Programs are the active part of an experiment. They include ring data sources, ring clients and programs that are not in the dataflow (for example GUI's that ask the state manager to make state transitions).
Programs are manipulated via the Programs tab of the editor. An empty program editor is shown in the figure below:
The Host/program id column displays the host a set of programs runs in or, alternatively the program id (much linke the rings editor). The Path column displays the path to the program itself. This can be a path to an executable or to a shell script. The target of the path must be excutable, however. The Working Directory column describes the working directory the boot manager sets for the program before it is started. The Program Arguments contain command line parameters for programs.To create a new program definition, right click anywhere in the programs table and select New... from the resulting pop up menu. This brings up the dialog shown below:
Most of the dialog is self explanatory. The Browse... buttons allow you to use a file system browser to navigate to the path or current working directory. The Program Args are defined by typing them into the entry strip just below the Program Args: box. Hitting enter adds a new argument. Double clicking an existing argument removes it from the list.
Below is a program definition dialog after it was filled in.
To edit a program definition, right click anywhere in the program's and choose the Edit... menu entry. This brings up the program definition dialog used by the New... entry however it is pre-stocked with the definition of the program you right clicked. Clicking the
button will modify the existing definition rather than creating a new one.To delete a program definition, right click anywhere in the program's definition and choose the Delete... menu option>
Below is a figure that shows an experiment definition that has some entries.