The philosophy of CVS is such that no files are on the CVS server which can be generated locally from other files on the server. Thus, when you finish the CVS download you have no .INI file, no .WKS files, the PREFS folder contains no preference files, and the FSLFILES folder has no .FSL files in it. These are all generated files. Therefore, you have to generate these files. That's what ViSta GeneSys is all about.
Generating
the WKS, FSL and PREFS files
NOTE: During the following process, ViSta will
create and save a new workspace and then restart
itself using the new workspace. This occurs several
times. Occasionally it will attempt to restart before
the workspace is entirely saved, generating a "Corrupt
Image File" message. When this happens, simply double-click
the ViSta.exe file to get ViSta running again.
- In the vistacentral directory
(D:\CVS\ViStaCVS
in our example)
create an empty text file named
wxls32.ini. This will prevent the
process below from using previously installed versions of ViSta.
Also create two directories named
prefs and
fslfiles in the vistacentral directory.
- Double-Click the ViSta.exe file. You will have
to click "OK" to the *default-path* dialog, and
"OK" to the "GeneSys ReCreating Initial State"
dialog. This will cause the initialization files
to build the WXLS32.INI file.
- ViSta now automatically restarts in
standard install mode and asks you to say
who ViSta is being Installed by. Choose "An
Individual ViSta User" and click "Continue".
Then click "OK" to the two small dialogs (it's
generating default preference files).
- Watch as ViSta automatically restarts, loads
in all of the source and runtime Lisp files
and creates the XLISP.WKS file, which is the
XLispStat+ViSta workspace file. It also generates
a BUILD1955.LOG file, a log file of the build
process. (The number 1955 means that I built
ViSta 1954 times between January 13th and
March 30th of 2000!)
- Now double-click the ViSta.exe file again. Be
patient. It is configuring itself and must restart
twice. But eventually it should come up in the
normal fashion.
- After you read the welcome messages, Register,
and dismiss the Internet Browser, you should type
into the Listener Window
(devel-mode)
which puts ViSta in developer mode. The DEVELOP
menu appears at the top of the desktop window.
- Choose DEVELOP/UPDATE PREF FILES to update the
system preference files.
- Click the DeskTop window's close box. Since
ViSta is in DEVEL-MODE it checks to see if it
needs to compile any files. It does, and proceeds
to compile all of the .LSP files and to remake
vista. There are 94 source files and 10 runtime
files that are compiled, generating 104 .FSL files
which are placed in the FSLFILES and RUNTIME folders.
This will take a fairly long time (24 minutes
on my 233 MHz laptop).
- There will be occasional "Compiler Error" messages.
Dont worry about them. The compiler fixes itself.
Take a break. Relax. Have a cup of coffee. You
are nearly finished.
- When the .FSL files are all generated ViSta
will restart and make another workspace, this
time using the FSL files. Then it exits and waits
for you to come back from your break.
- Run ViSta one more time. Read the messages.
Type in the Listener Window
(make-xls)
which generates the XLSONLY.WKS file. This is
the XLisp workspace, without ViSta, but with our
modifications to the XLisp system.
- Congratulations! You now have a complete ViSta
development environment!
You are finished! But, if you wish, you can test
the XLispOnly workspace by choosing the OPTIONS
menu's STARTUP OPTIONS item. Then click SHOW LOAD
VISTA? DIALOG and OK. Run ViSta again. In the WHICH
SYSTEM DO YOU WISH TO RUN? dialog, choose XLISP-STAT.
ViSta will now use the XLSONLY.WKS file. You can
turn off the initial SHOW LOAD VISTA? dialog by
using the STARTUP OPTIONS dialog.
Faster,
Smoother User Experience
Perhaps I should explain that I've changed the
directory structure to speed up the program's startup
time by reducing the number of files that need to
be loaded. Since it doesn't have to load in very
many files, the program's startup time is MUCH FASTER.
There are three code
directories:
- SOURCE which contains files
that are loaded into the system at the
MAKE-VISTA time to become part of the .WKS file.
These are the ones which are no longer loaded at
run-time, thereby reducing the startup time by
the time it took to load 94 files.
- MAKETIME which contains files
that are used to make the WKS file. Since
everything depends on these files, they should
normally not be changed.
- RUNTIME
which contains files that have to be distributed
and then loaded in after the WKS file is loaded.
These files are mostly model object code, which
I judge to be useful for others to see if they
want to write model objects.
Some additional files cannot be put into the
WKS file because they must get information
that is specific to the local installation. These
SPECIAL RUNTIME files, such as vista, vismenu1,
vismenu2, vismenu3, config, dialogs, etc, are
distributed in FSL form for code security reasons.
More
Difficult Developer Experience
Unfortunately, this has made the developers process
much more complicated. Now, whenever you change
a SOURCE file or a RUNTIME file, it has to be recompiled
and reloaded, and a new WKS file has to be made.
This is the equivalent of the C/Unix Make process.
Thus, I call it MAKE-VISTA.
I have completely automated this MAKE-VISTA process.
It is not efficient (all files are loaded, whereas
usually only one or two need to be, but its too
time comsuming and complex for me to tackle at this
time), but it works... now, when you've made such
changes, and you exit ViSta, it compiles files that
have changed. If there were some, it automatically
remakes the WKS file. If not, it asks if you wish
to make vista anyway. Usually, you do not. This
option is more for me, to allow me to make changes
in the MAKETIME files.
What to
do when things go wrong!
If a file doesn't compile properly, then the whole
process terminates in a state in which you have
no WKS file. In this situation, if ViSta is still
running, DONT EXIT.
First, correct the error and then type (make-vista)
or use the MAKE-VISTA menu item.
If ViSta has stopped running, then try the following,
in this order:
- Double-click MakeViSta in the tools folder.
- If this doesn't work, run ViSta, double-click
the ShowViSta tool to open the window, and type
(load "maketime\\maker").
- If this doesn't work, remove the .INI and .WKS
files and see if it will go through GENESYS.
- If not, let me know.