Photon microGUI

User’s Guide

For Photon 1.14

 2005, QNX Software Systems

 1995 – 2005, QNX Software Systems. All rights reserved.

Published under license by:

QNX Software Systems Co.

175 Terence Matthews Crescent
Kanata, Ontario
K2M 1W8
Canada
Voice: +1 613 591-0931
Fax: +1 613 591-3579
Email: info@qnx.com
Web: http://www.qnx.com/

Publishing history
November 1995 First edition
December 1996 Second edition
April 1998 Third edition

Electronic edition published 2005.

Technical support options

To obtain technical support for any QNX product, visit the Technical Support section in the Support area on our website
(www.qnx.com). You’ll find a wide range of support options, including our free web-based QNX Developer’s Network.

QNX and Photon microGUI are registered trademarks, and Jump Gate Connectivity, Phindows, PhinX and Ditto are trademarks, of QNX Software Systems in
certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks and registered trademarks belong to their respective owners.
 Contents

About This Guide ix

Typographical conventions xi
Note to Windows users xii
What you’ll find in this guide xiii
What’s new in Photon 1.14 xiii
What’s new online (as of September 20, 2005) xiii
Conventions used in this guide xiii
Keyboard input xiii
Single-step instructions xiv
Notes, cautions, warnings xiv

1 Welcome to Photon 1
What is Photon? 3
Why is it called “Photon”? 3
Why is it called a “microGUI”? 3
What should I do first? 3

2 Getting Started 7
How to start Photon 9
If Photon has just been installed... 9
A typical workspace 10
Using the mouse 12
For a two-button mouse 12
For a three-button mouse 12
Pointers 13

September 20, 2005 Contents iii

  2005, QNX Software Systems

Anatomy of a Photon window 14

Using the Window Menu 15
Using the Taskbar 16
Setting the time 17
Keyboard shortcuts 18
Workspace operations 19
Window operations 19
CUA operations 20
Using the clipboard 20
Operations in text fields 22
Operations in a pterm 22
How to exit Photon 23

3 Photon Desktop Manager 25

The Desktop Manager at a glance 27
Button bar 28
Desktop Manager menu button 28
Configuration tool 29
Question-mark help button 29
Extended Workspace View 29
Console Selector 30
World View 31
How to know where you are 31
Moving around your entire desktop 32
Group folders 33
Applications folder 33
Utilities folder 34
Demos & Games folder 35
Development Tools folder 35
Launching applications from a Group folder 35
Adding applications to a Group folder 35
Scroll arrows and Mail indicator 36

iv Contents September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems

4 Getting Help 37
Using a help button 39
Using pterm help 39
Using the Helpviewer 40
Title bar 41
Helpviewer tabs 42
Divider bar 47
Helpviewer buttons 48
Using the Helpviewer to display other HTML files 49

5 File Manager 51
What is the File Manager? 53
Starting the File Manager 53
The File Manager at a glance 53
Managing folders with the Hotlist 57
Adding a folder 57
Sorting the Hotlist 57
Removing folders 57
Opening a folder 58
Using the Hotlist 58
Using the File list 59
Using the keyboard 59
Finding a file quickly 59
Selecting files 60
Using the mouse and keyboard 60
Using the keyboard 61
Using a menu 62
Deselecting files 62
Creating folders and files 63
Folders 63
Files 64
Viewing or editing files 65
Copying and moving files 65

September 20, 2005 Contents v

  2005, QNX Software Systems

Deleting files or folders 66

Changing file properties 67
Opening and closing a terminal window 68
Running a command 69
Quick-starting Photon applications 69
Starting an application from its data files 70
Printing files 70
Changing how files are displayed 71
Sorting files 71
Choosing which details are displayed 73
Controlling which files are displayed 74
Configuring the File Manager 75
Associating files with an application 78

6 Using the Print Dialogs 81

Starting the Printer Setup dialog 83
Setting up a printer 85
Changing the default printer 85
Printing a document when a printer hasn’t been set up 85
Print Properties 87
Print Properties dialog 87
Graphical Image Properties dialog 92
Print Preview dialog 95

7 DayMinder 97
What is DayMinder? 99
Starting DayMinder 99
DayMinder at a glance 100
Customizing DayMinder 102
Resizing windows 102
Customizing application preferences 102
Types of scheduled activities 102
Adding appointments 103

vi Contents September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems

Adding reminders 105

Adding a task to your ToDo list 105
Modifying scheduled activities 107
Address Book 108
Group Planner 109

8 Terminal Window (pterm) 113

What is pterm? 115
pterm at a glance 116
Starting and ending pterm 116
Using the pterm menu 117
Configuring pterm 118

9 International Character Support 121

Languages supported 123
Photon compose sequences 123

10 Using Photon on a Network 131

Using the Message Pad 133
Posting a note to yourself 133
Sending a message to another user 135
Exploring Jump Gates 136
Sending an application through a Jump Gate 136
“Dittoing” a remote Photon display 138
Running remote Photon applications 139
From within Microsoft Windows 139
From within the X Window System 139

11 Customizing Photon 141

Customizing your workspace 143
Setting workspace options 143
Using the Configuration tool 146
Changing the graphics resolution and color depth 148

September 20, 2005 Contents vii

  2005, QNX Software Systems

Changing the graphics resolution 149

Selecting the refresh rate 150
Selecting the color palette 151
Launching an application at startup 151

Glossary 153

Index 163

viii Contents September 20, 2005

 About This Guide

September 20, 2005 About This Guide ix

 2005, QNX Software Systems Typographical conventions

Typographical conventions
Throughout this manual, we use certain typographical conventions to
distinguish technical terms. In general, the conventions we use
conform to those found in IEEE POSIX publications. The following
table summarizes our conventions:

Reference Example
Code examples if( stream == NULL )
Command options -lR
Commands make
Environment variables PATH
File and pathnames /dev/null
Function names exit()
Keyboard chords Ctrl – Alt – Delete
Keyboard input something you type
Keyboard keys Enter
Program output login:
Programming constants NULL
Programming data types unsigned short
Programming literals 0xFF, "message string"
Variable names stdin
User-interface components Cancel

We format single-step instructions like this:

➤ To reload the current page, press Ctrl – R.

We use an arrow (→) in directions for accessing menu items, like this:

September 20, 2005 About This Guide xi

Typographical conventions  2005, QNX Software Systems

You’ll find the Other... menu item under

Perspective→Show View.

We use notes, cautions, and warnings to highlight important

messages:

☞ Notes point out something important or useful.

!
CAUTION: Cautions tell you about commands or procedures that
may have unwanted or undesirable side effects.

WARNING: Warnings tell you about commands or procedures

that could be dangerous to your files, your hardware, or even
yourself.

Note to Windows users

In our documentation, we use a forward slash (/) as a delimiter in all
pathnames, including those pointing to Windows files.
We also generally follow POSIX/UNIX filesystem conventions.

xii About This Guide September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems What you’ll find in this guide

What you’ll find in this guide

The Photon User’s Guide is intended to introduce you to the Photon
environment and to help you use the applications that came with your
Photon Runtime system.

☞ If you have Photon 1.13, your online docs and this printed edition are
in sync. If you have Photon 1.12, your online docs may more
accurately reflect your software than this printed edition.
This new printed edition includes the following item that isn’t in your
1.12 software:

The Helpviewer has two new text fields in the Options pane that
allow you to set the home page and the root path. See “Using the
Helpviewer” in the Getting Help chapter.

What’s new in Photon 1.14

What’s new online (as of September 20,
2005)
Updated the Photon Display Configuration dialog image in
“Changing the graphics resolution and color depth” in
Customizing Photon.

Conventions used in this guide

Throughout this guide, we use several typographical conventions to
help you follow instructions and identify important information.

Keyboard input
Keys you press look like this:
Enter
Keychords (i.e. keys you press all at once) look like this:

September 20, 2005 About This Guide xiii

Conventions used in this guide  2005, QNX Software Systems

Alt – Enter
Text that you type looks like this:
something you type

Single-step instructions
Single-step instructions are formatted like this:

➤ To move the window, press Alt – F7.

