Examples Help
| Alpha |
| Version: | 9.2.3 - "Suhail" |
| Last update: | 2021-05-21 14:43:30 |
This document describes the contents of the folder Examples, included as a part of the Alpha distribution.
Introduction
The Examples folder is not an essential
component of the software. Removing it, however, will not reduce the memory
requirements of the program, and will only save disk space.
Alpha is a mode-based text editor. This means that its behavior can
change depending on the type of file that one has opened. A LaTeX file, for
example, with a file suffix .tex, will induce Alpha to load special LaTeX
menus, colorize keywords, and adopt a particular indenting scheme. Other
modes are specific to html files, or various programming / syntax
languages. Several modes have been installed with their own Help files.
The links below open example files in a shell window which you can
modify at your leisure to explore a mode's schema for colorizing, file
marking, indenting, etc. None of the changes you make will affect the
actual file. If you close the window and then click on the hyperlink again,
you will start with the same example as before. The examples are listed in
several major sections.
In this document, the hyperlinks lead to examples for the specified
mode. Clicking over the link will load the proper mode and open up the
corresponding example file. Some modes are still waiting for a contribution
-- if you have a worthy example, the last section of this file contains an
e-mail address for making submissions. Other hyperlinks refer to either
help manuals installed with Alpha, or www links. If the example file refers
to a mode that is not installed, Alpha will open it in Text mode by
default.
All the example files can also been accessed through the
Help ↣ Examples submenu.
Some of the annotation comes from the University of Montana "Language Finger"
(UMLF). Most of the rest comes from program specific web sites.
Determining Window Modes
Alpha determines the proper mode of a window/file in one of several ways.
The file suffix of the window might be mapped to a particular mode -- see the
File-Mappings Preferences panel for examples, or to change the file
mappings associated with given modes. Smart mode lines that appear in the
first line of a file such as this:
# -*-Tcl-*-
or this:
* -*-Stta-*-
will take precedence over file suffixes if such a line exists, or unix style
application lines such as
#!/bin/sh
or
# /usr/stata
will be recognized and mapped to the mode which has internally declared itself
as the mode for such applications. If Alpha cannot determine the proper mode
using these criteria, the default mode is Text. The mode of the current
window can also be changed manually using the Mode pop-up menu found in
the window's toolbar. This menu lists most of the modes currently
recognized by Alpha (select the More Choices… item if a known mode
is missing).
Many of Alpha's modes have been submitted by users, and are being
continually revised and updated. The Alpha Manual
contains more information on how to determine what packages you have
available, as well as how to find and install additional modes that might
not be part of the "official" distribution. The file Extending Alpha explains how you could write additional modes, menus
or features yourself. Although Alpha contains many modes that you might
never use, uninstalling them will not reduce the memory requirements of the
program, and will only save disk space.
LaTeX Modes
The LaTeX example below not only demonstrates Alpha's behavior for TeX mode,
it also serves as introduction to the markup language.
LaTeX
TeX mode, for the family of TeX and LaTeX files.
(This includes .tex, .sty, .cls, .bst etc. files.)
This example is David R. Wilkins' Getting Started with LaTeX, a 45
page introduction to Leslie Lamport's set of extensions to Donald Knuth's
TeX typesetting program. This is a self-contained LaTeX file, which does
not rely upon any extra .sty files. If one has already installed a
LaTeX processing software package, such as LiveTeX, OzTeX or CMacTeX, one
could process the actual file contained in the Examples folder LaTeX-Example.tex (rather than the hyperlink above)
and obtain an excellent manual for LaTeX.
BibTeX
Bib mode, for LaTeX bibliography files.
This file is a compendium of books on computer languages and programming.
The Bib mode can also convert .bib files to .html or .refer (EndNote), and can
also convert some formats such as MARC or ISI to .bib, which is very
convenient. You might not have to create a BibTeX entry from scratch ever
again!
See BibTeX Mode Help for details, or the package Bib Convert help.
Metafont
Mf mode, to use Alpha as the front end for Metafont (with TeXLive, CMacTeX or OzTeX).
Metafont is the programming language written, as a companion to TeX, by Donald
Knuth in order to create characters, fonts, font families (and many others
things). Metafont allows you to write the source files which TeX and Latex
will invoke at runtime to build the fonts they need: fonts are built according
to the desired size and to the resolution of your printer in order to get
printed documents with the highest typographic quality.
Metapost
Mp mode, to use Alpha as the front end for Metapost (with TeXLive, CMacTeX or OzTeX).
