GUI Look And Feel¶ ↑
See also
The Print window manager gives special meaning to each mouse button as described in the PrintWindowManager section.
This interface is profligate in its use of windows. In the course of a simulation it is expected that windows will be created and destroyed freely. In OpenLook one dismisses a window merely by pressing the right(menu) button in the window header area and selecting dismiss. If your window manager does not support easy dismissing of windows then you MUST invoke nrniv with the automatic dismiss button feature. The default widget style is MOTIF but openlook style can be selected. The relevant options are
nrniv -dismissbutton -openlook ...
Scene¶ ↑
Graphs and Shape windows are instances of views into a scene.
from neuron import h
g = h.Graph()
g.label("here is some text")
g.beginline()
g.line(100, 50)
g.line(200, 100)
g.flush()
#pop up an example of a scene
A scene is defined as the space represented by the model coordinate system. A view is defined as that portion of the scene which is drawn in the window. There can be many views into a scene and each scene has its own menu selections but they can be different for different scenes. Scenes use an openlook style in which the right(menu) mouse button pops up menus from which one either selects an action to be performed immediately, eg. Round or Whole Scene, or else selects a meaning for the left(select) mouse button which will be used when the left mouse button is pressed within any view of that particular scene. This can be thought of as selecting a tool with the right button and wielding that tool with the left button. These menu items are like radio buttons in that only one is active at a time. It is recommended that when you move into a view you quickly pop up the menu so you can be certain of the meaning of the left button. The middle button translates the view around the scene. All scenes have a common View menu as the first menu item with which one can create a new view, zoom in/out, round the view or make the view correspond to the natural size of the scene.
NewView¶ ↑
New View: Mode for creation of new view windows. Use the left mouse button to draw a rectangle in the view which will become the interior of a new view. Press the left mouse button at one corner of the desired view and drag it to the opposite corner. The new view window can then be resized and positioned using your window manager.
ZoomInOut¶ ↑
Zoom in/out: The location where the left mouse button is pressed is the fixed point of zooming, ie doesn’t change its position. Dragging the mouse up and to the right zooms in. Dragging the mouse down and to the left zooms out. Graph views have independent scaling in the x and y directions. There is a bias toward changing only one dimension corresponding to the general drag direction. Shape views have a constant aspect ratio so only the x direction is used for zooming.
WholeScene¶ ↑
Whole Scene: Adjusts the zoom and translation so the view is of the entire scene with a 10% border.
SetView¶ ↑
Set View: Successive dialogs for x and y view size each require user to enter two space separated numbers for the beginning and end of axis. Default values are left, right, bottom, top of view reduced by 10%. The view size is set to the entries and then the view zooms out by 10%. ie accepting the default values leaves the view unchanged.
Scene = View¶ ↑
Scene=View: Defines the size of the whole scene. Sets the scene size to the size of the view. Subsequent Whole Scene adjustments will return to this size.
ObjectName¶ ↑
Prints the name by which the interpreter knows this object. Within this session the user can use this name to manipulate the object via interpreter commands.
Browser¶ ↑
Browsers are visible lists.
from neuron import h, gui
f = h.File()
f.chooser('', 'Example file browser', '*', 'Type file name', 'Cancel')
while f.chooser():
print(f.getname())
The list can be scrolled with a scroll bar but I think it is most convenient to drag the list up and down with the middle mouse button. Rate scrolling is controlled with the right mouse button. The left button highlights a selection. Double clicking generally executes the selection. Browsers are used to select files for printing, variables for plotting, etc. Sometimes, a browser has a field editor in which one can directly type an entry. Usually after an item has been selected you have to press an Accept or Cancel button to actually execute the selection. Browsers can be scrolled with d, u, j, k, n, p and others.
FieldEditor¶ ↑
See also ValueEditor, a FieldEditor for floating point numbers. Field editors accept a string entered by the user. The allowed strings are determined by the context. In not all cases does typing the return key signal the execution of a selection (if not, press the accept button). Field editors have an emacs-like syntax and typing characters inserts them at the cursor. The left mouse button specifies the cursor location and dragging selects a portion of the string. After selecting a portion of the string, typing a character will replace that portion with the character.
^A beginning of line
^E end of line
^F forward one character
^B backward one character
^U select whole string
^W select from cursor to beginning of string
^D delete next character
^H delete previous character
return (normally accept)
escape, ^G (normally cancel)
and others
Panel¶ ↑
Panels: windows containing buttons, menus, and value editors. All mouse buttons mean the same thing.
