Note: in this manual the directory in which PEAR has
been installed is referred to with the $PEAR_HOME notation,
while $HOME is the user's home directory.
Starting PEAR
PEAR can be run through a couple of scripts
that may be found in the $PEAR_HOME/bin directory: the Windows
version is run.bat, while run.sh is the UNIX/Linux
one. Both scripts load the modules found in $PEAR_HOME/lib
and set the Java Virtual Machine classpath so that any plug-in
will be looked for in the $PEAR_HOME/plugins directory.
PEAR's standard ouput and error are redirected into two log file that
can be found in the $HOME/.pear directory.
Graphic User Interface
PEAR provides a graphic interface whose windows are dockable, that is they can be attached to the four sides of the main desktop through the Window menu, which also provides the automatic window disposal by means of the Dispose command.
Through the View menu the hidden windows corresponding to the selected items can be shown or taken to the front; the Validation Rules item is a submenu letting you choose whether show the actual window, or the inner elements: the source code of the validation rules, or the corresponding tree view.
The Container window shows the status of the containers and the substitution map during a validation session in step-by-step mode, Console shows the content of the log console, while Protocol Source holds a tab for each open protocol source.
Three tabs are placed below the desktop:
the desktop tab is the one that has been described since
now; console contains a text area showing the logger
output and the controls you can use to clear the text area and set the
logger actual verbosity; eventually the errors tab is
displayed when an unhandled error is detected.
Below the tabs you can find the status bar, showing the last message produced by the tool, while above them the tool bars are placed.
The tool bars
Four tool bars are available:
- the file management tool bar
contains three buttons that let you open, save and close a file, respectively;
typing the name of non-existing file in the "open file" dialog
will cause a new one to be created, once saved;
- the built-in resource browser
allows you to choose protocols or rule system included in the PEAR plug-in
modules; by clicking the button on the left you can choose the type
of resource to be opened, the other control lets you actually choose
the resource; please note that you can not select any rule system if
there are open protocol sources;
- the validation rule
tool bar contains two buttons: the first one let you open a file containing
a validation rule source; the second one sets as current the default
validation rule system; the two buttons are active only when there are
no open files, otherwise dangerous situations might happen;
- the protocol management tool bar
provides four actions, respectively: show the warning window, switch
between protocol displaying and editing mode, display the first error
found if any, and open the tag inference dialog;
- the validation tool bar
let you control the protocol validation process through the four buttons
that provide the following actions respectively: go back to the previous
validation step (if available), stop the protocol validation, run/complete
the protocol validation, go to the next validation step; the following
component is used to set the validation step granularity, that is how
often the process will stop to let the tool display its status: selecting
the last level is the same as press the run button, the validation will
complete; the log-level check-box allows you to link the logger verbosity
to the validation step granularity: the tool will produce the appropriate
amount of output in each moment, thus improving its performances.
The protocol source window
If you edit a protocol source and then you try to close it, an inner
panel will be shown up asking if you wish to save the modified source.
An analogous element is shown up when
the tag inference process is able to find one or more tagging suiting
to the given protocol: a component appears in the inner panel allowing
you to choose whether display the original source or the tagged ones.
The tag inference window
The tag inference window provides controls above and below the current
source displaying area: the first control above allows you to choose whether
display the original source or the taggings found; the patience
slider allows you the select the number of equal taggings to be found
before acting on the stack of backtrack nodes; the two following check-boxes
enable or disable (if possible) the commit hints and the protocol reordering
algorithm (it improves performances).
The panel placed below the source displaying area contains four buttons
which provide the following actions respectively: run the tag inference
process, stop it, save the current tagging as a separate file, close the
tag inference window.
Configuration
Operation and container plug-ins don’t require
configuration: if you wish to add a jar module, just put it in the $PEAR_HOME/plugins
directory; if you wish to add only a single class or resource, just place
it in $PEAR_HOME/plugins/it/unive/dsi/pear/plugins. If you
are running PEAR through WebStart, you can put your plug-in jar modules
in $HOME/.pear. Please note that in
this case you may provide only resource plugins./plugins
Built-in resources may be specified trough two related
list files named
builtin-vrules.inibuiltin-protocols.ini, respectively.
You can find the former in the builtin.jar module, while
the latter is stored in the protocols.jar module. Once properly
written the two lists, you'll have to make listed resources available
by treating them as standard plugins. Alternatively you may provide no
list, this way all the resources stored in any plugin module will be displayed
by the resource browser.