OLIVE(1) OLIVE(1)
NAME
omero, olive - distributed window system
SYNOPSIS
o/mero [ -abcdi ] [ -m mnt ]
o/live [ -dDEFKLMPTW ] [ odir ] sdir
DESCRIPTION
This manual page is both an introduction and documentation
for the user interface to the window system. After reading
it, it is suggested to read ox(1) for a description of the
editor and shell interface.
The Octopus the window system, o/mero, does not draw and
does not interact with the user. O/mero implements a file
tree that represents a tree of graphical panels. Flags -abc
are similar to the bind(2) flags of the same name. Option -m
can be used to select mnt as the mount point instead of the
default /mnt/ui. Under flag -i the standard input is used
as a connection to the client.
All user interfaces are created as subtrees of the file tree
maintained by o/mero. The graphical representation of panels
in the screen corresponds to the file tree serviced by
o/mero to its clients. For example, a screen that contains
two rows has two corresponding files in its root directory.
If the user moves one row within the other using the mouse,
the same would happen to their respective files; and vice-
versa.
The root of the o/mero file tree, mounted at /mnt/ui by
default, contains a directory named appl , a file named
olive , and one additional directory per screen (or ses-
sion). A screen is a top-level panel used to keep other
panels within. It is used to represent what is to be shown
at a terminal.
You can refer to omero(4) for a description of the window
system and its file interface, and to panels(2) for a
description of the API to the window system.
O/live is a viewer that permits the user to interact with
o/mero. It uses a graphical terminal to display panels
according to the panel tree supplied by o/mero and accepts
mouse and keyboard input to operate on the panels. O/live
is the only program that knows how to draw, how to interact
with the mouse and the keyboard, and how to implement par-
ticular panel (or widget) type. Different user terminals
mount the same o/mero file tree and run o/live to view
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(parts of) it.
The argument odir to o/live is the path to the root of the
user interface tree. The argument sdir is the name of the
screen (directory) to be shown by o/live. It is feasible to
share the same screen among multiple o/lives. In this case,
editions are synchronized among viewers when the mouse
moves. Other flags shown in the synopsis activate various
debug diagnostics and are not discussed here.
Panels
Application interfaces are created by creating files under
/mnt/ui/appl. A new session may be created by creating a
directory at /mnt/ui instead.
Panels are shown at one or more screens by replicating their
files from /mnt/ui/appl at one or more screen subtrees.
Panel replicas may be moved around as desired. Some panels
exist only within a screen subtree (are not replicated) for
layout purposes, but most are replicas.
There are three kind of panels: rows, columns, and atoms.
Rows and columns group inner panels and handle their layout.
A row arranges for inner panels to be disposed in a row. A
column does what can be expected. Atoms include text,
images, gauges, etc. Omero(4) describes the complete list.
Any panel may have a tag (a square near its top-left cor-
ner). By default, rows and columns have tags, and atoms do
not. When a panel has hidden panels within it, its tag is
shown as a vertical rectangle instead of a square box. The
vertical space below the tag is called the margin.
A panel may be in a dirty state, when the application using
it considers that it has unsaved state. In this case, the
tag is shown in a light green color. This happens also to
any row or column that contains a dirty panel.
Selection
The user selection and clipboard are maintained using files
(that can be shared among machines). The file /mnt/snarf/sel
contains the path to the panel whose selection changed last.
The file /mnt/snarf/snarf is kept synchronized to the clip-
board by running snarf(1).
The selection determines the panel where to apply editing
commands and the directory where to execute external com-
mands. Using the left button of the mouse on a panel
changes the selection to that panel. Note that unlike in
Acme, a command does not apply to the file shown in the
panel where the command has been typed, but to the last
panel selected (Labels, single lines and buttons do not
OLIVE(1) OLIVE(1)
update the selection despite showing ticks and obeying
selection commands).
Mouse and keyboard
Moving the pointer to a panel arranges keyboard input to be
sent to it. But note that command execution refers to the
selection-panel, which may be a different one. Tags and
margins (and not just panel contents) accept input as well,
both using the mouse and the keyboard.
O/live can be used with either a two button mouse, a three
button mouse, or a mouse with one button and some way to
make a click with the second button. The right mouse button
is always named ``button 3'', the left one is ``button 1'',
and the middle one is ``button 2''. In Lsub Infernos, key-
board function keys `F1', `F2', and `F3' act as mouse but-
tons 1, 2, and 3.
Menus show different options in a circle around the point.
To select one you must move the pointer quickly in the
direction of the option.
While the menu is shown, a click with the same button that
raised the menu executes the last option selected in that
menu. A click with a different button closes the menu with-
out doing anything.
To aid touch pads, raising a menu and then drag with button
1 is undrestood as a drag with button 3.