Metapost is a programming language written by John Hobby in order to create
all kinds of figures, graphs, pictures to include in a document prepared with
TeX or with Troff. Its syntax is very much like Metafont's syntax but
Metapost outputs are Postscript encapsulated files.
PostScript
PS mode, for PostScript files. This example is a PostScript version of the
first four pages of the Getting Started With LaTeX manual. Alpha's
PS mode is also useful for seeing the internal contents of PDF files.
(Not specifically in the LaTeX family of modes, but it doesn't really fit well
in the other categories, either.)
PostScript is a language, not a graphic file format. A PostScript file is
really a program, not graphical data. The difference is that by looking at
a PostScript file you (or an application) cannot easily tell what the file
represents. Instead, you must run the file to see what it does. Generally,
the result of running a PostScript program is to draw marks on a graphical
page.
See also https://www.glyphic.com/free/macgs.html.
HTML / WWW Modes
The HTML example below not only demonstrates Alpha's behavior for HTML mode,
it also serves as an introduction to the markup language.
HTML
HTML mode, for the family of World Wide Web html files.
(This includes .shtml, .css, .js files.)
HTML stands for HyperText Machine (or Markup) Language. HTML is a subset of
SGML. It is a computer language used to create webpages. A newer version now
exists, called Dynamic HTML, or DHTML. It allows precisely-controlled page
layout, animation, new interactivity and much more.
This example is the NSCA's A Beginner's Guide to html, which
sets forth the required elements of a standard html web page, as well as
additional tags that one might use for stylistic or formatting purposes. If
one opened the actual file in the Examples folder HTML-Example.html instead of the above hyperlink, it could then be
sent to the defined web browser.
CSS
CSS mode, for (html) cascading style sheets.
JavaScript
JScr mode, for (html) javascript scripts.
PHP
PHP mode, for PHP-enabled web pages.
PHP is a tool that lets you create dynamic web pages. PHP-enabled web pages
are treated just like regular HTML pages and you can create and edit them
the same way you normally create regular HTML pages. PHP is a project of
the Apache Software Foundation.
See also https://www.php.net.
Wiki
Wiki mode, for editing collaborative Wiki Wiki Web pages.
The ideas of Wiki may seem strange at first, but dive in and explore its
links. Wiki is a composition system; it's a discussion medium; it's a
repository; it's a mail system; it's a tool for collaboration. Really, we
don't know quite what it is, but it's a fun way of communicating
asynchronously across the network.
The name Wiki may seem strange too - what does it mean? The WikiWikiWebFaq
answers this and other questions, but the short answer is that Wiki Wiki is
Hawaiian for quick.
See also https://c2.com/cgi/wiki.
Alpha's Wiki mode facilitates the editing of Wiki pages. There are
no Wiki file mappings, so if you're cutting and pasting the
contents of a wiki editing text field from an internet browser window you
have to open a new window in Alpha and manually change the mode to Wiki.
Alternatively, you may save your file with a .wiki extension to
automatically open it in Wiki mode.
Selecting an edit hyperlink in a WWW rendering of a wiki page will open a
new window in Wiki mode, and allow you to post the edited content back to the
wiki source. (See the WWW mode section below for more information about
viewing remote url files in Alpha.) You can also create a list of favorite
wiki pages using the Wiki menu, which are remembered between editing sessions.
Alpha has a wiki page at https://sourceforge.net/p/alphacocoa/wiki/.
WWW
WWW mode -- a display mode for rendering web pages in Alpha.
The WWW Menu allows you to render local HTML files directly in an Alpha
text window. The hyperlinks in the WWW window can be navigated with the
arrow keys; the return key takes you to the target of the link if you have
your preferences set to do that. Alpha supports direct browsing of the
Internet.
If an internet connection is active (you'll be asked) this hyperlink
will fetch and render the home page for AlphaTcl. Otherwise it will render
the first page of the HTML Mode Manual
Text Markup Modes
Alpha's Text mode is used by default when the mode of a window cannot be
determined via file extensions of smart mode lines. There are, however,
some additional modes which primarily support the markup of text (as opposed
to the creation of files specific to programming languages.)
Man pages
This mode is for editing unix-style reference manuals (aka man pages), those which are generally viewed using the man command. This
example is the manual page for Tcl, which describes the basic syntax of
Tcl.
Setext
Setx mode, for the Setext markup language.
Setext stands for Structure Enhanced Text. It is a markup scheme for
plain text documents such as email messages and e-zines. Setext's primary
goal is to provide a way of marking text that is visually unobtrusive, so that
if you don't have a special setext browser, like EasyView, you can still read
the text.