If the number of items in a vertically arranged single panel is greater
than the number in the *panel_scroll: resource in the
`$(NEURONHOME)/lib/nrn.defaults https://github.com/neuronsimulator/nrn/blob/master/share/lib/nrn.defaults.in>`_ file (default 12) then the panel items
are shown in a scroll box so that they do not take up so much screen
space.
See xpanel() for hoc functions to generate panels
from neuron import h
# pop up example panel
strdef tempstr
tempstr = "slider................."
x=.1
xx = 0
y=0
z=0
h.xpanel("Example Panel")
h.xbutton("PushButton", "print \"released button\"")
h.xlabel("Following two are for variable x")
h.xvalue("Value Editor", "x", 0, "print x")
h.xvalue("Default Value Editor for variable x", "x", 1, "print x")
h.xcheckbox("Checkbox", &y, "print \"state y is \", y")
h.xstatebutton("StateButton", &z, "print \"state z is \", z")
h.xmenu("Example Menu")
h.xbutton("Item 1", "print \"selected item 1\"")
h.xbutton("Item 2", "print \"selected item 2\"")
h.xcheckbox("Checkbox", &y, "print \"state y is \", y")
h.xradiobutton("Radio 1", "print 1")
h.xradiobutton("Radio 2", "print 2")
h.xradiobutton("Radio 3", "print 3")
h.xmenu()
h.xlabel("Following 3 are mutually exclusive")
h.xradiobutton("Radio 1", "print 1")
h.xradiobutton("Radio 2", "print 2")
h.xradiobutton("Radio 3", "print 3")
h.xvarlabel(tempstr)
h.xslider(&xx, 0, 100, "sprint(tempstr, \"slider for xx = %g\", xx)")
h.xpanel()
Button¶ ↑
Buttons: execute an action when the mouse button is pressed and released over the button widget.
ValueEditor¶ ↑
Value editor: A combination button with label and a field editor. If a value is being entered the label is colored yellow and there is a cursor in the field editor. You might have a desired value in the editor but if the label is yellow the computer will not know it. Make sure values are accepted by pressing return or by pressing the button. Arbitrary expressions may be entered into value editors. They will be replaced by their value upon acceptance. Pressing the middle/right mouse button over a digit will increase/decrease the digit by 1. Dragging will increase/decrease repeatedly. (but don’t forget to release the label button to accept the value).
Default Value Editor¶ ↑
Default Value editor: These value editors have an extra check box to the left of the value field which is marked when the value is different from its creation value. One may toggle between the default and most recent value by pressing the check box with the left or middle mouse button. The default value may be permanently changed by pressing the check box with the right button. On the right of the value field is a stepper (little button with the up arrow) that is used to change values in lieu of typing a number. The stepper works as follows: left mouse button: increase by the increment middle mouse button: decrease by the increment right mouse button: select the increment. Res stands for resolution and means the increment is the least significant digit in the value field. The only other increments are the decades between .001 and 1000. When holding down the left or right mouse button, after a short time the stepper will repeatedly increment the value field. Every 20 steps, the increment will increase by a factor of 10 but will return to its first step value on release. The repetition mode will not cross 0. To cross 0 release and re-press. Only on release of the mouse button will the action (if any) be executed and finally all value editors will be updated. The default increment starts at the least significant digit in the value field. Stepper delays use the resources:
- autorepeatStart: .05 //seconds
- autorepeatDelay: .02
Print & File Window Manager¶ ↑
Its primary purpose is to organize the windows onto a page for printing. The manager contains two scenes representing the screen and a piece of paper. The location and relative size of each hoc window appears on the screen scene.
See pwman_place().
ScreenItem¶ ↑
To specify which subset of windows is to be printed you click on the relevant rectangles in the screen scene. A rectangle representing the relative location and size on the page will appear in the page scene.
PaperItem¶ ↑
Windows selected for printing may be manipulated in the page scene. Place the mouse cursor over the desired window rectangle in the page scene and:
- Right button
- remove the window from the page. If one clicks again on that window in the screen scene then the window will return to the same location and relative size on the page as when it was removed.
- Middle button
- resize the window. This resizes not the window on the screen but how large the window will appear on the page. The window always maintains the same aspect ratio as the window on the console screen. To resize, drag the mouse with the button down til the desired size is reached.
- Left button
- move the window. Drag the mouse to the desired position and release the button.
