New features added in Sunsort 4.08
==================================

Sort code profiling
-------------------

This is for advanced users only, and is not enabled by default.

To enable profiling, the user who installed sunsort must go to the sunsort
directory and type:

	./sort-install -P sunsort_lib sort-subs

After that, any user may instrument a sort code for profiling by typing:

	makesort sort_code [any options] profile

Note that profile may only be used instead of debug and check.

After instrumentation, the sort code may be loaded and run as normal. In
order to see the results, the sort code must be terminated gracefully,
that is, it musn't crash or be killed by the KILL!! button in Sunsort. To
terminate the sort code gracefully, go to the sunsort command line prompt and
type:

	status

Sunsort will respond with a status message which will include the line:

	sort process name = ./sunsort_proc: pid = <ppppp>, fds = <x>, <y>, <z>

where the values in angle brackets may change. At the sunsort command prompt
type:

	kill -TERM <ppppp>

where you replace <ppppp> with the value from the status line. This will
terminate the sort code gracefully. To read the report, type the following
at the sunsort command line, or in any terminal window which is in the same
directory as the sort code:

	gprof sunsort_proc | less

You may prefer to use `more' instead of `less', and if you've changed the
sort proc filename you should change sunsort_proc in the example line to
whatever name you have used.

Interpreting the gprof output takes a little practice. Read the gprof manual
page for more information. 

Note that profiling forces you into single process mode.

Keyboard accelerators
---------------------

The following keyboard accelerators have been added to the main Sunsort
GUI to speed up commonly used operations:

Mount			    Alt M
Unmount			    Alt U
Open			    Alt O
Close			    Alt C
Execute			    Alt E
Read			    Alt R

Popup Variables	window	    Alt V
Popup Tool window	    Alt T
Popup Spectra window	    Alt S
Popup Write window	    Alt W

Makesort		    Alt A	(Alt M had been taken)
Loadsort		    Alt L

Set sort media to Exabyte   Shift Alt E
Set sort media to Remote    Shift Alt R
Set sort media to Disk	    Shift Alt D
Set sort media to Demon	    Shift Alt M	(Shift Alt D and E had been taken)
Set sort media to Pipe	    Shift Alt P

Toggle tape rewind option   Shift Alt W (Shift Alt R and E had been taken)
Toggle tape hold option	    Shift Alt H

Set stop to 0,1..9 records  Alt 0..9
Increment stop		    Alt +
Decrement stop		    Alt -

Load windows		    Shift Alt L
Stop sorting		    Esc

Multi-process sorting
---------------------

To speed things up on multi-processor machines, you can tell sunsort
to run several copies of your sort code and to share the data blocks
out between them. By default this is disabled.

Be warned with multi-processing that your init and finish code will get
run several times and out of order, that is processes may be sorting when
your init and finish codes run, consequently, if you have non-trivial
initialisation code (like you zero or recalculate a spectrum) then you
should not use this code. Since each process runs in its own memory space
you can initialise variables and arrays without worrying about interference
between processes. Be warned however, that although each finish routine
sees the spectrum data for all processes, data stored in local memory can
only be accessed by the local process.

Filtering data with multi-process code is OK, however events may emerge
out of order in the output stream.

To enable multi-process sorting, use the processes command at the sunsort
command line. Type processes to see the current status, and processes followed
by a number to set the number of processes to use. Typing processes 1
disables multi-process sorting typing processes 0 sets the number of
processes equal to the number of processors on the machine.

Note that if you run sunsort on a single processor machine, it will ignore
this setting and always use the single processor version of the code.

To get the multi-process code working I've had to use a number of sophistcated
techniques. Fingers crossed if things go wrong it should fall back to single
process code.

Manual completely written in HTML
---------------------------------

The Sunsort manual has now been completely rewritten in HTML. This will be
the only copy kept up to date. The manual has all the information from the
old manuals and has been significantly expanded. However, I didn't have
time to finish all the sections. Volunteers are requested to complete the
job. Cross references between sections are also not complete.

The manual is distributed with Sunsort in the man/manual directory. Start
with the file index.html. It's also available on the web at
http://npg.dl.ac.uk/Charissa/documents/CODES/sunsort/man/