TIP
TIP mode, for Tcl Improvement Proposal suggestions.
This link will open a draft letter for a suggestion, and insert the TIP
menu into the menu bar. See the https://purl.org/tcl/tip/
TIP home page for more information.
Xml
Xml mode, for eXtensible Markup Language documents
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format
derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of
large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly
important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and
elsewhere.
See also https://www.w3.org/XML/.
The example link above will open a simple xml document.
Note that xml mode also creates two support modes -- dtd and xsl. These
are used in the Xml Menu ↣ New Xml Doc submenu.
Programming / Syntax Modes
Alpha is a very useful tool for editing a variety of computer language files.
If you can't find the language that you're looking for, please make a request
to one of the mailing lists described in the Readme.
Ada
Ada mode, for the Ada programming language.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States Department of Defense was using
more than 2,000 languages for its mission-critical programming. Most of
these were languages that were developed for one specific job. Finally, in
1975, the DoD formed the U.S. Department of Defense High-Order Language
Working Group (HOLWG) to find a solution to what was often called the software crisis.
Rather than create this new language themselves, they decided to
hold a contest. Coincidentally, all of the teams created Pascal-based
languages. In the end, the winner was CII Honeywell-Bull in France.
Eventually, the language was christened Ada, in honor of Lady Ada
Lovelace, daughter of famed poet Lord Byron and assistant to mathematician
Charles Babbage, who invented the Analytical Machine. Lady Ada is
often considered to be the world's first programmer.
By 1990, over 200 validated Ada compilers had been produced, and in
1995 a new standard, called Ada 95, was announced. Ada 95 is
object-oriented, and offers interfaces to the languages C, FORTRAN and
COBOL.
See also https://www.adahome.com.
AppleScript
Scrp mode, for AppleScript scripts.
AppleScript is an English-like language used to write script files which
can control the actions of the computer and the applications which run on
it. Scripts can make decisions based on user-interaction or by parsing and
analyzing data, documents or situations. Every Macintosh can be automated
and controlled using AppleScript which comes with and is an integral part
of the Macintosh operating system.
See also https://www.apple.com/applescript/.
C
C mode, for the C programming language.
C was developed out of the construction of the UNIX operating system. It
has a modular programming structure and is thus useful for functional
programming. Despite being a rather old language, it still seems to be used
extensively for much low-level development (other languages such as Tcl,
Perl, Python are all implemented in C). C++ is largely a superset of C.
Other dialects include Small-C and Visual C.
C++
C++ mode, for the C++ programming language.
C++ was designed and implemented by Bjarne Stroustrup at AT&T Bell
Laboratories to combine the organizational and design strengths of Simula with
C's facilities for systems programming. The initial version of C++, called
C with Classes, was first used in 1980; it supported traditional system
programming techniques and data abstraction. The basic facilities for
object-oriented programming were added in 1983 and object-oriented design and
programming techniques were gradually introduced into the C++ community. The
language was first made commercially available in 1985. Facilities for
generic programming were added to the language in the 1987-1989 time frame.
As the result of widespread use and the appearance of several
independently developed C++ implementations, formal standardization of C++
started in 1990 under the auspices of the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI), and later the International Standards
Organization (ISO), leading to an international standard in 1998.
During the period of standardization the standards committee acted as an
important focus for the C++ community and its draft standards acted as
interim definitions of the language.
See also https://www.research.att.com/~bs/.
C#
C# mode, for the C# programming language.
C# is a newish language from Microsoft, intended to compete with Java.
Microsoft C# (pronounced C sharp) is a new programming language
designed for building a wide range of enterprise applications that run on
the .NET Framework. An evolution of Microsoft C and Microsoft C++,
C# is simple, modern, type safe, and object oriented. C# code is compiled
as managed code, which means it benefits from the services of the common
language runtime. These services include language interoperability, garbage
collection, enhanced security, and improved versioning support.
C# is introduced as Visual C# in the Visual Studio .NET
suite. Support for Visual C# includes project templates, designers,
property pages, code wizards, an object model, and other features of the
development environment. The library for Visual C# programming is the .NET Framework.
See also https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cscon/html/vcoriCStartPage.asp.
Caml
Caml mode, for the Caml programming language.
ML is a computer language. Originally designed by Robin Monet, Lockwood
Morris and Malcolm Newey in the early 1970's, it has undergone several
revisions, resulting 2 major and differing descendants now: CAML and Standard
ML.