When the manager is iconified, all the windows disappear. When the manager is redisplayed all the windows come back where they left off. (This is the case for openlook. Many window managers do not allow easy dismissing, moving, and resizing of transient windows and therefore require the use of top level windows which do not iconify as a group)
Help¶ ↑
Help: Toggles the interface into help mode. In help mode the cursor changes to a “?” and a help message will be displayed for any button or menu item that is pressed while the question mark cursor is present. No actions are executed in help mode but sometimes dialog boxes may pop up which should be canceled in order for them not to do anything. Pressing the help button in help mode will return to the normal interface with an arrow cursor.
The help system requires a running Netscape process. If the system
is not working properly on your machine, the help
button can be removed by specifying *pwm_help: off in the
nrn/lib/nrn.defaults file.
Print¶ ↑
Print: Sends the postscript images of the windows to a printer selected by the Other menu item, SelectPrinter. If no printer has been selected a printer dialog pops up. See WindowTitlesPrinted .
PrintToFile¶ ↑
Print to File: Menu for saving windows to a printable file in the formats
See also
PostScript¶ ↑
PostScript: Pops up dialogue requesting Filename for saving the postscript
images of the windows appearing in the page icon. A .ps suffix is recommended.
Idraw¶ ↑
Idraw: Filename for saving an idraw format of graph windows appearing in the page icon. Each graph is an idraw group. Idraw is an excellent program for polishing graphs to publication quality. A .id suffix is recommended.
Ascii¶ ↑
Ascii: Filename for saving an ascii format of the lines in graph windows
appearing in the page icon. Graph.addvar() and Graph.addexpr()
lines in a Graph window are saved if there are some and there
is no Graph.family() label. If there are no addvar/addexpr lines
or if there is a family label then all lines on the graph with more
than two points are printed (along with their labels, if any).
If all the lines have the same number of points and they are all
labeled then the file is printed in matrix form (with the first column
being the x values). Header information is also printed that gives
a manifest of the lines and their sizes.
Unlabeled lines are printed at the end of the file with the format
number unlabeled
number points in first unlabeled line
x y pairs of point
number points in second unlabeled line
...
See also
Session¶ ↑
Session: Menu for savings windows for recall
Retrieve¶ ↑
Retrieve: Retrieves a saved session. Note that the saved values in the value editors become the default values when retrieved.
SaveSelected¶ ↑
SaveSelected: Saves size, location, and values of the panels, graphs, and shapes (but not browsers) appearing on the paper icon in the indicated file. A .ses suffix is recommended. This is usually more useful than saving all items on the screen since it is normally the case that most of the user effort goes into specifying the graphs and most of the other windows are generated by the interpreter. The model coordinate size of all scenes is given by the view size of the primary view window. Therefore after a retrieve, the “whole scene” menu operation will restore the view size when saved.
Other¶ ↑
Other: Menu of other options
SelectPrinter¶ ↑
SelectPrinter: Enter your normal system command for printing. The Print button will
send post script to this command. for example:
lpr -Plp
Unix and Mswindows versions construct a print line of the form
pwm_postscript_filter < temp_filename | PRINT_CMD ; rm temp_filename
pwm_postscript_filter temp_filename printer_command
respectively. In the mswindows version pwm_postscript_filter and printer_command may be set in the nrn.def(aults) file. The default printer command is ” > prn”
In the unix version the printer command is found from the “PRINT_CMD” environment variable.
WindowTitlesPrinted¶ ↑
If checked, then window titles are printed when the windows are printed.
Titles are always printed when print_session() is executed.
VirtualScreen¶ ↑
VirtualScreen: Useful for mswindows version when using low-resolution monitor. Also invoked under mswindows when the F1 key is pressed when focus in any InterViews window.
Pops up a view of the print window manager’s screen icon to allow moving of windows (select and drag with left mouse) and changing the center of the screen (click with middle button).
What makes this useful under mswindows is 1) the fact that it can be raised to the top of the window hierarchy (The print window manager can’t since it is the parent to all InterViews windows) and 2) there is a scale button which can scale the window size so all windows will fit on the screen.
LandPort¶ ↑
LandPort Land/Port: The page will be printed in landscape or portrait mode. The mode is indicated by the orientation of the page icon.
Tray¶ ↑
Tray: The windows on the page icon are collected into a single larger window consisting of a row of columns. The algorithm for doing this isn’t too smart but you can get good trays by arranging the page window icons in a row of columns. When you dismiss a tray a dialog box pops up which asks if you want to dismiss the window or dissolve it into its original windows. Trays can be saved and retrieved but they cannot be subsequently dissolved.
