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Getting More Information Apex provides several help facilities. The online tutorial, online help files, and online manuals are accessible from the Help command menu as illustrated in Figure 8. The manual pages provided by Apex are accessible from the UNIX command line within an Apex shell window.
Figure 8 Help Menu
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About this ChapterThis chapter describes the numerous help facilities included in Apex. The topics covered are:
- Online Help Via Netscape
- The Online Tutorial
- Quick Start Tutorials
- Online Manuals
- Obtaining Online Help about Menu or Button Bar Items (Context-Sensitive Help)
- Obtaining Online Help about Dialog Boxes
- Using the Master Index
- Other Buttons in the Help Menu
- Man Pages
- Rational's World Wide Web Site
Online Help Via NetscapeApex online help is provided in HTML files. By default Apex attempts to use Netscape to diaplay the on-line help files. In earlier releases of Apex a version of Netscape was also provided. To view the online help with another browser, set the switch $APEX_HELP_BROWSER, to the path of the desired browser, and set the switch $APEX_HELP_BROWSER_OPEN, to the appropriate command to open a file. Note that other browsers have not been tested with Apex, so attempting to access the online help with another browser may have unpredictable results.
The apexinit command will automatically try to start Netscape or $APEX_HELP_BROWSER if you have that set. To avoid starting Netscape, use the -noversion (alias -nover) option on the apexinit command line.
If Netscape does not come up, either you specified -nover or the version of Netscape on your search path does not work for the platform you are on. Check 'which netscape' you are running and try running it from an Apex shell to see what happens. If you are attempting to run a version of Netscape that does not run on your platform, an error message will be displayed.
Note that Apex will run this with the -install option so that it does not foul the color maps for Apex. If you get this error, set $APEX_HELP_BROWSER to the path of a browser which works on your platform.
Unless otherwise instructed, Apex will attempt to use an existing active browser. It will continue to use this browser for the duration of the Apex session or until the browser is closed or an error occurs. To force Apex to start a new browser, set the APEX_HELP_BROWSER_PRIVATE switch to True.
If you are planning on using the online documentation, we recommend that you start Netscape first, before running Apex. Otherwise, the first time you attempt to access the online help, you may have to reselect the document or the help button a second time after Netscape comes up because the browser is slow to start the first time. This is true on machines that are slower or under a heavy load.
The Online TutorialThe online Tutorial introduces you to Apex fundamentals and leads you through a series of editing, compiling, debugging, and configuration controlling exercises. The tutorial is accessible from any Apex window.
To use the tutorial, select the Help > Tutorial menu item from any Apex window. Apex then displays an introduction to the Tutorial. To work through the examples that the tutorial provides, follow the online instructions.
Quick Start TutorialsFor Apex C/C++ and Apex Duo, Quick Start tutorials, providing a very basic introduction to getting started with Apex are provided for Apex C/C++ and Java. These tutorials introduce the user to basic Apex concepts and quickly step the user through basic getting started operations such as setting up a work area, and creating and compiling C/C++ or Java programs.
Online ManualsYou can access Apex documents electronically by choosing items from the Help > Manuals menu in any Apex window. The online documents available from the Help menu contain more detailed reference material than is generally found in this guide. These documents are described in Table 2.
Note: The exact list of documents available through the Help > Manuals command varies with each Apex product and is dependent on what has been installed. Additional documents relating to optional or separately licensed products such as TestMate, RCI, AXI, Ada Analyzer, Summit/TM, Rose, or Apex for Rexec, Tornado, or LynxOS, will also be accessible if these products have been installed.
Obtaining Online Help about Menu or Button Bar Items (Context-Sensitive Help)To obtain help information about any menu item or button on the button bar:
- 1 . Select Help > On Context.
The cursor changes to a question mark.
- 2 . Select any menu item or button with the mouse.
When you left-click a menu item with the help cursor, Apex does not execute the command. Instead, Apex opens a an online help window that describes the command or button.
Obtaining Online Help about Dialog BoxesEach dialog box contains a Help button. When you left-click the Help button, Apex opens a hypertext window to an online help window that describes the dialog box and all its fields.
Using the Master IndexWhen you select the Help > Index menu item, Apex opens the Master help index. The initial page displayed has links to each of the index letters. Click any of these letters to go to the desired letter. Once there, click on any topic to display information on that topic.
Navigating in HypertextWhen information about a topic appears on a hypertext page, more information related to the same topic is often available on other pages. When more information on a topic is available, the online help system lets you jump directly to the related information.
- The online help page will either direct you to a topic by instructing you to click here or when you see a list marked by bullets, you can jump to each listed topic by clicking on the marked line.
- You can also jump to topics that are underlined and displayed in blue.
For more information about the online help system, select Help > On Help.
Other Buttons in the Help MenuOther buttons in the Help menu provide information on specific subjects. They are listed in Table 3 .
With the exception of On Version, these menu items take you into portions of the online help system. From these pages, you can use the previously described features.
Man PagesApex provides UNIX-style manual (man) pages for its command-line interface. To view the man page for any Apex command, enter the man command at the shell prompt inside any Apex xterm window:
% mancommand
For example, to obtain information about the apexinit command, enter:
% man apexinit
Rational's World Wide Web SiteTo get the latest information, please visit our Web site at www.rational.com.
Rational Software Corporation http://www.rational.com support@rational.com techpubs@rational.com Copyright © 1993-2002, Rational Software Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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