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Math Forum / Math Software / Scilab / February 2008Load help files at startup
Hi, I have made a toolbox and added lines like this; SCI_CS = 'U:\SciLab\' load(SCI_CS+'cs_signal\macros\lib') ...in my scilab.star file. It seems like the functions are loaded into scilab at startup. But it doesn't seems like the help files are loaded automatically. Do I need to add a new line in my scilab.star file to load the help chapters I created? Regards Markus > But it doesn't seems like the help files are loaded > automatically. Do I need to add a new line in my scilab.star file to > load the help chapters I created? See help add_help_chapter Francois > > But it doesn't seems like the help files are loaded > > automatically. Do I need to add a new line in my scilab.star file to [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Francois Hi, Using add_help_chapter in the scilab.star file does not work. The function throws an error complaining about variable SCI is not defined. How are the help files for the built in libraries loaded? Is that being hardcoded when compiling the scilab soure code or someting? Each such library has at least a line in the scilab.star file like e.g. " load('SCI/macros/sci2for/lib') " but I cannot find anyplace in the .star file where the corresponding help chapters are loaded, can I? Thanks Markus Markus said on 20/02/2008 19:48: > Using add_help_chapter in the scilab.star file does not work. The > function throws an error complaining about variable SCI is not > defined. Please provide exact error message, not a vague description. Launch Scilab and type: SCI What's the output? Francois > Markus said on 20/02/2008 19:48: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Francois Sorry about the vague descriptiuon. Here is the output I get when I start scilab: *************************************************** ___________________________________ scilab-4.1.2 Copyright (c) 1989-2007 Consortium Scilab (INRIA, ENPC) ___________________________________________ Startup execution: loading initial environment !--error 4 undefined variable : SCI at line 13 of function pathconvert called by : line 3 of function add_help_chapter called by : g', 'U:\scilab\cs_hydraulics\help\') line 80 of exec file called by : exec('SCI/scilab.star',-1);; -->SCI !--error 4 undefined variable : SCI *************************************************** The lines I added to the scilab.star file looks like: *************************************************** // Load Control Systems scilab functions libraries =================== SCI_CS = 'U:\SciLab\'; load(SCI_CS+'cs_hydraulics\macros\lib') // Add help chapters for Control Systems libraries. add_help_chapter('CS signal processing', 'U:\scilab\cs_hydraulics\help \'); *************************************************** I hope that make is more clear. Regards Markus > Startup execution: > loading initial environment [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > line 80 of exec file called by : > exec('SCI/scilab.star',-1);; Of course, you took care to add your lines: > SCI_CS = 'U:\SciLab\'; > load(SCI_CS+'cs_hydraulics\macros\lib') > // Add help chapters for Control Systems libraries. > add_help_chapter('CS signal processing', 'U:\scilab\cs_hydraulics\help > \'); *after* line 77 of scilab.star, which defines SCI, i.e. after the line: SCI=getenv('SCI') Can you check that? Btw, what does SCI=getenv('SCI') spit in the scilab shell after having launched Scilab without your added lines in scilab.star? Francois Note! I now test on another computer so the path might differ from previous posts. Although I don't think it matters. Anyhow, I got it working at last. This is what happened... If I completely removed the add_help_chapter line from the scilab.star file then scilab outputs getenv('SCI') as follows. ****************************************** -->getenv('SCI') ans = C:/Program/SCILAB~1.2 ****************************************** However, I also tried to move the add_help_chapter line after the the declaration of SCI but then I got this error instead: ****************************************** Startup execution: loading initial environment !--error 4 undefined variable : MSDOS at line 18 of function pathconvert called by : line 3 of function add_help_chapter called by : add_help_chapter('CS hydraulics', SCI_CS +'cs_hydraulics\help\'); line 83 of exec file called by : exec('SCI/scilab.star',-1);; ****************************************** But I finally got it working! I ended up with putting my add_help_chapter line in the scilab.star file where it looks like: ****************************************** //Scilab Help Chapters, =============================================== global %helps %helps=initial_help_chapters(LANGUAGE) clear initial_help_chapters //%helps // Add help chapters for Control Systems libraries. This and the line below is added by myself! add_help_chapter('CS hydraulics', SCI_CS +'cs_hydraulics\help\'); ****************************************** (It should be somewhere around line 120 in the original scilab.star file) However it seems strange to me why the original lines like e.g. load('SCI/macros/mtlb/lib'), which goes before the declaration of SCI=getenv('SCI') works? There exists no directory namned SCI so I suppose the function load() has to somewhat interpret it. So why couldn't add_help_chapter do that too? Secondly, it seems that the function initial_help_chapters() overwrites everything in the help so that it is no point adding your own help chapters before that line. Is that right? I tried to write "help initial_help_chapters" at the scilab prompt but the function wasn't documented. > However it seems strange to me why the original lines like e.g. > load('SCI/macros/mtlb/lib'), which goes before the declaration of > SCI=getenv('SCI') works? load("SCI/...") passes a string to the load internal instruction SCI=getenv("SCI") retrieves the environment variable named SCI and puts its value into a Scilab variable named SCI. load() does not need to know Scilab variables, it can parse a string and substitute internally the special character string SCI to its value. SCI is a shortcut for "the folder where Scilab was installed". > There exists no directory namned SCI so I > suppose the function load() has to somewhat interpret it. So why > couldn't add_help_chapter do that too? Because it was not supposed to do it. The user initialisation scripts such as the instructions you add in scilab.star are not supposed to be added in this file in fact, but rather in a user initialisation file. See help startup for details. > Secondly, it seems that the function initial_help_chapters() > overwrites everything in the help so that it is no point adding your > own help chapters before that line. Is that right? It can be, I didn't check. This is indeed no so surprising that function *initial*_help_chapters resets the help chapters, while *add*_help_chapter does not, don't you think so? Again, you're not supposed to fiddle in scilab.star but to have your own init script. > I tried to write > "help initial_help_chapters" at the scilab prompt but the function > wasn't documented. IMO this can be considered as a bug, please file a bug report: http://www.scilab.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla_bug_II/index.cgi Francois Okey, I didn't even know I could have some kind of own ini file! In fact I think I searched for an *.ini file in the scilos directory but found nothing. Then I saw the .star mentioned somewhere I thought that was the scilos equavilent. And I had no idea that startup would have been the word to serach for in the help. So thanks for the tip! I don't think it's obivous that the function initial_help_characters resets the help chapters. It depends on how it works (which I don't know as a new user to scilab). If e.g. the help chapters of a former instance of scilab persists after you've closed the program, you should of course not add the initial help chapter once again when starting the program next time. However, that still doesn't mean you have to remove other already existing help chapters. Anyhow, it doesn't really matters as long as you can read how it works. So now I will try to file a bug report. Thanks! |
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