Caml is a programming language, easy to learn, easy to use, and yet
amazingly powerful. It has been developed and distributed by INRIA (the
main french research institute for computer science), since 1984. It is
freely available for Unix, PC or Macintosh. There exist two flavors of
Caml: Caml Light and Objective Caml. Caml Light is merely a subset of
Objective Caml, especially designed for teaching and learning the art of
programming. In addition to the Caml Light's core language, Objective Caml
features a powerful modules system, full support to object-oriented
paradigm, and an optimizing compiler.
See also https://pauillac.inria.fr/caml/.
FORTRAN
Fort mode, for the FORTRAN programming language.
FORTRAN was first developed in the 1950's and still used today. Its name
comes from FORmula TRANslation, revealing its early use in
processing mathematics. Dialects include FORTRAN 77 and FORTRAN 90.
Versions include FORTRAN II, IV, and V, WATFOR, and WATFIV.
Fortran95
F95 mode, for the FORTRAN 95 dialect of the FORTAN programming language.
F95 mode supports the editing of the free-format syntax of Fortran 90, 95,
2003, 2008.
Java
Java mode, for the Java programming language.
Java is a computer language, but very powerful, intended to be machine and
operating-system independent. Java will enable whatever functions the piece
you call up or download has, including sound, video, etc., on your screen.
It also is interactive, and can produce dynamic images on your screen, not
just static ones. It was developed by Sun Micro. There is a dialect called
Hot Java; on the other hand, JavaScript is a separate language.
LISP
Lisp mode, for the LISP programming language.
LISP is an acronym for LISt Processing. Its development history has often
been associated with symbolic processing and with both computer and human
languages. A heterogeneous list data type has always been built into the
language in order to efficiently deal with arbitrary and changing models.
Lisp has evolved into a family of languages. The two major dialects in use
today are Common Lisp and Scheme.
See also https://www.lisp.org.
makefile
Make mode, for creating/editing/compiling makefile files.
Make is one of the original Unix tools for Software Engineering, by
S.I. Feldman of AT&T Bell Labs circa 1975. But there are public domain
versions (eg. GNU) and versions for other systems (eg. Vax/VMS) as well.
Related tools are the language compilers (cc, f77, lex, yacc, etc.) and
shell programming tools (eg. awk, sed, cp, rm, etc.). You need to know how
to use these. Important adjuncts are lint (source code checking for obvious
errors), ctags (locate functions, etc. in source code) and mkdepend. These
are nice, and good programmers use them.
See also https://www.hsrl.rutgers.edu/ug/make_help.html.
See also the make man page at https://www.ntua.gr/cgi-bin/man-cgi?make.
Modula-2
M2 mode, for programming in Modula-2 using the RAMSES or MacMETH shell.
Modula-2 was designed by Niklaus Wirth, in 1978. He had earlier designed
first Pascal, and later the first Modula, both arising out of ALGOL. (All
versions of Modula are included here.) Modula-2 programs can be divided
into modules (program units capable of hiding some entities comprising
them); thus some modules can make use of low-level computing languages,
which may be necessary for a specific machine, without requiring the entire
program to do so.
The RAMSES (Research Aids for Modelling and Simulation of
Environmental Systems) software is a package consisting of a shell, and
several so-called sessions. Each session serves a particular purpose,
modeling, experiment definition, simulation, and post-simulation analysis
and can be run from within the shell.
Modula-2 for the Macintosh is available as FreeWare, courtesy ETH
Zurich as part of the software packages RAMSES or MacMETH.
See also https://www.ito.umnw.ethz.ch/SysEcol/.
Objective C
Objc mode, for the Objective C programming language.
Objective-C is a object oriented superset of C with a Smalltalk style
(infix) message syntax. It was originally written by Brad Cox and the
StepStone corporation in the early 1980s. In 1988, it was adopted as the
development language for NeXTstep and was made a part of the GNU gcc
compiler in 1992. It is currently used as the principle programming
language for MacOSX (which is based on NeXTstep) and as the language for
the GNUstep project on Linux and other platforms. Objective-C's weak typing
and runtime features distinguish it from C++ and Java.
See also https://www.dekorte.com/Objective-C/.
Pascal
Pasc mode, for the Pascal programming language.
The computer language Pascal was developed between 1968 and 1971, from
ALGOL. It was named for the French mathematician Blaise Pascal. Its
highly-structured nature makes it especially well-suited for developing
algorithms.
Perl
Perl mode.
Perl is an interpreted high-level programming language developed by Larry
Wall. According to Larry, he included in Perl all the cool features found
in other languages and left out those features that weren't so cool.