Notes, cautions, warnings

Notes, cautions, and warnings are used to highlight important
messages:

☞ Notes point out something important or useful.

!
CAUTION: Cautions tell you about commands or procedures that
may have unwanted or undesirable side effects.

WARNING: Warnings tell you about commands or procedures

that could be dangerous to your files, your hardware, or even
yourself.

xiv About This Guide September 20, 2005

 Chapter 1
Welcome to Photon

In this chapter. . .
What is Photon? 3
What should I do first? 3

September 20, 2005 Chapter 1 ¯ Welcome to Photon 1

 2005, QNX Software Systems What is Photon?

What is Photon?
Photon is a graphical user interface (GUI) environment for the QNX
realtime operating system and QNX-based applications. As a GUI,
Photon provides a flexible, easy-to-use environment for you to
interact with your computer.
If you’ve used windowing systems before, Photon’s “look and feel”
will seem quite natural to you. And even if you’ve never used another
windowing system, you’ll find Photon’s simple, intuitive interface
easy to learn and use.

Why is it called “Photon”?

Whenever you use your mouse or press a key, you’re giving input to a
Photon application. And whenever the application displays data in a
window, it’s providing output. All these interactions are processed as
tiny packets of data called “events.” You can think of all these input
and output events traveling between you and Photon applications as
particles of light or photons.

Why is it called a “microGUI”?

We call Photon a “microGUI” because of its size and architecture.
Photon is a very small GUI. It’s designed to fit in embedded systems.
But it’s also designed to be scaled up. Photon is perfectly at home in
high-end, high-performance distributed systems.
Like QNX itself, Photon is built around a small microkernel. This
modular architecture makes Photon fast, flexible, and inherently
capable of network-distributed computing.

What should I do first?

Assuming Photon has already been installed on your system, the first
thing you should do is read through the Getting Started chapter —
you’ll learn all the basics about using the mouse and working with
windows. You’ll even pick up some handy keyboard shortcuts.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 1 ¯ Welcome to Photon 3

What should I do first?  2005, QNX Software Systems

After you’ve read the Getting Started chapter, you should familiarize
yourself with the Photon workspace. Try loading one of the games or
demos, if they’re available on your system. Better yet, check out the
Helpviewer (if you’re reading this online, you’ve obviously already
done that!).
Depending on how your system is set up, you can change the default
settings of your workspace to suit your needs. See the Customizing
Photon chapter.
Once you’ve become comfortable using Photon on one machine, you
may then want to branch out and explore Photon connectivity with the
Message Pad or Jump Gate facilities. See the Using Photon on a
Network chapter.
The following table may help you find your way around this guide:

If you want to: Go to:

Learn the basics Getting Started
Use the Desktop Manager to Photon Desktop Manager
navigate the Photon desktop and
launch applications
Learn the various ways to use Getting Help
online help
Sort, copy, move, delete, File Manager
rename, or edit files
Select a printer and modify its Using the Print Dialogs
print properties
Schedule appointments, DayMinder
reminders, and tasks
Work with QNX commands Terminal Window (pterm)
directly

continued. . .

4 Chapter 1 ¯ Welcome to Photon September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems What should I do first?

If you want to: Go to:

Generate ASCII characters that International Character Support
your keyboard doesn’t have
Explore Photon connectivity Using Photon on a Network
Customize the Photon Customizing Photon
workspace
Look up Photon terms Glossary

September 20, 2005 Chapter 1 ¯ Welcome to Photon 5

 Chapter 2
Getting Started

In this chapter. . .
How to start Photon 9
A typical workspace 10
Using the mouse 12
Pointers 13
Anatomy of a Photon window 14
Using the Window Menu 15
Using the Taskbar 16
Keyboard shortcuts 18
Using the clipboard 20
How to exit Photon 23

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 7

 2005, QNX Software Systems How to start Photon

How to start Photon

To start Photon, enter the following at the QNX system prompt:
ph

☞ If your Photon system has been set up to start automatically at power

up, you won’t need to enter the ph command. But you may need to
enter your user ID and password in the Photon login dialog.

If Photon has just been installed...

When Photon starts for the first time, you’ll see a dialog for selecting
display preferences:

Photon Display Configuration

Display Driver

Driver Family: rage Sort Display By: Resolut ion

Resolut ion & Color Dept h Driv er Accel DPMS Ref resh
1280x 1024
1024x 768
16- Bit High Color/64K rage Yes Yes Hard Low
15- Bit High Color/32K rage Yes Yes Hard Low
8- Bit 256 Color rage Yes Yes Hard Low
800x 600
640x 480
640x 400

Display Settings

Refresh Rate: Low Palette: def ault

Rate: Disable Hardware Cursor Advanced...

Cancel (F3) Apply

Apply (F4)
(F4) Done (F2)

Choose a graphics setting that best suits your desired working

environment. The default setting is a “safe” choice determined by
Photon when scanning your hardware. Typically, you’ll choose the

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 9

A typical workspace  2005, QNX Software Systems

highest resolution and color depth that your hardware supports. For
detailed instructions, see “Changing the graphics resolution and color
depth” in the Customizing Photon chapter.

A typical workspace
After Photon has started, it displays a workspace, an area in which
you can run applications and display windows. Here’s a typical
Photon workspace, with some sample applications:

Desktop
Manager

Taskbar

Photon actually works with a much larger area than your screen; your
desktop consists of nine workspaces or consoles. This is somewhat
like your physical desk — the entire desktop is usually bigger than the
area you’re currently using.
Near the bottom of the screen you see the Photon Desktop Manager
(PDM), a convenient tool for launching applications, navigating
around the Photon desktop, and more. For more info on using this
tool, see the chapter on the Photon Desktop Manager.
At the very bottom of the screen, you see the Taskbar, which shows
you at a glance all the applications running on your entire desktop and

10 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems A typical workspace

lets you quickly switch from one application to another. To learn how
to use the Taskbar, see “Using the Taskbar” in this chapter.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 11

Using the mouse  2005, QNX Software Systems

Using the mouse

Two common mouse operations are:

clicking pressing and releasing a mouse button.

dragging holding down a mouse button, moving the mouse, and

then releasing the button.

☞ Whenever you see the word “click” or “drag” in Photon

documentation, and no mouse button is specified, use the LEFT
mouse button. When you’re supposed to use the right button, you’ll
be explicitly instructed to do so.

For a two-button mouse

You use the left mouse button for most operations (such as clicking on
a button or dragging an object).
You use the right mouse button to bring up a context-sensitive menu
in most applications. For example, you use it to bring up:

an application’s Window menu by clicking on the application’s

label in the Taskbar; the Window menu lets you modify or close its
window.

the Workspace menu by clicking anywhere on the backdrop; this

menu lets you open a QNX shell, start the Desktop Manager, set
workspace options, and shut down Photon.

For a three-button mouse

When running the Photon Desktop Manager and Window Manager
with a three-button mouse, use the far-left button as “left” and the
far-right button as “right.” Applications that make use of the middle
button will tell you how to use it.

12 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Pointers

Pointers
As you move the mouse, the pointer sometimes changes to give you
feedback on your actions. Here are the pointers you’ll see most often:

Basic pointer — lets you select objects.

Help pointer — appears when you click on a

question-mark help button in some applications; simply
position the help pointer on an object you want to know
about and click on it, and the appropriate section of text
will appear in the Helpviewer.

Busy pointer — tells you to wait until an operation is

finished before you can resume working.

Resize pointer — appears when the pointer passes over a

window frame; the two arrows indicate the direction you
can stretch or shrink the window.

Move pointer — appears when the pointer passes over a

window title bar; simply hold down the mouse button and
drag the window to a new location.

I-beam pointer — appears in text-entry fields to indicate

that the application is ready to accept keyboard input.

No-input pointer — tells you the window isn’t accepting

input.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 13

Anatomy of a Photon window  2005, QNX Software Systems

Anatomy of a Photon window

Here’s a typical Photon application window:
Minimize Maximize/Restore
Title bar Application help Close

Window
menu
button

Frame

Resize
corner

Most windows include these elements:

Application help button — brings up online help.

Close button — some simple applications may use this convenient

method of closing the window.

