SpiceSpicein Dyalog

Document V1.06

Oct 2011

Spice Utilities

Spice is a user command handler.

Under V11 & V12 it uses an input area at the bottom of the screen to issue user defined commands using SALT.

It can be initialized directly from SALT:

Oct 2011

Initializing Spice

The Spice input area can also be started automatically by using the <enableSpice> function in the SALT workspace:

)LOAD SALT

enableSpice

Oct 2011

Initializing the Spice area in V12The configuration menu:

Oct 2011

Initializing Spice in V12.1There is no need to initialize the Spice input

area in 12.1.

The Spice user command handler is always available directly through the ] with 12.1.

Simply use ] where you would use the input area, e.g.

]mycmd

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Spice HelpTo get a detailed list of all available

commands enter ]?+ or ‘?+’ in the input area:

?

+

+

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Example of a custom Spice command: ffind

Use “ffind string” to find a regular expression string in SALT folders , e.g.:

]ffind \babc>0$

Will find in SALT files where syntactic abc is greater than 0 at the end of a line.

Oct 2011

Using SALT commands in Spice

All the SALT commands but New can be issued here, e.g.:

]save myclass file1

]compare file1 -ver=4

]list mine

]settings

]load myfile

]removeversions filex -v=<9

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

- Spice commands are kept in script files,

like SALT.

- Spice files have a .dyalog extension.

- All Spice script files are kept by default in

folder

[Dyalog]\SALT\spice

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How does Spice work?

Each script file contains a class or a

namespace with a number of

(presumably) related commands.

For example a script/class could contain

1. a command to search text

2. a command to replace text

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How does Spice work?

A script file MUST contain at least 3 public

shared functions for the Spice handler:

1. A <List> function

2. A <Run> function

3. A <Help> function

It may contain other functions.

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <List> function

The <List> function is niladic.

It returns a list of as many namespaces as

there are commands in the script file.

E.g.: if there are 2 commands in the script

file it returns 2 namespaces.

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <List> function

Each namespace returned by <List> contains

4 variables; each one is a string:

1. Name: the name of the command

2. Group: the group the command belongs to

3. Desc: a short description

4. Parse: the parsing rules

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <List> function

The 4 variables:

1. Name: a single word, e.g. locate

2. Group: a single word, e.g. files

3. Desc: a sentence, e.g. Find string in files

4. Parse: a string describing the command

syntax, e.g. 2 –exclude=

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How does Spice work?

The <List> function (example with 2 cmds) ∇ r←List :Access Shared Public r←⎕NS¨2⍴⊂'' r.Name←'Locate' 'Replace' r.Group←⊂'Files' r.Parse←'1' '2' r[1].Desc←'Find a string in files' r[2].Desc←'Replace a string by another' ∇

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <Help> function

The <Help> function is ambivalent.

Its arguments are a string naming the cmd

to return detailed help for, e.g. Locate to

the right and the help level to the left.

It returns a string describing help for that

command.

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <Help> function (example with 2 cmds) ∇ r←level Help Cmd :Access Shared Public r←⊂'Shows where the string is found' r,←⊂'Replace a string by another' r←r⊃⍨'Locate' 'Replace'⍳⊂Command

→lev↓0 r,←⎕av[4],'More help here…'

∇

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <Run> function

The <Run> function is monadic.

It takes 2 arguments:

1. a string naming the command to deal

with, e.g. Locate

2. either a string or a namespace which is

the argument to the command

Oct 2011

How does Spice work?

The <Run> function (example with 2 cmds)

∇ r←Run(Cmd ca);ct;w

:Access Shared Public

r←0 0⍴'' ⋄ ct←⎕SE.SALT.Load'Utils\fileUtils -noname'

w←##.textUtils.splitOn⍨⎕SE.SALT.Settings'workdir'

:Select Cmd

:Case ‘Locate’ ⋄ w ct.showExpr¨⊂ca.Argument

:Case ‘Replace’ ⋄ w ct.replExpr¨⊂ca.Argument

:EndSelect

∇

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Example

See script Spice\aSample.dyalog

It contains 2 examples of Spice commands:

1. no parsing rules

2. with specific parsing rules

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Example

The syntax is described in the help:

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Example

If the syntax is wrong Spice will complain:

No arguments!

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Example

If the syntax is right Spice will do it:

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Spice command location

When APL is installed the Spice commands' location is [Dyalog]\SALT\spice but you can change it.

The SALT settings contain Spice’s commands location in cmddir:

]setting cmddir \my\own\user\cmds

Will change the Spice/user commands folder to \my\own\user\cmds

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Final

SPICE is a development tool.

It can be used to store frequently used (and even less frequently used) user

commands.

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Short Final

More information can be found in the Spice document.

Dyalog 2009