Perl has become the premier scripting language of the Web, as most
CGI programs are written in Perl. However, Perl is widely used as a rapid
prototyping language and a glue language that makes it possible for
different systems to work well together. Perl is popular with system
administrators who use it for an infinite number of automation tasks.
Perl's roots are in UNIX but you will find Perl on a wide range of
computing platforms. Because Perl is an interpreted language, Perl programs
are highly portable across systems.
See also https://www.perl.com.
Python
Pyth mode, for the Python programming language.
Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language.
It incorporates modules, exceptions, dynamic typing, very high level dynamic
data types, and classes. Python combines remarkable power with very clear
syntax. It has interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to
various window systems, and is extensible in C or C++. It is also usable as
an extension language for applications that need a programmable interface.
Finally, Python is portable: it runs on many brands of UNIX, on the Mac, and
on PCs under MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and OS/2.
See also https://www.python.org.
Scheme
Scm mode, for the Scheme programming language.
The Scheme dialect of Lisp was created in 1975 by Guy Steele and Gerry
Sussman to explore ideas in programming-language semantics. They showed
that a powerful language can be made "not by piling feature on top of
feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that make
additional features appear necessary". Scheme pioneered lexical scope
in Lisp, first-class continuations, and tail recursion, and more recently
added an advanced macro system. It's the best-known Lisp dialect after
Common Lisp (which it influenced). It is IEEE standardized and widely used
in universities and in electronic CAD systems.
See also https://www.lisp.org.
sh Scripts
sh mode, for unix, linux, or osx shell scripts. This example is the script
used to generate on-line man reference pages, such as those found at this
site: https://www.softlab.ntua.gr/~christia/man-cgi.html.
The first version of UNIX was created in 1969 by Kenneth Thompson and
Dennis Ritchie, system engineers at AT&T's Bell Labs. It went through many
revisions and gained in popularity until 1977, when it was first made
commercially available by Interactive Systems Corporation.
At the same time a team from the University of California at
Berkeley was working to improve UNIX. In 1977 it released the first
Berkeley Software Distribution, which became known as BSD. Over time this
won favour through innovations such as the C shell.
Meanwhile the AT&T version was developing in different ways. The
1978 release of Version 7 included the Bourne Shell for the first time. By
1983 commercial interest was growing and Sun Microsystems produced a UNIX
workstation. System V appeared, directly descended from the original AT&T
UNIX and the prototype of the more widely used variant today.
See also https://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/.
SQL
SQL mode, for Structured Query Language database operations.
SQL is an open, freely-based computing language that uses certain
terminology to extract information from data sets or to perform operations
across a whole range of data. The letters stand for Structured Query
Language. Dialects include Microsoft SQL, MySQL, ISQL_w, (Native) Dynamic
SQL (or NDS), Jet SQL, and T-SQL (or Transact-SQL); the latter is SQL's
server. Data Definition Language is a part of SQL.
Tcl
Tcl mode, the programming language on which Alpha is based. Tcl has its own
separate Tcl Mode Help file.
Tcl is a string-based command language. The language has only a few
fundamental constructs and relatively little syntax, which makes it easy to
learn. The Tcl syntax is meant to be simple (and in this respect differs to
Perl), but this doesn't mean it lacks in power. Tcl is designed to be a
glue that assembles software building blocks into applications, and is also
used as a scripting language and for building graphical interfaces very
quickly (with the Tk extension). In addition, Tcl is interpreted when the
application runs. The interpreter makes it easy to build and refine your
application in an interactive manner. Tcl is also available cross-platform.
Programs written in Tcl/Tk can run without any changes on Windows,
Macintosh (including MacOS X) and Unix.
Tcl is also used to construct complex applications. Tcl is used in some
mission-critical satellite control systems; an entire ERP system has been
built in Tcl, and Alphatk is 100% Tcl/Tk.
See also https://www.tcl.tk.
Science / Stat / Database Modes
Many of Alpha's modes have been written to aid in the editing of source
files used for specific math/statistical/scientific applications. Many of
these programs are proprietary software, others are freeware. In some
cases, the mode allows Alpha to serve as the front end for these
applications. While some of these modes might qualify as a proper computer
programming language mode, they're included here if they primarily support
the creation/manipulation of datasets.
CLAN
Clan mode, for "Computerized Language Analysis" files.
CLAN is a program that is designed specifically to analyze data transcribed
in the format of the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES).