Frame — changes color to indicate the focus window (i.e. the one
that’s ready for input) on your workspace. The frame is also the
area you grab when you want to resize the window.

Maximize/Restore button — expands the window to fill your

current workspace, or restores it to its previous size after
maximizing.

Minimize button — reduces the window to an application button in

the Taskbar. To bring the window back up, just click on the button
in the Taskbar.

Resize corners — let you shrink or stretch the window.

Title bar — shows the name of the application. The title bar is also
where you position the pointer in order to move the window.

Window menu button — lets you do several things to a window

(Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, Lower, and Close).

14 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Window Menu

Using the Window Menu

To bring up an application’s Window menu:

Click on the Window menu button in the window’s upper left

corner:

Or

Move your pointer onto the application’s button in the Taskbar and
click the right mouse button.

The Window menu lets you:

Restore the window’s size (after maximizing or minimizing it).

Move the window — the window will track your pointer until you
click.

Size the window — as you move your pointer outside the frame,
an outline will track your pointer until you click.

Minimize the window — reduces the window to an application

button in the Taskbar. To bring the window back up, just click on
the button in the Taskbar.

Maximize the window — expands the window to fill your current

workspace.

Send the window To Back — pushes the window behind any other
windows that are open on the workspace.

Close the window — closes the application. You can also close the
window by double-clicking on the Window menu button.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 15

Using the Taskbar  2005, QNX Software Systems

!
CAUTION: Selecting the Close item may immediately terminate the
application running in that window without prompting you to confirm.
Always remember to save your work before you click on Close!

Using the Taskbar

The Taskbar provides a quick and easy way to switch from one
application to another, to restore applications to their normal size on
the workspace, to get help, and to tell the time.
Window Manager menu button Help button

Application buttons Clock window

The Taskbar includes the following:

Window Manager menu button — displays the Photon Window

Manager’s menu. For more information, see “Setting workspace
options” in the Customizing Photon chapter.

Application buttons — Whenever you open an application in

Photon, you’ll see a labeled button appear in the Taskbar.

Help button — displays online help for the Window Manager.

Clock window — displays the time.

As you run more and more applications, the Taskbar fills up. When
there’s no more room for a button, all the buttons get smaller, down to
a set minimum width. Then they start on another row, which is
hidden. To see the other row:

1 Point at the top of the Taskbar. There’s a 2-pixel gap on the top
where your pointer will change into a resize pointer.

2 Drag the top of the Taskbar upward to enlarge it.

The expanded Taskbar looks like this:

16 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Taskbar

Desktop Ma ttyp0: ksh ttyp1: ksh Helpviewer 1 Note 9 10:12 AM

Photon File QNX Softwa CD Player DayMinder Solitaire

To switch to any running application:

➤ Click on the application’s button in the Taskbar. The

application’s window will be restored if minimized, brought to
the front, and become the focus window.

If you click on the button of the application that’s in focus, the

application is minimized.

☞ If you hide the Taskbar (see “Setting workspace options” in the

Customizing Photon chapter), it will reappear temporarily whenever
you move the pointer to the very bottom of your workspace.

Setting the time

To set the time, double-click the clock button on the Taskbar.

Set Time
AM
01 03 00
PM

RTC hh : mm : 00

Apply &Sav e Cancel

The time is separated into three fields: hours, minutes, and seconds.
To change the time:

1 Click on the field that you wish to change.

2 Click the scroll up or down arrows, or type the time.

3 Select either AM or PM.

4 Click Apply&Save to save, or Cancel to quit.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 17

Keyboard shortcuts  2005, QNX Software Systems

The RTC option sets the clock chip. This option may be disabled on
your system. The hh:mm:00 button sets the seconds field to 00.

Keyboard shortcuts
The following tables summarize the keyboard shortcuts you can use
for:

Workspace operations

Window operations

CUA operations

☞ If the Alt keychords listed below don’t work, it may be because some
character-based applications need to receive Alt key presses. To run
such an application successfully, you need to configure its pterm
window to pass the Alt to the application. See “Configuring pterm” in
the Terminal Window chapter.
To use the following keychords after doing this, press Ctrl – Alt
instead of just Alt.

18 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Keyboard shortcuts

Workspace operations

If you want to: Press:

Move back window to the front of Alt – Esc
the window stack.
Move front window to the back of Alt – Shift – Esc
the window stack.
Cycle through applications, Alt – Tab
showing the name first; to bring a
displayed application to the front,
release Alt.
Cycle though applications, but Alt – Shift – Tab
moving front to back.
Display Workspace Menu. Alt – Enter
Toggle between bringing the Alt – F11
Taskbar and Desktop Manager to
the front and sending them to the
back. If they were hidden, they’ll
be brought to the front.
Exit Photon (see “How to exit Ctrl – Alt – Shift – Backspace
Photon”).

Window operations
All of these commands affect the focus window:

If you want to: Press:

Move the window to the front. Alt – F2
Move the window to the back. Alt – F3

continued. . .

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 19

Using the clipboard  2005, QNX Software Systems

If you want to: Press:

Close the window. Alt – F4
Restore the window to previous Alt – F5
size if it has been maximized.
Move the window. Alt – F7
Resize the window (use the Alt – F8
mouse or cursor keys to choose
the new size).
Minimize the window. Alt – F9
Maximize the window. Alt – F10
Display the window menu. Alt – Space
Close the window menu. Esc

CUA operations
Common User Access (CUA) is a standard that defines how a user
can change the keyboard focus within a window.
Here are two of the more common CUA keys:

To go to the: Press:
Next button or text field Tab
Previous button or text field Shift – Tab

Using the clipboard

Photon is equipped with a very versatile and easy-to-use clipboard. It
lets you cut, copy, and paste between text fields and pterm. You can
also copy from the Helpviewer, but it supports only full-line copying.

20 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the clipboard

You can use either the mouse or keyboard to cut, copy, and paste to
and from the clipboard.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 21

Using the clipboard  2005, QNX Software Systems

Operations in text fields

If you want to: Keyboard actions: Mouse actions:
Select a section of Hold the Shift key Press the left mouse
text. down and use the button and drag the
arrow keys to mouse to highlight
highlight the desired the desired text.
text.
Cut a section of Ctrl – X or Ctrl – n/a
selected text. Alt – X
Copy a section of Ctrl – C or Ctrl – While holding the
selected text. Alt – C left mouse button
down, press the
right mouse button.
Paste a section of Ctrl – V or Ctrl – Hold the Ctrl key
selected text. First, Alt – V down and press the
give focus to the right mouse button.
field where you
want to paste the
text, then do the
correct keyboard or
mouse action.

Operations in a pterm

If you want to: Keyboard actions: Mouse actions:

Select a section of n/a Press the left mouse
text. button and drag the
mouse to highlight
the desired text.

continued. . .

22 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems How to exit Photon

If you want to: Keyboard actions: Mouse actions:

Copy a section of Ctrl – Alt – X While holding the
selected text. left mouse button
down, press the
right mouse button.
Paste a section of Ctrl – Alt – V Hold the Ctrl key
selected text. First, down and press the
give focus to the right mouse button.
field where you
want to paste the
text, then:

☞ You can also press the right mouse button that invokes the pterm
menu containing the copy and paste options. For more information,
see “Using the pterm menu” in the Terminal Window chapter.
See the pterm utility in the Photon Installation & Configuration
guide for a the complete list of pterm-specific keychords.

How to exit Photon

There are two ways to exit Photon: via the mouse or the keyboard.

!
CAUTION:
Exiting Photon will close all the windows, terminating the
applications running in them without prompting you to confirm. If
this is a problem, you should exit your applications one at a time
before exiting Photon.

Using the mouse

To exit Photon with the mouse:

1 Bring up the Workspace menu:

September 20, 2005 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started 23

How to exit Photon  2005, QNX Software Systems

Click on the Photon Window Manager button (the one with

the QNX logo) on the Taskbar.
Or
Point to any blank area of the workspace and click the right
mouse button.

2 Click on the Shutdown item. You’ll see a dialog asking you to

confirm the shutdown.

☞ The shutdown dialog doesn’t appear if the PHWMEXIT environment

variable is set. For more information, see your system administrator.

