Sunsort main window

Note that some button and other labels change their names depending on the situation. The alternate names are listed below separated with a slash. For example, the button normally marked Open will change its name to Close when a file has been opened.

Sort media

This control is used to select where the input data from Sunsort will come from. The 5 media are:

• Tape: used to get data off a tape connected to the machine running Sunsort.
• Remote: used to get data broadcast in a Eurogam compliant way, as we do at ANU with the Megha data.
• Disk: used to access data on the local disk.
• Demon: used to connect to a machine providing data over the network in a Demon compliant way.
• Pipe: used to get data from another program.

Options

This controls the options used when opening a tape file.

• Rewind: Makes Sunsort rewind the tape before opening the file.
• Hold: Makes Sunsort go back to the beginning of a tape file when the file is closed, usually Sunsort will advance to the start of the next file. Note that this option must be set when the file is opened.

Drive

This selects which tape drive the tape is in. The names rst0..15 are historic, the devices on modern Suns are referred to as rmt/0..15. Sunsort knows this and will select the correct name for the system you are on - the only thing you have to get right is the number.

Write...

This button pops up the window controlling the writing out of filtered data.

Sort vol

Enter the volume name of the tape to mount here (only applicable for sort medium Exabyte). Use the tape volume name NONANSI to mount a non-ANSI compliant tape.

Mount/Unmount

Mount/Unmount a tape volume (only applicable to sort medium Exabyte).

Sort file/System/Command

Enter the name of the file to open (sort media Exabyte and Disk), system to connect to (sort medium Demon) or command to run (sort medium Pipe). For sort medium Remote, no name need be entered.

Open/Close

Open/Close the file (or connection to system or pipe).

Batch

Specify the name of a batch file to run

Execute

Run the named batch file.

Skip

Enter the number of records to skip over when read is pressed before reading data (useful for starting to read from the middle of a file).

Stop

Enter here the number of records to read from the file, that is reading will automatically stop after this many records. Enter a value of 0 or -1 to read continuously.

Read

Start reading data.

State:

Various informational messages will appear here from time to time.

Spectrum refresh

Moving this slider away from the Off position will cause any displayed spectra to be automatically updated. The reading is the time in seconds between updates.

Format

This controls the spectrum format used to save and load spectra. The formats are:

• SDB: A compact format used by several programs, particularly old Daresbury programs.
• XY: A very verbose format that's easy for both humans and simple programs to read. Note that this format uses a lot of memory and so should only be used to write out data that needs to be put into such a program.
• EG: A compact format used by Eurogam. May be useful if you need to give a spectrum to a colleague in Eurogam.

Add in on load

If this box is ticked when you load a spectrum then instead of the new data overwriting the spectrum in memory, the data from file will be added to the data in memory.

Save to

Used to specify the name of the directory to save spectra and variables to. The directory will be created if it doesn't already exist. If it does already exist, you'll be prompted to confirm that you wish to overwrite spectra and variables in it.

Save

Select from this menu whether you wish to save everything (all), just the variables (vars), just the windows (windows) or whether you want to select a group of spectra from a list of all available spectra (selected). In the last case, a window will be popped up giving you a list of spectra to select from.

Load from

Used to specify the directory to load spectra and variables from.

Load

Select from this menu how much you want to load. The options are the save as for the Save menu.

Variables...

This button pops up the Sunsort variable window.

Sort tool...

This button pops up the Sunsort tool window.

Spectra...

This button pops up the Sunsort spectrum window.

The new window elements are:

Number of records in

Shows the number of records read from this input since open was pressed.

Number of records out

Shows the number of records written to the output stream.

Number of records sorted per second

Shows how fast Sunsort is running

Stop

Press this to stop sorting at any point. Due to the complex buffering scheme Sunsort uses, if the sorting rate is very low, then there may be a pause between you pressing this and Sunsort actually responding.