Motor documentation
by konst, 2002-2003
Contents
--------
1. Introduction
1.1. Creation history
1.2. Features overview
1.3. Requirements
1.4. First time start
2. User interface
2.1. The ESC key
2.2. The main screen
2.3. Menus
2.4. Dialogs
2.5. Hotkeys in dialogs
2.6. Some UI tips
3. Configuration
3.1. The "Motor settings" dialog
3.2. External keys
3.3. Color schemes
4. Projects
4.1. Project creation
4.2. Project files and directories
4.3. The "Project settings" dialog
4.4. Building programs
4.5. Distribution package generation
4.6. External output view, error messages
4.7. Templates
4.7.1. Standard templates overview
4.7.2. Custom templates
5. Internal editor
5.1. Block operations
5.1.1. Cut and paste
5.1.2. Indentation
5.2. Switching between editor windows
5.3. Undo/redo
6. Debugger front-end
6.1. Using debugger, requirements
6.2. Step-by-step execution
6.3. Breakpoints
6.4. Watches
6.5. Call stack
6.6. Core dumps exploration
6.7. Custom debuggers
7. Version control systems integration
7.1. Creation from CVS
7.2. Importing an existing project
7.3. The "Check/in out" dialog
7.4. Release tags
7.5. Version control systems customization
8. Useful features
8.1. Grepper
8.2. Regexper
8.3. Tag browser
9. Advanced features
9.5. Latest CVS snapshots
10. Lynx
10.1. The program homepage
10.1.1. Motor mailing list
10.2. thekonst.net
10.3. Other programs I write
1. Introduction
---------------
Motor is a text mode based programming environment for Linux. It
consists of a powerful editor with syntax highlight feature, project
manager, makefile generator, gcc and gdb front-end, etc. Deep CVS
integration is also provided. A symbol browser is provided to make it
easier to move between various definitions in the source, and the
regexper tool helps you to create and debug regular expressions.
1.1. Creation history
---------------------
I think that every program must comply with an ideology of the
operating system it's written for and it's a very important part of
success of a software product, so when I started writing motor I'd
deceided to create a useful tool for open source programmers that would
comply with an ideology of Linux as much as possible. When I use an
"igeology" term, first of all I mean the way the program works in
general, the OS facilities usage and an interface concept (for this kind
of programs).
There was a limited set of programs used almost by all of Linux
programmers in developing their open source programs. Usually they were
a text editor (I prefered mcedit), gcc/g++ compiler, make, gdb, cvs,
autoconf and some other tools. Programming IDE should integrate all of
them in an entrie user interface to help a programmer to organize his
projects the way he likes, to debug programs seeing the source and
modify it in the same time, etc.. I know, most of those tools comply
with Linux ideology quite well, but they relate to the command-line
interface concept. Some people find it useful, but as for me, I prefer a
bit higher level of visuality. It should be something like Midnight
Commander, that is de-facto a standard for text user interface for
Linux. That's what I tried to make.
1.2. Features overview
----------------------
Every part of the IDE is configurable. You can define any kind of
debugger and version control system, syntax highlight, compiler messages
to parse, add additional actions, etc. Though in some parts it's not
that trivial, but who says it's gotta be so? :)
Internal editor has the following highlights. Of course, it can open
multiple files at once, has a standard set of block operations with some
nice additions like shifting whole blocks to make it easier to add
indents to your source. The find tool allows you to use regular
expressions, search in the whole project or its particular folders, you
can even perform searches in several projects. And sure there is a
possibility to use an external editor in cause if you don't like such a
cute thingie :)
Actually there are many features already implemented, which I will
tell you about in this documentation. And there is more to follow, of
course.
1.3. Requirements
-----------------
It's not difficult to build the motor executable, for there is a very
small set of tools it will need. Apart from the C++ compiler you should
only install ncurses, which is a CRT screen handling and optimization
package, at least of 4.2 version. You can find it by the following URL.
http://dickey.his.com/ncurses/ncurses.html
Well, with such a trivial build there must be a trick. Right, in order
to use it you'll need much more software installed. It would be rather
stupid to expect a small IDE to do all the job, like build processing,
version control, code debugging and tags extracting. Motor is just a
front-end for the standard tools, designed especially for these aims.