Using the keyboard

You can also use the following keychord to exit Photon:
Ctrl – Alt – Shift – Backspace

☞ The shutdown dialog doesn’t appear when you use this keychord.

24 Chapter 2 ¯ Getting Started September 20, 2005

 Chapter 3
Photon Desktop Manager

In this chapter. . .
The Desktop Manager at a glance 27
Button bar 28
Extended Workspace View 29
Console Selector 30
World View 31
How to know where you are 31
Moving around your entire desktop 32
Group folders 33
Scroll arrows and Mail indicator 36

September 20, 2005 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager 25

 2005, QNX Software Systems The Desktop Manager at a glance

The Desktop Manager at a glance

Here’s a sample of the Photon Desktop Manager (PDM):
Extended Workspace View-up Console Tabs for
View arrow selector Group folders

Button bar World View View-down arrow Application icon

Think of the PDM as your main control panel. It lets you:

launch applications

move around your entire desktop

change the settings for your desktop

☞ Depending on your Photon environment, the Desktop Manager may

not be available. For more info, ask your system administrator.

The Desktop Manager includes the following:

Button bar — displays the Desktop Manager’s menu, lets you

configure your desktop, and displays help information.

Extended Workspace View, View-up, and View-down arrows —

help you navigate around your desktop.

Console Selector — lets you switch to another console.

World View — displays a miniature version of your entire desktop.

Application icons — let you quick-launch frequently used

applications.

Group folders — organize your application icons.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager 27

Button bar  2005, QNX Software Systems

Button bar
At the left of the Desktop Manager, you’ll see a button bar:
Desktop Manager menu
Configuration tool
Desktop Manager Help

Desktop Manager menu button

Click on this button to bring up the Desktop Manager menu, which
lets you run applications from a command line and control the
behavior of the Desktop Manager.
The Desktop Manager menu contains these items:

About. . . — tells you the version number of the Desktop Manager

program you’re running.

Run. . . — lets you launch an application by entering its command

in a text field.

Hide — hides the Desktop Manager window. To recall it, click on

the Desktop Manager button in the Taskbar.

PDM Force Front — keeps the Desktop Manager window in the

foreground.

Launching an application using the Run. . . item

To launch an application using the Run. . . menu item:

1 Click on Run. . . You’ll be prompted for the command required

to run the application.

2 Enter the name of the command in the text field. For example,
to run the Photon Image Viewer, you could type the following
in the Command Line field:
pv myfile.gif

3 Click on the Run button.

28 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Extended Workspace View

☞ For information on using pv (or any other Photon utility), see the
Photon Installation & Configuration guide.

Configuration tool
The Configuration tool lets you set up the Desktop Manager the way
you want. You can specify the applications you want to load for
quick-launching, the icons you want to appear, and how they’re
grouped. You can also use this tool to select the backdrop and screen
saver for your workspace.

Question-mark help button

The help button gives you application-specific help — in this case,
help on the Desktop Manager. Whenever you need some information
about a specific aspect of the Desktop Manager, you simply click on
the button and then click on the object you want to know about. The
Helpviewer will then pop up and display the appropriate section from
the Photon online bookset.

Extended Workspace View

The workspace you see in front of you is really only a fraction of your
entire desktop, which contains nine consoles in all. The three
consoles you see in the Extended Workspace View represent one row
(normally the top row) of the nine-square grid of consoles that make
up your whole desktop:

Photon File
ttyp0: Manager
ksh
Helpv iewer 1.10

A white border in the Extended Workspace View highlights your

current console. If you move a window on your screen, you’ll see its
tiny counterpart move in the Extended Workspace View. And vice

September 20, 2005 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager 29

Console Selector  2005, QNX Software Systems

versa — if you move the tiny window in the Extended Workspace

View using the mouse, the window on your screen will move in sync.
The View-up and View-down arrows let you move the Extended
Workspace View up or down the nine-square grid. Try them!

Console Selector
The Console Selector represents the nine consoles that make up your
desktop. It indicates:

The current Extended Workspace View (consisting of three

consoles), with a red outline.

The active console within this view, with a green box.

To switch your current console to any of the nine possible workspaces

on your desktop, just click on a square in the grid.

30 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems World View

World View
This is like a map showing you all nine consoles at once:

World View

n Scree
ttyp1: ksh
oom C

ttyp0: ksh

hoton Help Beta 1

on Image

Photon Image Viewe

To bring up the World View:

➤ Simply click on the World View button:

If you move or resize the World View, the Desktop Manager will
remember your changes.

How to know where you are

Since your entire desktop is much larger than you can see in a single
console, and since you may have many windows open at the same
time, the Desktop Manager gives you several indicators that tell you
which window has focus, and which console you’re viewing:

September 20, 2005 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager 31

Moving around your entire desktop  2005, QNX Software Systems

When you see a: It means:

Green window frame. This is the focus window (i.e.
it’s ready for input).
Shaded application button in the This is the focus window.
Taskbar.
White rectangle in Extended The focus window is in this
Workspace View. console.
Small green rectangle in the This is your current console
Console Selector. view.

Moving around your entire desktop

You can switch from one console to another in several ways:

Click on one of the nine squares in the Console Selector

Or

Double-click on one of the three console views in the Extended

Workspace View
Or

Double-click on one of the nine console views in the World View

Or

Cycle through all nine consoles with the following keychords:

Ctrl – Alt – 1. . . 9
Or

Cycle through the consoles that have running applications:

Ctrl – Alt – Plus (+ on numeric keypad)
Or
Ctrl – Alt – Minus (- on numeric keypad)

32 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Group folders

Group folders
Your Desktop Manager may include folders containing icons for
quick-launching applications, demos, games, and development tools.
These folders allow you to group your quick-launch icons; the name
of each group appears on the folder’s tab.

Applications folder
Your Applications folder may contain the following:

Photon Terminal (pterm) — The Photon terminal

brings up a QNX shell for running QNX utilities or
other text-based applications. You may run several
terminal sessions at the same time.

Helpviewer — This is your online “encyclopedia” of

Photon. The Helpviewer uses Hypertext techniques to
let you easily access and navigate the entire set of
Photon books. For more information, see the Getting
Help chapter.

File Manager — A simple, graphical tool for

maintaining and organizing your files. You can use it to
view, edit, and delete files. We’ll look at it in detail in
the Photon File Manager chapter.

Message Pad — A handy way to post a note, either to

yourself or to other users on a network. For more
details, see “Using the Message Pad” in the Using
Photon on a Network chapter.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager 33

Group folders  2005, QNX Software Systems

CD Player — If your computer includes a CD-ROM

drive, you can use this tool to listen to your favorite
tunes while you work.

DayMinder — Keep yourself organized with Photon’s

online appointment book. For more details, see the
chapter on DayMinder.

Calculator — You don’t need a pencil and a piece of

paper, or a pocket calculator anymore — just use
Photon’s handy calculator program.

Image Viewer — A tool for viewing graphical images,

including any snapshots that you take of your screen.

Utilities folder
This may contain several tools, including:

Jump

Jump Gate — This unique connectivity tool lets you

“beam” or transport an application — and yourself! —
from one QNX node to another! (Don’t worry, when
you go through a Jump Gate, you don’t literally go
anywhere. But you’ll be able to view and interact with
a remote system as if you were right there.) For more
info, see the Using Photon on a Network chapter.

Snapshot — A tool for taking screen snapshots.

34 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Group folders

Other tools in the Utilities folder may include diagnostic tools such as
vsin and phsac.

Demos & Games folder

You’ll find several demos here. Try them — they speak for
themselves! And as for the games, well, you’ll have to wait till your
lunch hour before you can try these! ;-)

☞ If you have the Photon Toolkit, source code is available for many of
the demos and games.

Development Tools folder

This may contain several development tools, including the Photon
Application Builder (PhAB), as well as the phin and winview
system-information utilities.

Launching applications from a Group folder

To quick-launch any application contained in a Group folder:

➤ Simply click on the appropriate folder, then click on the icon

representing the application.