CLAN was written by Leonid Spektor at Carnegie Mellon University. The
current version uses a graphic user interface and runs on both Macintosh
and Windows machines. Earlier versions also ran on DOS and Unix without a
graphic user interface. CLAN allows you to perform a large number of
automatic analyses on transcript data. The analyses include fre-quency
counts, word searches, co-occurrence analyses, mean length of utterance
(MLU) counts, interactional analyses, text changes, and morphosyntactic
analysis.
See also https://childes.psy.cmu.edu.
Coq
Coq mode, to edit Coq vernacular files (formal proofs), and for interaction
with the Coq interpreter.
Coq is a formal proof management system: a proof done with Coq is
mechanically checked by the machine. In particular, Coq allows:
- to define functions or predicates,
- to state mathematical theorems and software specifications,
- to develop interactively formal proofs of these theorems,
- to check these proofs by a relatively small certification kernel.
Coq is based on a framework called "Calculus of Inductive Constructions"
that is both a logic and a functional programming language.
As a proof development system, Coq provides both interactive proof
methods and various certified decision and semi-decision algorithms. As a
platform for the formalization of mathematics, Coq provides support for
light notations and implicit contents. Coq comes with libraries for
efficient arithmetics in N, Z and Q, libraries about lists, finite sets and
finite maps, libraries on abstract sets, relations, classical analysis,
etc.
Coq is the result of more than 20 years of research, started in 1984 by
Thierry Coquand and Gérard Huet. Coq is written in the Objective Caml
language (with a bit of C), and is distributed under the GNU Lesser General
Public Licence Version 2.1 (LGPL).
See also https://coq.inria.fr.
Dot
dot mode, to interact with "graphviz" and edit "dot" files.
Graphviz is open source graph drawing software providing a set of
graph drawing tools for Unix or MS-Windows (win32) or MacOSX, including a
web service interface (webdot). Graph drawing addresses the problem of
visualizing structural information by constructing geometric
representations of abstract graphs and networks. Automatic generation of
graph drawings has important applications in key technologies such as
database design, software engineering, VLSI and network design and visual
interfaces in other domains.
"dot" is a simple format which describes which nodes should connect to
which other nodes. Then the sophisticated layout routines quickly render
it into many different output formats.
See also https://www.pixelglow.com/graphviz/
and https://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/.
Gnuplot
GPLT mode, to use Alpha as the front end for Gnuplot.
Gnuplot is a command-line driven interactive function plotting utility for
UNIX, MSDOS, and VMS platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely
distributed (i.e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally
intended as a graphical program which would allow scientists and students
to visualize mathematical functions and data.
See also https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/gnuplot_info.html.
IGOR
Igor mode, for the IGOR data analysis and graphing package.
WaveMetrics' IGOR Pro is an extraordinarily powerful and extensible
graphing, data analysis, and programming tool for scientists and engineers.
With IGOR Pro installed on your Macintosh or Windows computer, you
will have the power to produce journal-quality scientific graphs, handle
large data sets with ease, import data from a variety of file formats, use
a wide range of capabilities for analysis and graphing, present your
results effectively, use IGOR's built-in programming environment to control
all its aspects, and acquire data directly from instruments.
See also https://www.wavemetrics.com/.
Maple
Maple mode, for Maple programming files.
Maple is a programming language for doing symbolic computations in
mathematics. It is also a commercial programme for interpreting code
written in this language.
See also https://www.maplesoft.com.
MATLAB
MATL mode, to use Alpha as the front end for MATLAB.
MATLAB is an intuitive language and a technical computing environment. It
provides core mathematics and advanced graphical tools for data analysis,
visualization, and algorithm and application development. With more than
500 mathematical, statistical, and engineering functions, engineers and
scientists rely on the MATLAB environment for their technical computing
needs.
See also https://www.mathworks.com/.
S / S+ / R
S mode, for S, S-Plus, R statistical syntax files.
S-Plus is the premier solution for exploratory data analysis and
statistical modeling. With over 3,800 data analysis functions, including
the most comprehensive set of robust and modern methods available anywhere,
S-Plus allows you to perform more insightful analysis, create revealing
graphics and make more informed business decisions.
This mode also sports R, the free and Open Source incarnation of
the original S/S-Plus language.
See also https://www.insightful.com/products/splus/
and https://www.r-project.org.
SAS
SAS mode, for SAS statistical syntax files.
SAS/STAT software, an integral component of the SAS System, provides
extensive statistical capabilities with tools for both specialized and
enterprise-wide analytical needs. Ready-to-use procedures handle a wide
range of statistical analyses, including analysis of variance, regression,
categorical data analysis, multivariate analysis, survival analysis,
psychometric analysis, cluster analysis, and nonparametric analysis.