So, here is the list.
GNU Make
GNU Debugger (gdb)
autoconf and automake
CVS (Concurrent Version System)
RedHat Package Manager (if you want to generate such packages)
Also, the template scripts will use such standard command line tools,
like sed, grep, egrep, etc.. But usually they're included into any
modern UNIX distribution, so there is nothing to worry about.
1.4. First time start
---------------------
2. User interface
-----------------
The text UI motor has, as well as UI of other programs for console I
have written, is very simple. There are menus, windows, menus and input
lines. In the bottom line of the screen there is a status bar. It
usually contains hints about what to press to invoke various menus,
dialogs, and perform various actions.
2.1. The ESC key
----------------
This key is used for termination of input, if you wanna cancel the
operation you wanted to perform. Let's say, the "Motor settings" dialog
is invoked. As button bar says, you can use the item "Change" to change
values. There is also the "Done" button, which will save changes.
Obviously if you don't want to do the latter, there is ESC. The only
hint here is that you have to press the ESC key twice. It's a common
practice for console based UNIX programs (Midnight commander is a good
example), because checking for only one ESC would spoil arrow key
processing. The point is that they have correspond sequences that start
with an ASCII#27 character which is actually ESC.
If you still want to press a simple key combination to close a dialog
or cancel something, try Alt-ESC. Though it's not guaranteed to work on
all terminals.
The ESC key can also help you to issue shortcuts and key combinations
such as Alt-? or F<x>. The former, if Alt-Shift-/ doesn't work can be
produced by first pressing ESC and then Shift-/ (i.e. "?"). And instead
of any F-key the ESC and then a number can be used.
2.2. The main screen
--------------------
2.3. Menus
----------
2.4. Dialogs
------------
2.5. Hotkeys in dialogs
-----------------------
Dialogs in motor usually have a bar with buttons. To access a button
without moving the highlighted bar over it with the arrow keys you can
use shortcuts. It's enough to press the first capital letter of a button
name to access the function behind it.
2.6. Some UI tips
-----------------
There at some quite standard key combinations supported by motor. Here
they go.
Ctrl-L
Redraws the screen in any place of program execution. If output of
some kind of background programs or system messages spoil your screen
just press it to refresh the motor screen.
Ctrl-Y
In editor removes entire current line.
Ctrl-K
Single line edit mode.
Kills entire content.
Ctrl-U
Single line edit mode.
Kills a part of line to the left from cursor.
Alt-H
Single line edit mode.
Invokes history of recently entered lines.
3. Configuration
----------------
3.1. The "Motor settings" dialog
--------------------------------
3.2. External keys
------------------
3.3. Color schemes
------------------
It's possible to customise colors in motor user interface. It's done
with the help of the ~/.motor/themes configuration file. The default one
can be found in the /usr/share/motor or /usr/local/share/motor
directory. Just copy it to ~/.motor and edit by preference. Its contents
are self-descriptive, and parameter names mean exactly that they're
named after. Please note, that among the standard color names it's
possible to specify "transparent" which is useful when the program is
used in terminals with background images set.