Adding applications to a Group folder

To add an application to a group folder, see the section on “Using the
Configuration tool” in the Customizing Photon chapter.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager 35

Scroll arrows and Mail indicator  2005, QNX Software Systems

Scroll arrows and Mail indicator

The right side of the Desktop Manager contains the following:
Group scroll arrows Mail indicator

Icon scroll arrows

Group scroll arrows — these appear if you have more Group folder
tabs than can fit in the viewing area. To see the hidden tabs, simply
click on the right arrow. To scroll back to where you were, click on
the left arrow.

Icon scroll arrows — if a Group folder contains more icons than

can fit in the viewing area, simply click on the right arrow to scroll
within the folder. To scroll back to where you were, click on the
left arrow.

Mail indicator — “envelopes” will poke through the mail slot

when you have email waiting. If you pause your pointer over these
letters, a text balloon pops up and displays the sender and subject
line of your email. To read your mail, click on the mail slot.
By default, PDM runs mailx in a pterm window to view and send
mail. You can use the MAILVIEWER environment variable to
specify an alternate mail program. See your system administrator
for details.

36 Chapter 3 ¯ Photon Desktop Manager September 20, 2005

 Chapter 4
Getting Help

In this chapter. . .
Using a help button 39
Using pterm help 39
Using the Helpviewer 40

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 37

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using a help button

You’ll find three kinds of help facilities in Photon:

application help buttons (for application-specific help)

help from pterm (for keyword-specific help)

the Helpviewer (for comprehensive help)

☞ Photon also gives you help in the form of text labels (called
“balloons”) that may appear when your pointer pauses over a button
or icon.

Using a help button

Some applications have a question-mark help button. Whenever you
need information about anything within an application, just click on
its help button.
To use an application’s help button:

1 Click on the question-mark button. Your pointer will change

into a question mark — this is called the help pointer.

2 Position the help pointer on an object you want to know about

within the application you’re in — you won’t be able to use the
help pointer from one application to get help on other
applications on your workspace.

3 Click on the object. The appropriate section of text will appear

in the Helpviewer.

Using pterm help

The pterm shell lets you select (highlight) a portion of text and then
invoke the Helpviewer by either:

Pressing the right mouse button to bring up the pterm menu and
selecting the Search help option.
Or

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 39

Using the Helpviewer  2005, QNX Software Systems

Pressing Ctrl – Alt – H.

The Helpviewer starts, then searches the table of contents for any
topics that contain the selected text. The first matching topic is
automatically displayed.
You can also simply type something in a pterm window and then
press Ctrl – Alt – H.

Using the Helpviewer

The QNX Helpviewer is a convenient, easy-to-use tool for accessing
online documentation. You have the entire Photon bookset at your
fingertips — you can browse through the table(s) of contents, quickly
go to any section in the bookset, search for text strings, quickly jump
to “hot links” (underlined text), retrace your steps, set bookmarks, and
more.
To start the Helpviewer:

➤ In the Desktop Manager’s Applications folder, click on the

Helpviewer icon:

The Helpviewer looks like this:

40 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Helpviewer

Tabs Title bar Helpviewer buttons

Section pane Divider bar Text display area

Here’s a description of the Helpviewer’s main parts:

Title bar
The Title bar shows you the name of the section you’re in. It also
shows you the name of the HTML file for each hot link you move
your pointer over.
If you move the pointer over the title bar, the Helpviewer will display
the filename of the currently displayed HTML file. To enter a new file
name for the Helpviewer to display:

1 Move the pointer over the title bar.

2 Give the title bar focus by pressing the left mouse button.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 41

Using the Helpviewer  2005, QNX Software Systems

3 Type the filename, e.g.:

/usr/help/product/photon/prog guide/tutorl5.html

4 Press Enter.

If you move the pointer over the entries in the Contents or Search
pane, then the Helpviewer will display the full topic path of the entry
in the title bar.
If you move the pointer over the entries in the History or Bookmarks
pane, then the Helpviewer will display the hypertext link of the entry
in the title bar.

Helpviewer tabs
The Section pane displays information based on the Helpviewer tab
selected:

Contents — display the table of contents as a tree.

Search — search for words in the online docs, and display

matching topics.

History — display a list of the most recently selected help pages.

Bookmarks — display your bookmarks.

Print — print the currently displayed page.

Options — display and change various options.

Contents pane
The Contents pane displays the current table of contents or topic tree.
Each entry in the table of contents is a topic with an associated
HTML page and may contain subtopics. The last selected topic is
highlighted.

42 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Helpviewer

To open a topic and

display its subtopics,
click here

To close a topic,
click here

To display the text

of a topic, click here

As you move the pointer over a topic, the Helpviewer will display the
topic title in a balloon. The full topic path is also displayed in the title
bar.
To synchronize the topic tree with the currently displayed page, click
on the Where? button. The Helpviewer will open the topic tree to the
matching topic (if it doesn’t, then it can’t find a matching topic, which
means you’re probably looking at help files not included in the current
topic tree).

Search pane
The search pane lets you search the topic tree or the current page for
matching text. Before searching, you should select the appropriate
mode, scope, and method of the search. These options are presented
in comboboxes, which display a list of choices when you press on the
button on their right sides.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 43

Using the Helpviewer  2005, QNX Software Systems

Select mode:
Search topic text
Select scope:
Search selected topic
Select method:
Search for substring match
Enter string:

Search
Select section:

Prev ious Next

The mode combobox lets you select whether to search the topic titles,
the topic text, or the current page. If you search the topic titles or text,
then the titles of matching topics are displayed in the search pane.
Selecting one of these topics will cause the topic text to be displayed.
If you search the current page, then matching text is highlighted and
the Helpviewer will move to the first line containing a match.
The scope combobox lets you select whether to search all the topics in
the table of contents, or just the currently selected topic and all its
subtopics. Narrowing the scope can significantly increase the speed of
a search.
The method combobox lets you select whether to search for an exact
match (case sensitive — only exact characters will match), a word
match (case insensitive — only punctuation-separated words will
match) or substring match (case insensitive — only substrings in a
word will match).

☞ In Helpviewer version 1.1 or later, searching the topic text or current

page performs a substring match regardless of the method selected.

44 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Helpviewer

To start a search, enter the search text and either press Enter or click
on the Search button. You can’t view other topics while the
Helpviewer is busy searching. A search can be terminated at any time
by clicking on the Search button again (which is labeled Stop during
the search).
The Helpviewer will progressively display the titles of matching
topics in the search pane. After the search ends, the Helpviewer will
automatically display the text of the first matching topic. If you move
the pointer over the topic titles, the Helpviewer will display the full
topic path in the title bar. Click on the topic title to display the topic.

History pane
The History pane displays the titles of the 50 most recent pages
displayed. If you move the pointer over the history titles, the
Helpviewer will display the Hypertext link of the page in the title bar.
Click on the title to display a page.
The history is saved in the ˜/.photon/helpviewer/history file
and is reloaded every time you start the Helpviewer.

Bookmarks pane
The Bookmarks pane displays the titles of pages you have
bookmarked. If you move the pointer over the bookmark titles, the
Helpviewer will display the Hypertext link of the page in the title bar.
Click on the title to display a page.
You can bookmark the current page by clicking on the bookmark
button in the button bar:

The button is highlighted if the current page is bookmarked. To delete

a bookmark, select the entry and then click on the Delete button in the
Bookmarks pane.
The bookmarks are saved in ˜/.photon/helpviewer/hotlist
and are reloaded every time you start the Helpviewer.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 45

Using the Helpviewer  2005, QNX Software Systems

Print pane
The Helpviewer uses the Photon printing mechanism to allow printing
to a variety of printers. The Helpviewer allows the current page to be
printed or saved to a file. Before printing, you should have installed
and selected a default printer.
To configure the properties of the printer, click Select to bring up the
printer selection dialog, and then click Properties.
To print the page, click the Print button in the Print pane or the printer
icon on the button bar.

Options pane
The Options pane lets you set various display options, including the
font type and font size:
Select font ty pe:
Helvetica
Select font size:
12
Enter home page:
/usr/help/product/photon/book

Set current page

Enter root topic:
/usr/help/product
Other options:
Force front

Force front — causes the Helpviewer to stay always in front of all

other windows.

Enter home page — enter the page that you want displayed as the
home page. The home page is the first page the Helpviewer will
display.