Tag and margin commands
While on a tag or margin, the mouse can be used as follows:
Button 1 A drag on a tag moves the tagged panel. On rows
and columns a small vertical or horizontal drag
makes the container behave like a column or a row.
A single click resizes the panel according to the
following mouse actions: Another single click
(i.e., a double click) adjusts the size automati-
cally and a drag changes the size of the panel in
proportion to the destination of the drag. recom-
putes the layout for the tagged panel.
Button 2 A single click on a tag maximizes the panel, by
hiding its siblings on the outer row or column
containing it. If the panel is already maximized,
a single click shows all siblings, undoing the
effect.
Button 3 A click raises a menu with panel operations. A
drag can be used to adjust the size of the panel.
The menu shown at a tag (or margin) contains the following
options:
OLIVE(1) OLIVE(1)
Copy Makes the next drag copy the panel, instead of moving
it.
More Hide all but the first inner panel (when all were
shown) or show one more panel (when not all were
shown).
Hide Hides the panel.
Close Closes the panel (requires insisting if there are
pending changes). To terminate o/live (Without actu-
ally destroying the screen, kept within o/mero), use
this command on the top-left tag.
Top Zooms to make the panel full-screen. Zoom out to the
original subtree when the panel is already full-
screen.
Full Maximizes the panel by hiding siblings.
While on a tag (or a margin) the following keys perform the
indicated actions on the tagged panel:
Delete Send an interrupt request to the application (or
do nothing for layout panels).
Enter Zoom as needed to view the panel full-screen.
Left (the ``←'' key). Zoom out one level and show the
outer panel containing the entire screen (and
probably more).
Right (the ``→'' key). Zoom in one level down to the
tagged panel.
Up (the ``↑'' key) Show all the inner panels, which
might be hidden.
Down (the ``↓'' key). Hide all but the first inner
panel (when all were shown) or show one more
panel (when not all were shown).
Panel commands
While within a panel, the mouse can be used as follows:
Button 1 Can be used to change the selection and the inser-
tion point. Double and triple clicks select the
word at the pointer. The later consider characters
like ``/'' to be part of the word, the former does
not. A double click on white space selects an
entire line. One at an open bracket (or quote, or
...) selects all the text up to the closed bracket
(or quote, or ...).
Button 2 Executes the word or selection at the pointer as a
command. The command New would create a new col-
umn.
Button 3 A single click with the button 3 raises a menu. A
drag can be used to scroll up or down. The entire
panel represents the scroll bar. Scrolling speed
depends on the proximity of the initial drag point
to the end of the panel.
Chords Chords similar to those used by acme(1) are
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understood as well. They can be used to cut and
paste text. Refer to acme's manual page for a
reference.
The menu for a panel contains the following commands:
Open Opens the file whose name is the word or selection at
point. (To create a new file use the B command from
the editing language).
Close Closes the panel. If it is dirty it may be necessary
to insist by repeating the action. To terminate
o/live (Without actually destroying the screen, kept
within o/mero), use this command on the top-level
panel.
Write Writes changes made to the panel. On text panel this
means writing the edited text back to the file
server.
Exec Executes the command whose name is the word or selec-
tion at point.
Find Searches the panel to find the text at point.
Paste Inserts the contents of the clipboard at point. (To
``cut'' some text, use the backspace on a selection).
While on a panel, the following keys have special meaning:
Delete Send an interrupt request to the application.
Esc Select the text typed from the last mouse click.
Enter Execute the command typed from the last mouse
click.
Backspace When the selection is null, delete last charac-
ter. Otherwise, remove the selected text and copy
its contents to the clipboard(i.e., ``cut'').
^U ( Control and U). Delete last word.
Insert Paste the text in the clipboard.
Left (the ``←'' key). Undo.
Right (the ``→'' key). Redo.
Up (the ``↑'' key) Scroll up.
Down (the ``↓'' key). Scroll down.
EXAMPLE
Start the window system and a single viewer on it:
# create mount points if they do not exist
% mkdir -p /mnt/ui /mnt/ports
# start the event delivery service
% o/ports
# start the window system
% o/mero
# create a screen/session
% mkdir /mnt/ui/s0
# start the shell and browser
% o/x
# open a viewer for s0
OLIVE(1) OLIVE(1)
% o/live s0
After exiting Olive you may run it again to see your session
as it was.
SOURCE
/usr/octopus/port/live
/usr/octopus/port/mero
SEE ALSO
ox(1), ports(4), panels(2), omero(4), and snarf(1).
BUGS
Under certain circumstances Olive may report a concurrent
edition when that is not the case. The only way out from
this is to use the menu at the tag to close the panel and
then reopen it again. This will be fixed soon.