4. Projects
-----------
4.1. Project creation
---------------------
4.2. Project files and directories
----------------------------------
4.3. The "Project settings" dialog
----------------------------------
4.4. Building programs
----------------------
4.5. Distribution package generation
------------------------------------
4.6. External output view, error messages
-----------------------------------------
4.7. Templates
--------------
4.7.1. Standard templates overview
----------------------------------
4.7.2. Custom templates
-----------------------
5. Internal editor
------------------
5.1. Block operations
---------------------
5.1.1. Cut and paste
--------------------
5.1.2. Indentation
------------------
5.2. Switching between editor windows
-------------------------------------
5.3. Undo/redo
--------------
6. Debugger front-end
---------------------
6.1. Using debugger, requirements
---------------------------------
6.2. Step-by-step execution
---------------------------
6.3. Breakpoints
----------------
6.4. Watches
------------
6.5. Call stack
---------------
6.6. Core dumps exploration
---------------------------
6.7. Custom debuggers
---------------------
7. Version control systems integration
--------------------------------------
7.1. Creation from CVS
----------------------
7.2. Importing an existing project
----------------------------------
7.3. The "Check/in out" dialog
------------------------------
7.4. Release tags
-----------------
7.5. Version control systems customization
------------------------------------------
8. Useful features
------------------
8.1. Grepper
------------
8.2. Regexper
-------------
8.3. Tag browser
----------------
9. Advanced features
--------------------
9.5. Latest CVS snapshots
-------------------------
10. Lynx
--------
This section contains links and references that may be of interest for
you.
10.1. The program homepage
--------------------------
The motor homepage can be found at
http://thekonst.net/motor/
On the same page there is the latest version for you to download.
10.1.1. Motor mailing list
--------------------------
There is a mailing list for motor which is used by the program users
to discuss their ideas, bug reports, fixes, and other stuff. You would
rather want to use it instead of direct mailing to me.
To subscribe go to the motor home page (URL above) or send a message
to motor-request@linuxpl.org with "subscribe" in the subject field. To
post a message to the list, send it to motor@linuxpl.org after you
subscribe. The archive can be found at http://eloy.linux.net.pl/motor/
10.2. thekonst.net
------------------
If you want to find out more about my recent activities, news,
software developments and other things I'm involved in, visit my web
site at http://thekonst.net/
10.3. Other programs I write
----------------------------
To find out more about my software developments use the following URL:
http://thekonst.net/konstware/
There is also an "articles" section at
http://thekonst.net/writings/
11. Help to the project I would appreciate
------------------------------------------
What if you think that motor is the best text console based IDE
around? What if motor is an IDE you'd been waiting whole of your life,
and want to express your appreciation somehow? Helping the author you
help the project itself to keep rolling. It's not something vital I
require to keep on writing and improving motor, neither you have to do
it. I quite enjoy making it in my spare time, and happy of the fact
there are no deadlines and obligations from my side. It's just my hobby.
So how you can express appreciation to the way I waste my spare time,
so that to make me a bit more happy and satisfied by my activities?
11.1. Feedback
--------------
You can write some feedback saying what you liked and what is missing
in the program. Also, don't be silent if you notice bugs. Just check
everything attentively and send a detailed bug-report to the mailing
list.
11.2. Patches
-------------
Don't wait for me to implement a feature you'd like to have in motor.
Please have in mind that whole the source code is available and you can
modify it yourself, then make a patch and send it to me. I'd like you to
follow my style of formatting the code. Please don't make any changes
not related to the feature you implement, it makes your patch difficult
to commit.
11.3. Promoting the little program
----------------------------------
I bet you read some computers related magazines and visit various
Linux related sites. Please don't keep silence instead of screaming out
your adoration for the little nice program. Submit it to a software site
or catalogue or/and encourage the authors of your favourite magazine to
take a look at it and possibly write about motor. Interviews, speeches,
presedential elections ;) and stuff are also possible, just contact me
for more details.
11.4. Donations
---------------
If you're a materialist guy like me, you might want to present me
something what I can touch, put on a sandwich or into my pocket. Here it
goes.
11.4.1. Money
-------------
The most universal way. Depending on a sum I will be able to drink one
more beer or tequila to the health of motor users or buy a piece of
hardware, electronic gagdet or the newest model of "Porsche" ;) Contact
me and I'll discuss a way I can receive your donation.
11.4.2. Hardware
----------------
Since usually I write motor at home, it's always nice to upgrade the
computer it's being developed with. It can increase the speed and
pleasure I get during the process.
11.4.3. Other stuff
-------------------
Other stuff like t-shirts, souvenirs, albums or postcards with nice
views of the nature in places where you live, baseball tickets ;) are
also welcome.
$Id: README,v 1.5 2003/07/22 21:47:51 konst Exp $
