NCFS(1ESE)

NAME
ncfs - graphical tool interface

SYNOPSIS
ncfs [options]

OPTIONS
Options are:

-verbose
    verbose mode.

-release
    Print the release number of this tool.

-help
    Print this list.

Options may be abbreviated.

DESCRIPTION
Ncfs is a Motif based shell for the Nelsis CAD Framework. The shell enables activation of tools in a user friendly manner. Tools may be added to the shell through the use of a configuration file. This file may contain three types of tools: project, frame and view-type tools where project tools do not affect any view type, frame tools affect all view types and view type tools affect one view type only.

MENU BAR
The menu bar in the main window contains five menus; File, Project, Frame, Tools and Help.
The File menu contains two items; Save as and Exit. The Save as item saves a configuration file that reflects the status of all arguments and options at the time of the save. The Exit item quits the shell.
The Project menu contains the Set Project item and all project tools. The Set Project item allows the user to select a project. The selected project will be opened and the project directory will become the current directory. For the tools contained in the project menu no project needs to be opened.
The Frame menu contains all tools that may affect all view types. Normally these tools require a project to be opened. Additionally for a cell list to appear, a view type must be selected.
The Tool menu contains a submenu for each view type that is specified in the configuration file. All tools that affect a particular view type are placed in the appropriate submenus.

All tools that are selected via a menu will popup a selection window in which the various arguments and options may be given.

SELECTION WINDOW
The selection window contains all options and arguments that are specified in the configuration file for the selected tool. This window may be split in two, thus enabling a separation between frequently and infrequently used options. Three possible items may be modifyed; arguments, options without an argument and options with an argument. The different items are grouped together. Arguments are located at the top, options without arguments at the bottom on the left side and options with arguments at the bottom on the right of the selection window.
The initial selection window contains four additional pushbuttons at the bottom; OK, Cancel, Other and Help. The OK button will start the tool, the cancel button cancels the operation, the other button will pop up another window containing the infrequently used options and the Help button will display the manual page of the selected tool.

SELECTING ARGUMENTS
Arguments and options with arguments may have one of the following types:

CELL
    Enables selection of a cell. Pressing the left mouse button while the mouse pointer is on top of the pushbutton labeled cellname or another label specified in the configuration file pops up a list containing cell names. These cell names are extracted from the specified view type in the configuration file for normal tools and the view type specified in the view type option for frame tools. The OK button in the list window will confirm and Cancel will ignore the list of selected cell names.

VIEW
    Enables selection of a view type. This option type will normally appear in frame tools only. A list containing all available view types is popped up.

STATUS
    Enables selection of a version status. A list of available version statusses is popped up.

FILE
    Enables selection of a file. A file requester is popped up. This requester contains among others two lists. The leftmost list contains all available directories. Double clicking on one of them will ascent or descent to that directory. A single click followed by pressing the Filter button has the same effect. The rightmost list contains all files contained in the active directory. Pressing OK will select the file and the file requester will disappear. Double clicking the filename has the same effect.

PROC
    Enables selection of a design process. A list of available design processes is popped up. This type of argument is normally used in project tools only.

PROJECT
    Enables selection of a project. The selection method is analog to the selection of a file save a filename that need not be selected.

YES Enables selection of any type of string. This is the default for arguments or options with arguments. This selection type does not include a pushbutton, thus no extra selection windows are popped up and the user must manually enter the argument in the text area next to the label indicating the use of this argument.

NO  This selection type is used for options without arguments only. The options contain a button and a label. The button can be toggled in a on/off state.

CONFIGURATION FILE
The configuration file consists of three types of lines; the tool line, the argument line and the option line.

The tool line consists of 6 elements. The first element is the tool name which may include the path. The second element contains the name of the tool as it will be displayed in the program. The next 3 elements specify the number of arguments and options; options, other options and arguments resp. The last element contains the view-type, frame or project.

The argument line contains 4 elements. The type of argument which may be one of CELL, VIEW, STATUS, FILE, PROJECT, PROC, YES. The name that will be displayed, the group and an optional default value.
The group element specifies the name of a mutual exclusive group. Whenever one of its members is set, all others are reset. If the user specifies - the argument is not assigned to a group.

The option line contains 6 elements. The option string the tool must receive, the name of the options as it will be displayed by the program, the option group, the type of the option and an optional default value.
Options that are member of a group that contains arguments will affect them as well as other options meaning that no exception is made because of the difference between options and arguments. Unlike arguments options may be of an additional type NO. In these cases the default value must be ON or OFF. Other default values are considered to be OFF.

EXAMPLES
# The tool line
/usr1/nelsis/bin/lscell lscell 10 4 1 frame
# The argument line (1)
CELL 		cellname select
# The option lines (10)
-proj           Project  -      PROJECT
-view           viewtype -      VIEW	layout
-stat           Status   -      STATUS
-all            All      select NO      ON
-tree           Tree     tree   NO      OFF
-imported       Import   -      NO      OFF
-upward         Upward   tree   NO      OFF
-device         Device   -      NO      OFF
-roots          Roots    select NO      OFF
-long           Long     -      NO      OFF
# The other (infrequent) options (4)
-verbose        Verbose  	-      NO      OFF
-rel            Release 	-      NO      OFF
-help           Help     	-      NO      OFF
-dobject        DesignObjects 	-      YES

AUTHOR

FILES
The configuration file may be specified in the environment variable OPTIONRC, in the current directory and must be named ./.optionrc or must be located in the file ~nelsis/lib/.optionrc. Ncfs will look for the configuration file in that order.

The default manual viewer is xman. You can use the environment variable OPTIONMAN to set any other viewer. Example: setenv OPTIONMAN 'term -sb -e less -s'.

LIMITATIONS

SEE ALSO