See also https://www.sas.com.
Scilab
Scil mode, for the Scilab scientific software package, used for numerical
computations in a user-friendly environment.
Its features include elaborate data structures (polynomial, rational and
string matrices, lists, multivariable linear systems,...); sophisticated
interpreter and programming language with Matlab-like syntax; hundreds of
built-in math functions (new primitives can easily be added); stunning
graphics (2d, 3d, animation); open structure (easy interfacing with Fortran
and C via online dynamic link); and many built-in libraries.
See also https://www-rocq.inria.fr/scilab/.
SPSS
SPSS mode, for SPSS statistical syntax files.
SPSS 10.0 is a modular, integrated product line for data access, data
preparation, reporting, graphics and advanced analysis through statistical
techniques. The new release updates Macintosh users to the latest version
and delivers significant new capabilities in all areas of the product line,
including: new modules; predictive capabilities for data mining; and
dynamic, interactive graphics for the first time on the Macintosh. The
software will also be available in a distributed analysis architecture
(DAA), which provides users with dramatically improved performance with
very large datasets.
See also https://www.spss.com.
Stata
Stta mode, for Stata statistical syntax files.
Stata has complete statistical, graphical, and data-management capabilities
and is also fully programmable. Stata is an environment for manipulating
and analyzing data using statistical and graphical methods. Stata is an
integrated package — not a collection of separate modules. You can
intersperse data management, statistical, and graphical commands.
See also https://www.stata.com.
Alpha -- Specific Modes
Some of Alpha's mode are not intended for text editing. They instead support
different menu items or features. This section gives examples of how Alpha
might use some of the modes included in the modes pop-up menu (the menu in the
status bar that currently reads Text).
Browser
Browser mode (Brws). This provides a way to navigate the
results of a batch search. During a batch search, a list of all matching
lines are displayed in a Brws window. By using the arrow keys and the
return key, you can easily jump to the correct file and line of the match
you desire.
This example is a hyperlink to the Browse Fileset menu item.
Changes
Chng mode, an Alpha Developers tool for editing Changes files. This
link will open the latest Alpha - Changes file.
Compare
Diff mode. This mode allows for powerful side-by-side file comparison and
patching of changes back and forth between two files or directories.
This link will compare two versions of a Tcl "trains" example file.
In addition, the CompareWordByWord-Example link will demonstrate how the content of two files can be compared when
one selects the (dynamic) menu command Tools ↣ Compare ↣ Windows Word By Word.
Filters
Fltr mode is enabled by the package Filters Menu, which allows for complicated search and replace functions within
Alpha. For more information, see the Filters Help
file.
Feature Examples
Many of Alpha's features are best explained with a little tutorial. This
section contains a small collection of the tutorials currently available.
Calculator
This provides a simple calculator for use within Alpha, available from the
Tools ↣ Calculator menu item.
This example will return the result of typing
1 <cr> 1 + <cr>
1 <cr> 1 + <cr> 4.2 *
It first calculates 1 + 1, then calculates (1 + 1) * 4.2
Dictionary
The Dictionary package is a small programme running inside Alpha to
look up words in plain-text dictionaries. Once activated, the Dictionary package inserts a submenu in the Tools menu (see the
Features Preferences dialog to activate this package).
A plain-text dictionary is any text file with one dictionary entry per line,
and sorted alphabetically. The file may also contain a header with certain
auxiliary Tcl procedures to specify the precise sorting criterion, and how to
format an entry on the screen.
The Dictionary-Examples folder
contains a file dictionary-formats where the header format is explained,
and it also contains four example dictionaries, where you can see what these
headers can look like in practice. There is also a subfolder with some extra
tools for dictionary management, and instructions for getting dictionaries.
Filters
The Filters Menu allows you to do successive Search And Replace operations for the current window (in any mode). All the operations are
gathered in files called filters which you can apply to any text
file opened in Alpha.
This link will open a Filters Tutorial shell window. The actual files
containing the filter information are opened in Fltr mode, such as
the Filters-Example.flt file. These examples
will be much more useful if the Filters package is enabled via the Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ Menus dialog.
See the Menus Preferences dialog.
Mac Menu
Mac Menu for Alpha allows you to achieve all kinds of files
manipulations from Alpha and to interact with the MacOS file system with
maximum flexibility.