Set current page — sets the current page to be the home page.

Enter root topic — enter the topic path that you want to use as a
starting point for locating help topics.

46 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Helpviewer

The options are saved in the ˜/.photon/helpviewer/options

file and are reloaded when the Helpviewer starts.

☞ A home page specified as part of the Helpviewer command in the

PDM configuration dialog. For example:

/usr/photon/bin/helpviewer /usr/help/product/photon/bookset.html

overrides the home page option (homeurl) in the Helpviewer options

file.

Divider bar
The divider bar between the left and right panes of the Helpviewer
can be moved to change the relative sizes of the panes. To do this,
move the pointer over the divider until a resize pointer appears. Then
press and hold down the left mouse button and drag the divider to the
required position:

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 47

Using the Helpviewer  2005, QNX Software Systems

Helpviewer buttons
The Helpviewer contains these navigational and control buttons:
Print Page Next Bookmark Maximize Text View

Home Previous Backtrack Reload Page

Home button — takes you home, i.e. the place where you started
reading in your current Helpviewer session.

Print button — prints the current page.

Previous button — brings you to the section (or chapter or book)

that precedes the one you’re in now.

Next button — brings you to the section (or chapter or book) that
follows the one you’re in now.

Backtrack button — lets you retrace your steps.

Bookmark button — lets you mark your current “page”; the page
is then added to the list of bookmarks.

Reload page button — redisplay the current page. This is useful if

you’re editing a page and wish to view your changes.

Maximize Text View button — lets you hide the left pane of the
Helpviewer for a larger text-viewing area.

Now that you know what the Helpviewer looks like and what its main
parts are used for, you should try using it — if you haven’t done so
already. Thanks to the Helpviewer’s intuitive interface, it’s easy to get
started right away.

48 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Helpviewer

Using the Helpviewer to display other HTML files

Since all Photon online documentation is written in HTML, you can
use the Helpviewer to display any HTML file. To do this:

1 Select the Run... menu item from the Desktop Manager menu.

2 In the Command Line field, enter:

helpviewer filename
where filename is the name of the HTML file you want to view.

☞ You won’t be able to use the Contents pane for HTML files that aren’t
part of the online documentation set.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 4 ¯ Getting Help 49

 Chapter 5
File Manager

In this chapter. . .
What is the File Manager? 53
Starting the File Manager 53
The File Manager at a glance 53
Managing folders with the Hotlist 57
Opening a folder 58
Finding a file quickly 59
Selecting files 60
Creating folders and files 63
Viewing or editing files 65
Copying and moving files 65
Deleting files or folders 66
Changing file properties 67
Opening and closing a terminal window 68
Running a command 69
Starting an application from its data files 70
Printing files 70
Changing how files are displayed 71
Controlling which files are displayed 74
Configuring the File Manager 75

September 20, 2005 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager 51

 2005, QNX Software Systems What is the File Manager?

What is the File Manager?

The File Manager provides a simple, graphical way to maintain and
organize your files. For example, it lets you go to any directories or
folders — no matter where they reside in the filesystem — with a
single mouse click. You can also sort, copy, move, delete, rename, or
modify files simply by pressing a key or popping up a menu. You can
even run QNX or Photon applications by double-clicking on their data
files.

Starting the File Manager

To start the File Manager:

Click on the File Manager icon in the appropriate Desktop

Manager folder:

Or

Open a terminal window (pterm) and type:

pfm &

If the File Manager is running but hidden, you can find it by clicking
on the File Manager icon in the Taskbar:

Photon File Manager

For information on using pterm, see “Opening a terminal window” in

this chapter.

The File Manager at a glance

Here’s a typical File Manager session:

September 20, 2005 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager 53

The File Manager at a glance  2005, QNX Software Systems

Menus Button bar Current path Pattern combobox

Hotlist Status bar File list Popup menu

Here’s what the main parts of the File Manager enable you to do:

Menus Let you perform most major functions, from creating

folders to configuring the File Manager.

Button bar Lets you quickly create files, run commands, return to
your home folder, update your Hotlist, and more:

54 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems The File Manager at a glance

Run a command Associate Files

New Folder Clone Configure Home

New File Reopen Folder Parent Folder

Terminal Window Add Current
Folder to Hotlist

Hotlist Lets you keep track of the folders you use most
often and provides quick access to them.

The Hotlist shows only the folders that you’ve added to it, not a
☞ hierarchy of all the directories on your system.

Current path Shows you the pathname of the current folder (in
this case, //222/bedrock/fred).

File list Shows you the contents of the current folder, and
lets you select files for copying, moving, editing,
and so on.
The file icons let you identify the file type:
folder (directory)
data file
program (executable)
link to a folder
link to a data file
link to a program

The File list includes such information as the

filename, size, modification date, owner, group and
permissions.

Popup menus Both the Hotlist and the File list have their own
popup menus. To open them:

September 20, 2005 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager 55

The File Manager at a glance  2005, QNX Software Systems

➤ Point anywhere in the Hotlist or File list and

click the right mouse button.

The Hotlist popup lets you add folders to or remove

folders from the Hotlist: barney 12
//222/bedrock crush 7
f red dino 2048
d Add Current t o Hot list 6
p Remov e Folder f rom Hot list 8
wilm Sort Root Folders 2048
let t ers rubble 4
slat e 6
st one 5
t riassic 4

The File list popup gives you quick access to many

of the functions in
crush 7
the File22-
menu:
Oct - 96 1:42p f red
dino 2048 23- Oct - 96 9:26a f red
f lint 6 22- Oct - 96 1:31p f red
Run wit h... Ctrl- W
marble 96 1:32p f red
pebbles View... F396 9:35a f red
rubble 96 1:32p f red
Edit ... F4
slat e 96 1:33p f red
Print F5
st one 96 1:33p f red
t riassic Copy/Mov e... F696 1:33p f red
t usk 96 1:33p f red
Propert ies... F7
volcanic 96 1:33p f red
Delet e... F8
wilma 22- Oct - 96 1:34p f red
wood 7 22- Oct - 96 1:34p f red

Status bar Shows you how many items the current folder
contains or how many files you’ve selected. It also
shows how much disk space is free.

56 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Managing folders with the Hotlist

Managing folders with the Hotlist

You can use the Hotlist to keep track of your “favorite” folders — the
ones you use the most. They’re kept in the order you added them in,
but you can also sort them alphabetically.

Adding a folder
To add a folder to the Hotlist:

1 Open the folder you want to add to the Hotlist (see “Opening a
folder” below).

2 Click on the Add Current Folder to Hotlist icon:

Or
Point anywhere in the Hotlist, click the right mouse button, and
choose Add Current to Hotlist.

The current folder is added to the bottom of the Hotlist.

Sorting the Hotlist

To put the Hotlist in alphabetical order:

➤ Click the right mouse button on one of the folders in the

Hotlist, then choose Sort Root Folders.

Removing folders
To remove a folder from the Hotlist:

➤ Click the right mouse button on the folder you want to remove,
then choose Remove Folder from Hotlist.

The folder is removed from the Hotlist, but isn’t deleted from your
system.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager 57

Opening a folder  2005, QNX Software Systems

Opening a folder
You can open a folder from either the Hotlist or the File list, or by
using the keyboard.

Using the Hotlist

To open a folder displayed in the Hotlist, using the mouse:

1 Click on the folder. Its contents will appear in the File list.

2 To open a “child folder” (subdirectory) of the folder you just

opened, first click on the + sign to the left of the folder. The
Hotlist will display the folder’s child folders, if any exist.

3 Click on the child folder you wish to open.

To open a folder displayed in the Hotlist, using the keyboard:

1 Press Tab until a focus rectangle appears in the Hotlist.

2 Select the folder by pressing one of the following keys:

To select: Press:
The previous or next folder in the list. ↑ or ↓
A child folder of current folder (if any exists). →
The parent folder of current folder. ←
The first or last folder in the list. Home or
End
The folder one page up or down in the list. Pg Up or
Pg Dn

3 Press Enter to open the folder.

58 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Finding a file quickly

Using the File list

To open a folder displayed in the File list, using the mouse:

➤ Double-click on the folder you want to open. Its contents will

appear in the File list.

