2 Starting and closing the editor

The syntax of the launching command is as follows:

thot [-display display] [doc1 doc2 ...]

All parameters are optional. If none are provided, the editor starts without opening or creating any document.

• display indicates the screen on which Thot must work.
• The last parameters specify the list of documents to be opened at startup. Documents can be referenced by their directory and file name (with or without .PIV suffix), however names only are sufficient: indicating the suffix or the directory is not required if the directory is included in the configuration file (see section 7.9.1).

The launching command of the editor produces the following result on the user screen:

• Creation of a small window on the upper right corner of the screen: it is the primary window of the editor (called ``Thot window'' in the following) in which the editor displays the dialogue messages (reports of operations and error messages).

  The menu bar of this window contains four buttons:

  • ``Files'': to open, to create documents and to close the editor (see section 7).
  • ``Environment'': to modify the working environment of the editor (see section 7.9.2).
  • ``Palettes'': to enter non standard symbols and characters (see section 3.5 and 20).
  • ``Help'': to obtain information on the editor (version number). The editor does not contain on line help at present.
• Creation of all the windows required to display the documents specified in the launching command. Several windows can be opened for each document, including the views (see section 9), as specified in the .conf file for this type of document (see section 23.2.2). For instance, the present document of type Report can be opened with two windows: one for the full text and one for the table of contents.

Closing the editor

The ``Quit Thot'' entry must be selected from the ``Files'' menu of the Thot window to quit Thot. Before closing the application, the editor closes the documents still open. For each document which has been modified since the last saving, the editor proposes, as during the ``Close the document'' command (see section 7.5), a form with three options:

• ``Done'': to abort the closing procedure of the application without saving the document.
• ``Save the document'': to save the document before closing the application.
• ``Close, don't save'': to close the application without saving the document.

[Section 3] [Table of contents]