libsimchario

     NAME
	  libsimchario - support for terminal I/O

     DESCRIPTION
	  The following	operations offering some utilities for
	  character based terminal I/O.	They are compatible with and
	  use sysin/sysout, but	provides some additional
	  functionality.

     EXAMPLE
	     external procedure	OutLine;
	     text T;
	     T:-blanks(1024);
	     T:= loooong value ....";"
	       OutLine(T); ! Conveniently chopped up in	;
			 ! 'Image.Length' size chunks.;

     AUTHOR
	  Various people at QZ and FOA,	Stockholm.

     DETAILED INTERFACE
     OutLine
	     procedure OutLine(T,Out_File);
	     text T; ! pos not used or chaged ;
	     ref (OutFile) Out_File; ! file to write on, e.g. SysOut;
	  Output the argument T	as one or  more	 lines	of  output  on
	  Out_File.   Protected	against	errors when the	parameter text
	  is longer than the image, T is chopped into image size pices
	  and output one by one	on a line each.

     BreakoutLine
	     procedure BreakoutLine (T,	Out_File);
	     text T;  !	pos unused and unchaged	;
	     ref (OutFile) Out_File; ! file to write on, e.g. SysOut;
	  Similar to OutLine  but  does	 not  output  line-breaks  (no
	  CR/LF)  after	 each line. It uses BreakOutimage, rather than
	  Outimage as OutLine uses.

     InLine
	     text procedure InLine(Question,In_File);
	     text Question; ! Prompt to	print, pos not used;
	     ref(infile) In_File; ! File to read from. ;
	  Types	'Question' as a	prompt and returns users response as a
	  stripped sub-text of Sysin.Image.  If	In_file	is None, SysIn
	  is used for input (Sysout is always used).

     LookAhead
	     character procedure LookAhead (fileref);
	     ref (File)	fileref; ! Infile or Directfile	object;
	  Locates the next non-white (space or tab) character.	 Calls
	  LastItem  to	scan  over  white space. Returns the next non-
	  white	character (if any)  but	 leaves	 pos  so  InChar  will
	  return  the  same  charcter.	When at	end-of-file it returns
	  Space!

     Request
	     text procedure
	     Request(Prompt,Default,Result,Valid,ErrMsg,Help);
	     name Prompt,Default,ErrMsg,Help, !	In parameters /may
	     change;
	     Result, ! Out parameter;
	     Valid;  ! Jensens device, should match expression using
	     'Result';
	     text Prompt; ! Prompt text	e.g.  X-value" ;"
	     text Default;! Default value such as  2.5"	;"
	     boolean Valid;! Should evaluate to	'True' if current
	     value of Result is	OK;
	     text Result; ! Result, user response assigned here;
	     text ErrMsg; ! Error text e.g.  Legal values are 1..10";"
	     text Help;	  ! Help text, e.g.  Enter valid horizontal
	     coordinate" ;"
	  Outputs a prompt to the user and returns a Validated	reply.
	  The  Prompt  and the Default value is	displayed to the user.
	  Users	 response  is  assigned	 to  Result  and  then	 Valid
	  (Boolean, Call-back, expression) is checked. If it evaluates
	  to True, Request returns otherwise  the  user	 is  show  the
	  error	 message  ErrMsg  and prompted for a better value.  If
	  the user enter a '?',	the Help text will be  displayed.   If
	  the  user  just  hits	 Return,  the  Default	is returned as
	  Result.  Note	that all parameter are called by name  so  any
	  of  them  can	be matched with	a expression or	text procedure
	  evaluating to	different values each time they	are called, as
	  more and more	verbose	help texts.