To open a folder displayed in the File list, using the keyboard:

1 Press Tab until a focus rectangle appears in the File list.

2 Select the folder by pressing a direction key (e.g. ↑, Home,

Pg Up, etc.).

3 Press Enter, or the gray + key on the numeric keypad, to open

the folder.

4 To move back up to the parent folder, you can press Back

Space, or the gray - key on the numeric keypad.

Using the keyboard

To open any folder, using the keyboard:

➤ Type its pathname in the Current path field, and press Enter.

Finding a file quickly

To find a file or folder quickly:

1 Click anywhere inside the File list.

2 Type the file’s or folder’s name, or the first few letters of its
name. The File Manager will select the file that best matches
the name you typed.

Once you’re finished typing, the File Manager waits a period of time
— by default this is 1.5 seconds — then lets you type in another name.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 5 ¯ File Manager 59

Selecting files  2005, QNX Software Systems

☞ This quick-search method searches for files in the current directory

only. For this method to work, files must be sorted by filename and
the Folders First option must be disabled in the Configuration dialog.
For more info, see the discussion on sorting files in “Changing how
files are displayed” and the section on “Configuring the File
Manager.”

Selecting files
To work on any file or folder displayed in the File list, you must first
select it. You can select using the mouse, the keyboard, or a menu.

Using the mouse and keyboard

To select: Do this:
A single file Click on the file.
Two or more files in any order Hold down Ctrl, click on
the first file, then click
on each remaining file.
A range of files (e.g. files from A to D) Hold down Shift, click
on the first file in the
range, then click on the
last file in the range.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Selecting files

Using the keyboard

Selecting a single file:

To select the: Press:

Previous or next file in the list ↑ or ↓
First or last file in the list Home or End
First file one page up or one page down Pg Up or Pg Dn

Selecting two or more files in any order:

1 Select the first file.

2 Hold down Ctrl, then press a direction key (e.g. ↑, Pg Dn) to

“jump” to the next file you want to select.

3 When you’ve reached the next file you want to select, press
Space.

4 Repeat the above two steps until you’re done.

Selecting a range of files:

1 Hold down Shift.

2 Do one of the following:

To select: Press:
Additional files one at a time ↑ or ↓

All the files to the beginning Home or End

or the end of the list
All the files in the next or Pg Up or Pg Dn
previous page

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Using a menu

To select: Do this:
All files in the current folder From the Select menu, choose
Select, then choose All.
All the files that match a text From the Select menu, choose
pattern (e.g. all files ending Select, then choose By Pattern,
with .c) or simply press Ctrl – S, and
enter the desired pattern.

☞ For examples of how to use patterns, see the section on “Controlling

which files are displayed.”

Deselecting files

To deselect: Do this:
A single file using the mouse Hold down Ctrl, then click on
the file.
A single file using the keyboard Hold down Ctrl, press a
direction key (e.g. ↑) to go to
the file you wish to deselect,
then press Space.
All files or all files that match a From the Select menu, choose
text pattern Deselect, then choose All or By
Pattern.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Creating folders and files

☞ You can also deselect using other techniques similar to the techniques
used for selecting files, such as pressing Shift and ↑. Feel free to
experiment!

Creating folders and files

Folders
To create a new folder in the current folder:

1 From the File menu, choose the New item, then choose Folder.
Or
Click on the New Folder icon:

2 You’ll see the Create New Folder dialog. Type the name of the
new folder, then click on Create or press Enter.
The new folder will appear in the File list, according to how
you’ve sorted the list. If there are many files in the current
folder, you may have to scroll to see your new folder.

You can also create a new folder within a folder that’s not currently
open. For example, let’s say you’re in /bedrock and you wish to
create a dino folder under /bedrock/fred. In this case, you could
type the following in the Create New Folder dialog:
fred/dino
Note that you don’t have to type /bedrock, since you’re already
there!
If, however, you wish to create a new folder under another path, you
must type the new folder’s complete pathname. For example, if you’re
in /bedrock/fred and wish to create a letters folder under
/quarry/slate, you’d type:
/quarry/slate/letters

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Files
To create a new file in the current folder:

1 From the File menu, choose the New item, then choose File.
Or
Click on the New File icon:

2 You’ll see the Create New File dialog. Type the name of the
new file, then click on Create or press Enter.

3 A pterm window opens and a text editor starts in the window.

For info on using this editor or choosing a different editor, ask
your system administrator or see the section on “Configuring
the File Manager.”

4 When you’re finished, save the file and quit the editor. The
pterm window will close and your new file will be added to the
current folder.

☞ If you don’t see the file, click on the Reopen Folder icon to refresh the
File list. Remember that you can use the File Manager’s quick-search
method to locate your new file.

Creating a file in another folder

You can also create a new file within a folder that’s not currently
open. For example, let’s say you’re in /bedrock and you wish to
create a file called yabadaba under /bedrock/fred. In this case,
you could simply type the following in the Create New File dialog:
fred/yabadaba
Note that you don’t have to type /bedrock, since you’re already
there!
If, however, you wish to create a new file under another path, you
must type the file’s complete pathname. For example, if you’re in

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Viewing or editing files

/bedrock and wish to create yabadaba under /quarry/slate,

you’d type:
/quarry/slate/yabadaba

Viewing or editing files

To view a file, do one of the following:

Press F3.

Open the File menu and choose View.

Click the right mouse button and choose View from the displayed
popup menu.

To edit a file, do one of the following:

Press F4.

Open the File menu and choose Edit.

Click the right mouse button and choose Edit from the displayed
popup menu.

☞ To bring up the correct popup menu, make sure the pointer is in the
File list (not the Hotlist) before you click the right mouse button.

For info on using the viewer or editor, or on choosing a different

viewer or editor, ask your system administrator or see the section
on “Configuring the File Manager.”

Copying and moving files

To copy or move a file:

1 Select the file, then do one of the following:

Open the File menu and choose Copy/Move.
Or

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Make sure the pointer is in the File list (not the Hotlist), then
click the right mouse button and choose Copy/Move from
the displayed popup menu.
You’ll see the Copy/Move dialog.

2 Click on the combobox to choose from the list of folders you’ve

already copied or moved files to, or type the pathname of the
folder you’re copying or moving the file to.
For example, if you wish to move a file currently in
/bedrock/fred to /quarry/slate, you’d type
/quarry/slate.

3 Click on Copy or Move.

!
CAUTION: If you try to copy or move a file from one folder to
another folder, and a file with the same name exists in the target
folder, the new file will overwrite the file in the target folder.

If you’re copying or moving to a folder under the current folder, you

don’t have to type the entire pathname. For example, let’s say you’re
in /bedrock and you wish to copy a file to the
/bedrock/fred/letters folder. Instead of typing
/bedrock/fred/letters, you could simply type fred/letters.
If you copy or move a file to a path that doesn’t yet exist, the File
Manager will, by default, create any necessary folders. For example,
if you copy a file to /quarry/slate, and slate doesn’t yet exist,
the File Manager will create slate, then copy the file. To disable this
feature, click on the “Create folders...” box in the Copy/Move dialog.

Deleting files or folders

To delete a file or a folder:

1 Select the file or folder, then do one of the following:

Press F8.
Open the File menu and choose Delete.

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Make sure the pointer is in the File list (not the Hotlist), then
click the right mouse button and choose Delete from the
displayed popup menu.

2 You’ll see the Confirm File Delete dialog. If you selected a

folder to delete, click on the “Include selected folders” button
to confirm that you wish to delete the folder.

3 Click on Yes or press Enter.

WARNING:

You can’t recover a file you’ve deleted.

If you delete a folder, you’ll also delete any files in that folder.

Changing file properties

You can change the properties of any file or folder, including its name,
ownership, and permissions. Simply follow these steps:

1 Select the file or folder you wish to modify, then do one of the
following:
Press F7.
Open the File menu and choose Properties.
Make sure the pointer is in the File list (not the Hotlist), then
click the right mouse button and choose Properties from the
displayed popup menu.

2 Change your selected properties, then click on Done or press

Enter.

