add_window

Context: windows

Synopsis

Creates a window.

Syntax

add_window([id,] [attributes])
add_window([id,] width, height, units [,attributes])

Description

The function arguments.

Argument	Description
id	A ChipsId structure identifying the item.
width, height	The width and height of the window.
units	The units for the width and height values: one of 'inches', 'cm', 'mm', or 'pixels'.
attributes	Configure object properties by giving an attribute string (a space-separated list of key=value pairs), list, dictionary, or a ChIPS object.

The add_window command creates a window whose attributes are specified by user preferences or in an attribute list. The new window becomes current by default; providing a ChipsId overrides the currency state.

Customizing the Window

There are several attributes that control the window characteristics. The attributes can be set to the ChIPS defaults, values provided in the add_window command, or values from the user's preference file.

Some of these attributes may also be modified with the set_window command at any time; see "ahelp set_window" and "ahelp setget" for more information.

Please see the section "Window Preferences and Attributes" below the examples for a list of the window preferences.

Examples

Example 1

chips> add_window()

Create a new ChIPS window.

Example 2

chips> add_window(8, 6, 'inches')

The window will be approximately 8 inches wide by 6 inches tall; the exact size depends on the DPI of the monitor. The output size will be exact for postscript and PDF formats.

Example 3

chips> add_window(["bgcolor", "navy", "id", "fig1"])

Add a window, specifying the attribute values in a list: the background color should be navy and the id - as reported by info() and used by current_window() - should be "fig1".

Example 4

chips> add_window(["display", False])
chips> add_curve([1,2,3], [-5,9,2], ["symbol.style", "none"])
chips> add_label(2, -2, r"\alpha=0.2", ["size", 16])
chips> print_window("plot.ps")
chips> print(info())
chips> set_window(["display", True])

A window is created with the display setting set to False, which means that no visible window will be created. A curve and label are added, and a postscript plot (called plot.ps) is created. The output of info() is as follows, which shows that the objects (e.g. curve and label) have been created, they have just not been displayed to the screen:

Window [win1]
  Frame [frm1]
    Plot [plot1]   (0.15,0.15)  .. (0.90,0.90)
      Border bottom [bx1]  top [bx2]  left [by1]  right [by2]
      X Axis [ax1]
      Y Axis [ay1]
      Curve [crv1]
      Label [lbl1]

The final call - to set_window() - changes the display setting to True, at which point a window will appear on screen. Any future changes to the visualization will now be immediately visible (until the display setting is changed back to False).

Example 5

chips> add_window(["smoothing", False])

In CIAO 4.7 the default for the window.smoothing attribute was changed to True. Turning smoothing on can create visually more-attractive plots - both on screen and in bitmap form - but can produce visual artifacts. It can be explicitly set when creating the window, as shown above.

The attribute - as with any other "parent" attribute - can also be changed if a call creates the window; for example:

chips> clear()
chips> add_curve(x, y, ["window.smoothing", False])

Example 6

chips> add_window(["geom", "+0+50", "id", "fig1", "prefix", ">>"])

Create a window, telling the window manager to place it at the left edge of the screen and with its top edge 50 pixels from the top of the screen (note that the window manager may not honor this request). The id of the window is set to "fig1", and the prefix ">>", which means that the window title will be ">>fig1" (which may or may not be displayed by the window manager).

If you want a space to be included in the prefix then the value must be doubly quoted: e.g.

chips> add_window(["prefix", "\"chips - \""])

Example 7

chips> ws = ChipsWindow()
chips> ws.bgcolor = "blue"
chips> ws.width = 20
chips> ws.height = 15
chips> ws.units = "cm"
chips> add_window(ws)

Populate the "ws" structure with the attribute values, then add a window.

Window Preferences and Attributes

The attributes associated with windows are given in the following table, where the "Set?" column refers to whether the attribute can be changed using the set_window() command. To change the window preference settings prepend "window." to the attribute name.

Attribute	Description	Options	Default	Set?
bgcolor	Background Color of the window	name or hex; see the Color section of "ahelp chipsopt"	default: white in the ChIPS window, black on printout	Yes
display	Flag indicating whether the window should be rendered	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	true	Yes
geom	A geometry hint to the window manager to say where the ChIPS window should be created (this setting may be ignored, depending on the window manager in use). The format is either a blank string or a string containing two signed integers such as "+100+50", "+0+20", or "+0+0".			No
grid.color	The color to draw the grid lines.	name or hex; see the Color section of "ahelp chipsopt"	default	No
grid.scale	Where should the grid lines be drawn?	One of quarterinch, halfinch, cm, or normalized (spacing of a tenth of the window width/height). These can also be specified as default (for quarterinch) or the enumerations 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 for default, quarterinch, halfinch, cm, normalized respectively.	quarterinch	No
grid.style	The style used to draw the grid lines.	see the Line Style section of "ahelp chipsopt"	longdash	No
grid.thickness	The thickness used to draw the grid lines.	0.5 to 10.0; see the Thickness section of "ahelp chipsopt"	1	No
grid.visible	Should the grid be visible or not.	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	false	No
height	window height	Numerical value expressed in either inches, centimeters, millimeters or pixels	360 pixels	No
scaleheight	factor to scale window to display at approximate height	positive floating point value	1.25	No
scalewidth	factor to scale window to display at approximate width	positive floating point value	1.25	No
smoothing	use VTK's smoothing to reduce anti-aliasing	see the Booleans section of "ahelp chipsopt"	true	No
stem	Stem used for window id	An alpha-numeric character sequence that does not contain a space	win	No
prefix	Prefix added to window id to create the text that the window manager may use to label the ChIPS window.		"chips - "	No
units	Units of the window width and height dimensions	inches\|cm\|mm\|pixels	pixels	No
width	window width	Numerical value expressed in either inches, centimeters, millimeters or pixels	360 pixels	No

Bugs

See the bugs pages on the ChIPS website for an up-to-date listing of known bugs.