users will always look for the documentation at the specified former
location. The current setting can be seen and modified with the
General Settings dialog,
available after using menu
Options/Save Options.
So if you have to move the daVinci distribution, make sure that all
users are updating or removing their saved options (stored in file
~/.daVinci). Otherwise you can leave a symbolic link at the
former daVinci location for backward compatibility.
By default, daVinci will look for an icon in directory
$DAVINCIHOME/icons first. One can specify additional directories
that should be searched afterwards by setting this environment variable.
The single directories are separated with a colon, so for example to define
two additional icon directories /home/me/myicons and
/home/mycolleague/his_icons, simply set $DAVINCI_ICONDIR to
/home/me/myicons:/home/mycolleague/his_icons.
Option -graphedit_old
This is the same as -graphedit above, except that the old user-interface mode
is used, as in daVinci versions prior to V2.1.1. Please keep in mind,
that some new grapheditor features are only available in the new mode.
Option -help
Displays a help message to inform about the command-line syntax.
daVinci will not start with this option.
Option -init <filename>
With this option you can specify a file containing initial API commands. These
commands are executed immediately after starting daVinci. You can use all API
commands, except those of the categories Multi,
Application Menu and
Drag & Drop. The answers of these commands,
you usually get, if you send them via the API, are ignored, if no application is connected, otherwise they are send to the API answers pipe. Use this option carefully,
if you've connected an application on command-line via options -pipe or -startappl or -graphedit, because this could result in a
strange behaviour of the application.
Option -log <filename>
In the file specified with this option, daVinci will log all API
commands and answers. Every command is preceded by the word 'Command: ' and
every answer is preceded by the word 'Answer: '. This option is very usefull
for debugging purposes. You can test this option by looking at the grapheditor
communication. Start daVinci like this: daVinci -graphedit -log /tmp/daVinci.log and have a look at the file /tmp/daVinci.log. Try
the command tail -f /tmp/daVinci.log to see the communication continously
or grep 'Command:' /tmp/daVinci.log | tail -f to see only the API commands
and appropriately for API answers.
Option -nocache
Switches the
pixmap cache
off. This is useful in case of problems with not enough memory.
daVinci will crash with a X Error: BadAlloc message
as soon as no more memory is available.
Option -nogui
This option starts daVinci without any user-interface elements.
Especially it doesn't open the first daVinci base-window, before a
gui(configure(...)) or a
window(deiconify) command is
received. Please refer to the API command category Graphical User-Interface to find out more about the configurable
features of the user-interface. Warning: If you start "daVinci -nogui &" you'll never
see any window and the only chance to get rid of the daVinci process
is the kill command.
Option -pipe
This option should be used if daVinci is started by an application
program. Read the
API reference
for details about applications communicating with daVinci.
By using this option, the daVinci API is enabled and most of the
entries of the
File menu
are deactivated to guarantee that the user will not be able to remove
a graph sent by an application for visualization.
Option -server ?port?
This option starts daVinci as a socket server on the specified port.
Please refer to How to Connect an Application
to find out more about the TCP/IP socket communication. Usually this option
should be supplied without a port number to use the
daVinci standard socket-port
for the communication. If this is not desired, any legal port number can be
supplied as a parameter for this option.
Option -speedy
Accelerates the drawing performance for very slow computers. This will only
drop the arrows of edges in the graph visualization at the moment. For todays
fast computers, drawing the arrows is not a problem, so using this option is
usually not required.
Option -startappl <Directory> <Filename/Options>
Connects the application, specified by Filename and located in the
given Directory, at initialization time to the daVinci
API.
Note that there is a space required between the directory and filename.
If options are needed to start the application, then the filename has to be
quoted in the shell together with the options
(e.g. -startappl /bin `testappl -opt1 arg1 arg2 -opt2' to start
application testappl in directory /bin with the given
options). An application can also be connected at runtime by using menu
File/Connect Application....
Option -verify
(Only available in daVinci V2.0.2 or higher.) This option is intended
for debugging. By using this option, daVinci verifies some internal
data structures after updating a graph with API command
graph(update(...)).
You should start daVinci with this option if you get strange
effects or bugs after graph updates. The verification costs some time,
so usually the function is switched off for performance reasons and must be
explicitly switched on by the user.
Option -version
Displays the current version of daVinci on command-line.
daVinci will not start with this option.
Option -window_api
In former versions of daVinci, the API supported only the multi-graph
feature, but not the multi-window feature. Starting with daVinci V2.1
you can set the API into the new Window-API mode by setting this option on
command-line at startup. You can't change this behaviour at runtime. See
API command category Multi
for more informations.
Environment Variables
Windows NT: On Windows NT environment variables have to be set in the
environment part of the System-dialog. Please use '/' instead of '\' for all
variables containing paths for the daVinci system. Please refer to
the Windows NT help system and documentation to find out more about
environment variables.
$DAVINCIHOME
This is the most important environment variable which specifies the location
of the daVinci distribution on your computer, i.e. the absolute file
name of the topmost directory daVinci_V2.1. To get proper results,
you need to set this variable in the shell before using the system.
daVinci needs to know this location to find resources, e.g. the
online documentation
or the
graph editor.
$DAVINCI_LANG
This variable is needed for the internationalization of daVinci,
because it was not possible to find out the current language on all supported
platforms. If this variable is not set, a value of C is supposed.
You can find out the supported values by looking into the directory
$DAVINCIHOME/lib/daVinci, where you'll find the language files, whose
names are build like daVinci_${DAVINCI_LANG}.lang. There should be at
least files for languages C (english, default) and de (german). Please read more about the internationalization of daVinci in the
internationalization chapter.
$DAVINCI_ICONDIR
This environment variable specifies all directories where daVinci
will look for files containing icon images in X11 bitmap format
(.xbm). Icons are used in daVinci to visualize particular
nodes of a graph (refer to
term representation)
and for the
icon bar
of the base window which can be extended by application specific icons with
API command
app_menu(create_icons(...)).
$GRAPHEDITOR_DIRECTORY
By default, daVinci will look for the
graph editor application
in directory $DAVINCIHOME/grapheditor, if started with option
-graphedit.
To look for the editor at another location, one can set environment variable
$GRAPHEDITOR_DIRECTORY to point to a different directory. But usually, it is
not recommended to manipulate the files in the daVinci distribution
this way.
daVinci V2.1.1 Online Documentation - Page update: Oct 21, 1998