You can act upon selections of files taken out of a folder or a
hierarchy of folders and subfolders: the selection is made using a regular
expression (regexp) and setting various additional conditions. You have
thus full and extended control on which files you want to manipulate. The
Mac Menu package has been designed to be activated globally. See
the Menus Preferences dialog.
Macros
A macro is a sequence of recorded keystrokes that can be played back again.
Unlike other macro packages you might be familiar with in other Mac
applications, keyboard macros in Alpha do not record mouse movement or
entries in system dialogs -- only keystrokes or menu selections are
recorded. Even with these limitations, you will discover that macros can
save you time through easy automation of repetitive tasks. The Macros package is a global feature.
See the Features Preferences dialog.
Mail Menu
This menu allows Alpha serve as a front end to Eudora and other e-mail
software packages for reading and sending e-mail. You can also read and send
mail using Alpha's internal pop3 and smtp protocols.
This link will open a mail window and compose a nice note addressed to the
author of this file. You will need to configure some Mail Menu settings to
send it, though.
Columns Manipulation
The Columns Manipulation package is a feature which allows one to
do various manipulations with the columns of any tabulated material i.e. a
series of lines in which items are separated by a tabulation or by any
other specific character (like & or a tabulation or a colon, a comma, an
endash etc. or even the space character).
Once it is installed and activated, it adds a new submenu named Text ↣ Columns. The items of this submenu are
explained in the Columns Manipulation Help file. The
Columns Manipulation package is a global feature. See the Features Preferences dialog.
Shell Windows
Shel attributes can be attached to other modes to provide an interactive
command-line shell. For example, use Tools ↣ Tcl Shell to access a Tcl shell. Click here to display the Tcl Shell
This link will open a Tcl shell and issue the commands
cd [file join $HOME]
cd [file join $HOME "Examples"]
glob -dir [file join $HOME "Examples"] *
version
alertnote "Hello World."
Some of these commands are Tcl commands, others are specific to AlphaTcl.
Individual shell commands can also be executed using the status bar
window by first pressing Escape-X. Try typing
alertnote "This is a test"
and then pressing return for an example. This is a very handy tool for
AlphaTcl developers to debug routines without having to first open a
Tcl Shell window.
Several packages in AlphaTcl also create shell windows (aka consoles) to environments other than the internal Tcl shell, such as
the package Mac Menu. See the Consoles Help file and the Console Launcher
package for more about consoles.
View Demo
The [view] command has been introduced in Alpha. It
is based on the Cocoa NSView user interface model and lets you build all
kinds of windows (dialogs, document windows, sheet windows, etc) containing
GUI elements, widgets or controls.
Acknowledgments
Alpha is a collaborative project. This package would not have been possible
without the suggestions and submitted/authored files from the following:
ActiveState Tool Corp., Ajuba Solutions, Anders Andersen, Milton Aupperle,
Jos Bergervoet, Dale Bickel, James Van Buskirk, Laurent Chéno, Panagiotis
J. Christias, Vince Darley, Bernard Desgraupes, Thomas Dunbar, Andreas
Fischlin, David Flanagan, David Frank, Jonathon Guyer, Donavan Hall, Yannis
Haralambous, Gerrit Huizenga, Joachim Kock, Johan Linde, John Plaice, Tim
Prince, Neil Schemenauer, Daniel K. Schneider, Sandra Silcot, Dorai
Sitaram, David Smith, Bjarne Stroustrup, David A. Wheeler, Pierre Weis,
David Wilkins, and Jos van der Woude.
Technical Notes
Alpha's Example files are installed in the Examples folder. All of the hyperlinks in this help document (as
well as others) use the proc [help::openExample]. Any
Help file can take advantage of this procedure to include hyperlinks to any
example file included in the Examples
folder.
Important: example file names must have the form 'something-Example.suffix', where something is an
alpha-numeric string and .suffix is a suffix recognized by Alpha in
the Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ File Mappings
preferences (see the File-Mappings Preferences panel).
The dash in the filename is important and cannot be omitted !
See the help file Doc Files Help for more
information about creating auto-hyperizing help files, and the syntax for
automatic hyperlinks.
To submit additional examples or just better ones, please use Alpha's Mailing Lists.
Feel free to also send any bugs, comments, or suggestions on this
file, via the Alpha's Bug Tracker.
This package is free.
License and Disclaimer
This document has been placed in the public domain. Unless otherwise noted,
the files within the Examples folder have the license reproduced in
their top section.
Copyright (c) 2021, the Alpha Community.
All rights reserved.
This software is free software and distributed under
the terms of the new BSD license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of the Alpha Community nor the names of its contributors
may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ALPHA COMMUNITY BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.