One of the problems one encounters when sitting in front of the graphics
screen is that the amount of information obtainable is larger than the
mind can grasp in the short time of one session. WHAT IF therefore allows
for several ways of making notes. All these notes can
be printed during or after the session.
This chapter describes the ways in which you can make notes. There are two
kinds of notes: Notes per residue and overall notes.
The chapter on DOLOG and NOLOG describes a way to get a direct
copy of all output send to the terminal also in a printable file.
WHAT IF allows you to log your bright ideas and new insights without the
use of paper and pencil. Besides one notebook per residue, there is
the possibility to keep an infinite number of general notebooks (or just
one of course).
Be aware that once you have defined or asked for a notebook, this notebook
will stay the default notebook, until you change its name. All notebook
options that can change notebooks will show you the name of this default
notebook when they prompt you for the notebook name. If you just hit the
return key, the default notebook will be used.
Be aware that notebooks are nothing more than formatted files on disk,
and thus accessible to you via a normal text editor.
The command MAKNEW will prompt you for the name of a new note book.
It will then generate this notebook, and it will open it. If you give the
name of an existing notebook this book will be read to you, and you
are asked if you want to erase this older notebook.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: notebook
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.
The USEOLD command will open an existing notebook for you. You will be prompted
for the name of the notebook. Subsequent WRITE commands will allow you to
write in this
notebook. The notebook stays open for writing till you change to another
notebook (via MAKNEW, or another USEOLD command), or till you explicitly
close it with the CLOSE command. The PRINT command (see PRINT) also closes
the notebook.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: notebook
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.
CLOSE explicitly closes the presently open notebook. If there is no open
notebook a warning is given. This option might be nice if you want to
edit your notebook with a text editor. Otherwise there is no real need
for this option because WHAT IF itself knows when the notebook
has to be closed.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: notebook
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.
The command PRINTS shows you the entire contents of the default notebook at
the
terminal. A warning is given if there is no default notebook yet. You get a
default notebook by using either USEOLD, or MAKNEW. PRINT closes your
notebook
after printing. (This has to be because a file can not be open for reading
and
writing at the same time). The notebook does not have to be open in order
for PRINT to work properly. If the notebook is not open, PRINT opens it
automatically.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: notebook
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.
The WRITE command writes a note at the end of the present default notebook.
If
this is the beginning of a new project, you do not have a default notebook
yet, and you must get one by either using MAKNEW, or USEOLD. WRITE will
prompt you for lines of text. You can type whatever normal text you want,
don't use control or escape sequences. Lines should not be longer than
79 characters. You should end this note by typing a zero.
The notebook will stay open for writing till you explicitly close it with
the command CLOSE.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: notebook
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.
WHAT IF keeps one notebook per residue. These notebooks are kept as files
with the name AAN***.NOT (*** is the number of the residue) in your
directory. The following commands can be used to work with these
residue notebooks: AASHOW, AANEW, AANOTE.
When you use this command you will be prompted for the residue for which you
want to write a note. If you have never use the notebook for this
residue yet, WHAT IF will generate it.
Regardless whether this is a new or an existing notebook, you will be prompted
for your notes. You can type whatever you want, but not more than 79 characters
per line. To stop writing notes you should give a zero.
Dont use escape or control characters in the text for notes.
If you want to read previously written notes you can use the command AASHOW.
You will be prompted for a residue. Don't worry if you forgot whether you
already made note for a certain residue or not, WHAT IF remembered that for
you, and will simply warn you if there are no notes.
You can not crash WHAT IF by making mistakes like asking for notes that are not
there.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: file
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.
Sometimes you might want to restart writing notes about an residue. The
easiest way of doing so is to use the editor and remove the lines
from the residue notebook file which you do not like. (Inserting lines
is also allowed, as long as you stick to normal text lines of maximally 79
characters).
AANEW will
prompt you for the residue number. It will then show you all notes for
this residue, and ask if you want to erase these notes.
If you answer with NO, nothing is done, and the notebook file is left open
ready for the AANOTE command. If you say YES, the notebook for this
residue is cleared, and only the date and time of this clearing is left
in it.
Since WHAT IF often makes new copies of notebooks, it also sometimes
throws away old copies. You then get a message like WARNING: file
deleted. Do not worry, that means nothing serious.