Graph¶ ↑
Crosshair¶ ↑
Crosshair: shows coordinates and enables access to all line data.
Press the left mouse button (LMB) near a line and drag the
mouse left or right. A cross hairs will appear with the x,y value in
model coordinates. The behaviour of the cross hairs makes it
convenient to find local maxima. On creation the crosshairs starts
at the nearest point on the line. On dragging it searches from the
last point for the nearest point but will stop searching if any point
becomes farther away. This makes it possible to easily follow
phase plane plots. Crosshairs may call a hoc function on a keypress.
See Graph.crosshair_action().
If no crosshair action has been installed, any keypress will print the x,y coordinates of the crosshair in the terminal window.
Note that a crosshair_action can obtain all the x,y coordinate data
for a line. Also the global variables hoc_cross_x_ and
hoc_cross_y_ contain the last value of the crosshair coordinates.
PlotWhat¶ ↑
Plot What?: Pops up a browser with which one can navigate to any variable (double clicking) to enter it into the field editor. Double clicking on object names or section names will cause more names to appear in the adjacent browser and allows one to quickly build a complete symbol name. Alternatively one can directly type or edit the name in the field editor. When you are satisfied with the name in the field editor type return or press the accept button. The program will check if the name (or arbitrary expression) is interpretable and, if so, will be added to the list of expressions to be plotted in this graph whenever Graph.plot(xvalue) is executed. Warning: some names in the browsers are not interpretable or make no sense being plotted. If there are inconveniently many names in the first browser, you can use the Show menu to reduce the selection to only variables, objectvars, sections, or objects. Note that the objects allow plotting of variables which may otherwise not be accessible to the interpreter because there is no objectvar that references them. However, unfortunately, such graph lines cannot be saved in a session.
If a variable in the browser contains the word [all] in place of
an explicit index then the Graph will plot it as a function of
its index. See Graph.vector() .
PickVector¶ ↑
When this tool is chosen, clicking the left mouse button near
a graphed line will copy the y and x coordinates of the line
into two new Vector’s which are referenced by hoc_obj_[0] and
hoc_obj_[1] respectively. The vectors may be saved to a file by selecting
the Save to File item from the Vector menu of the
NEURONMainMenu
PlotRange¶ ↑
If the graph is doing a space plot with a RangeVarPlot then the PlotWhat item changes its style to request entry of another range variable to plot using the same path. Also one can enter an expression involving $1. The expression will be executed for each section in the path for each arc position set to $1.
ChangeColor-Brush¶ ↑
Change Color: Pops up a color and brush palette to select the
default color and brush style for the graph.
Clicking on text or lines will change the line/text to that style.
After the palette is dismissed it can be retrieved by clicking
on another radiomenu item and then clicking on this one again.
Note: Lines associated with labels always have the same color.
Kept lines are not associated with labels.
The number of selectable colors and brushes may be set by
changing the values in your ~/.nrn.defaults file (see CBWidget in
$(NEURONHOME)/lib/nrn.defaults)
AxisType¶ ↑
Axis Type: Menu of View Axis, New Axis, View Box, and Erase Axis.
ViewAxis¶ ↑
View Axis: Erases the old axis and draws a set of axes in the background. The axes are sized dynamically with respect to the view coordinates.
KeepLines¶ ↑
Keep Lines: While checked, lines are saved. When not checked
the previous line is discarded every time
Graph.begin() is executed in preparation for plotting new lines.
A useful idiom to save a reference line is to toggle the Keep Lines
item on and then off.
See also
FamilyLabel¶ ↑
Pops up a global (same for all Graph windows) symbol chooser
which is used to select a label for KeepLines. Function is
identical to Graph.family(). Ie. the label is used as a variable name
and the value of the variable is used to actually label the kept lines.
To get a compatible label (instead of an Graph.addexpr() label)
for the last line, the KeepLines menu item should be toggled off.
If all lines are labeled and have the same size then Ascii has a matrix format.
ChangeText¶ ↑
Clicking on existing text allows one to change it. Clicking on an empty spot creates a label at that location. One can change a plot expression. eg. to add a scale factor. Labels for plot variables that use the more efficient pointers cannot be changed. Labels can be marked as either fixed with respect to scene/model coordinates or fixed with respect to view/screen coordinates