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Opening and closing a terminal window  2005, QNX Software Systems

!
CAUTION: If you’ve selected a folder, you’ll be asked whether you
wish to change the properties of both the folder and its contents. If
you do, any changes you make will affect all folders and all files that
reside under the selected folder.

For info on QNX file attributes and permissions, ask your system
administrator or see the QNX OS Installation & Configuration
manual.

Opening and closing a terminal window

If you wish to run text-based QNX utilities and applications from a
window on your Photon workspace, you can use the File Manager to
load the pterm terminal window.
To open and use a pterm window, do one of the following:

Bring up the File menu and choose Terminal Window.

Press F2.

Click on the pterm icon:

You’re now in the QNX Shell, where you can invoke text-based
utilities and applications as you would from a QNX terminal or
console.
To log off from your session and remove the pterm window:

Type exit.
Or

Press Ctrl – D.

For more info on using and configuring pterm, see the chapter on
pterm in this guide, and see the Photon Installation & Configuration
guide.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Running a command

Running a command
You can use the File Manager to start a Photon application or other
QNX-based applications and utilities.

1 Do one of the following:

From the File menu, select Run a Command.
Press Ctrl – R.
Select a file, click the right mouse button, then choose
Run With from the displayed popup menu (the command
will run on the selected file).

2 If you’re starting a text application, make sure that the

Run Inside Terminal button is enabled.
If you choose “Close: Finish,” the File Manager closes the
terminal when the command is finished, regardless of errors. If
you choose “Close: If no Error,” the File Manager closes the
terminal only if the command finishes without an error. If you
use this option, you’ll be able to read any error messages that
the command displays.

3 Type in the name of the command, or choose Browse to choose

the command from the QNX filesystem.

4 Click on Run or press Enter.

Quick-starting Photon applications

Here’s another way to start a Photon application:

➤ Simply double-click on the application’s executable file.

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Starting an application from its data files  2005, QNX Software Systems

☞ The method works only with native Photon applications. If you don’t
know the name or location of a Photon executable, ask your system
administrator or see the documentation that came with the
application.

Starting an application from its data files

Depending on how your system has been set up, you can start an
application by double-clicking on one of its associated data files.
Most data files have the following icon:

For example, you might be able to load a text editor by

double-clicking on any data file that ends with .c — the editor would
load, along with the selected file.

☞ If double-clicking a data file won’t bring up an application, see the

discussion on Associating files with an application in “Configuring
the File Manager.”

Printing files
To print a file that’s selected, do one of the following:

Press F5.

Open the File menu and choose Print.

Make sure the pointer is in the File list (not the Hotlist), then click
the right mouse button and choose Print from the displayed popup
menu.

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☞ If a file doesn’t print, ask your system administrator or check the Print
command in the PFM Configuration dialog (see “Configuring the File
Manager.”)

Changing how files are displayed

At the top of the File list you’ll see the following buttons:
Filename Size Dat e Owner Group Permissions Link

Using these buttons you can sort your files in any order (by name,
date, etc.) or change which information is displayed for each file.

Sorting files

To sort files: Click on:

Alphabetically Filename
By size Size
By the date they were last modified Date

Reversing the sort order

To reverse the sort order, click on Filename, Size, or Date again. For
example, the first time you click on Filename, files are sorted from A
to Z. The next time you click, they’re sorted from Z to A.

☞ The File Manager’s quick-search method works only if files are sorted
from A to Z.

Displaying folders first

If you want folders to appear at the top of the File list:

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Changing how files are displayed  2005, QNX Software Systems

1 From the Tools menu, choose the Configure item. You’ll see the
PFM Configuration dialog.

2 Click on Folders First, then click on Apply.

☞ If you display folders first, the File Manager’s quick-search method

will work only with folders.

For more info on using the Configuration dialog, see “Configuring the
File Manager.”

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Choosing which details are displayed

By default, the File list shows you the name, size, date, and so on for
each file. You can hide some of these details using the File list
buttons.
For example, let’s say you don’t need to see the size of each file. To
hide the Size field:

1 Move the pointer onto the vertical line that separates the Size
and Date buttons. The pointer changes to a resize pointer:

2 Press the mouse button and drag the pointer to the left until the
Size field is hidden.

3 You’ll now see two vertical lines in front of the Date field: the
first controls the hidden Size field, the second controls the Date
field.
To uncover the Size field, simply drag the second line back to
the right.

☞ Using the above technique, you can also resize any field.

Details at a glance
The following table briefly explains the contents of each field in the
File list.

This field: Indicates:

Filename the name given to the file
Size the size of the file in bytes
Date the date the file was created or last modified

continued. . .

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This field: Indicates:

Links if this file is a symbolic link, the name of the file that
this file is linked to
Owner the owner ID of the file’s owner
Group the group ID of the file’s owner
Permissions from left to right, the user, group, and other access
permissions of the file (these permissions control
what kinds of operations users can perform on the
file and which users can perform those operations)

For more info on symbolic links, owner IDs, and permissions, ask
your system administrator or see the QNX OS Installation &
Configuration guide.

Controlling which files are displayed

To control which files are displayed in the File list, you can enter
patterns in the Pattern combobox:

This box uses standard pattern-matching characters, including the

asterisk (*), question mark (?), and brackets ([ ]). By default, the box
contains *, which tells the File Manager to display all files in the
current folder. The following table shows examples of using these
characters.

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Example If you enter: You’ll see:

patterns
f* all files starting with “f” (e.g. frd.c, flnt)
*.[ch] all files ending with “.c” or “.h” (e.g. frd.c,
barn.h)
fred? all files beginning with “fred” and ending with one
other character

Configuring the File Manager

To configure the File Manager to your preferences, do one of the
following:

Bring up the Tools menu and choose Configure.

Or

Click on the Configure icon:

You’ll see the PFM Configuration dialog:

Configuration

View Opt ions: Folders First Hide ’dot’ Files

Conf ig Sav ing: Automatic Manual

Hot list Font : helv10 Select...

File List Font : helv10 Select...

KeyFind Timeout (ms): 1500

Terminal Command: pterm

View Command: pterm less @

Edit Command: pterm vedit @

Print Command: lp @

Apply Apply & Sav e Cancel

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You can set the following preferences:

View Options The Folders First button lets you control whether
folders always appear at the top of the File list,
before any other files. The Hide “dot” Files button
lets you hide any files that begin with a dot, such
as .elm, .kshrc, and so on. Typically, these are
configuration files that are rarely accessed.

Config Saving If you select Automatic, the File Manager will

automatically save its current state when you quit.
That includes not only options in the Configuration
dialog, but also the size of the window, how files
are sorted, and so on.
If you select Manual, the File Manager will save
its current state only if you:
click on Apply & Save in the Configuration
dialog
Or
bring up the File menu and choose Save
Current Configuration
Hotlist Font
File List Font Let you specify the font used to display folders in
the Hotlist and files in the File list. If you click on
the Select button, you’ll see the following dialog:

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Configuring the File Manager

Select Tree Font

Courier

12 Bold It alic A/A

AaBbCcXxYyZz

OK Cancel

Click on the combobox at the top to select a

typeface (e.g. Swiss 721, Courier, etc.), then use
the other controls to change the size or style of the
font.
The A/A (anti-aliasing) button makes scalable
fonts draw a bit slower, but look smoother.
If you’re familiar with the format used to specify
Photon font names, you could type in the name,
size, and style of the font directly into the Hotlist
Font or File List Font field.
KeyFind Timeout
To find a file quickly, you can simply type in the
name or first few letters of the file you wish to find.
Once you’re finished typing, the File Manager
waits a period a time — by default this is 1.5
seconds — then lets you type in another name.
The KeyFind Timeout field lets you change the
period of time the File Manager waits. Specify a
new time in milliseconds (e.g. to change the wait
time to 2 seconds, specify 2000).

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Terminal Command
Lets you specify how the Photon terminal window,
pterm, starts up. (To start pterm, see “Opening a
Terminal Window” in this chapter.)

View Command Lets you specify the file viewer that appears when
you ask to view a file. The default is less; to
change the command line for invoking this utility,
see the QNX OS Utilities Reference.

Edit Command Lets you specify the file editor that appears when
you ask to edit a file. The default editor is vedit;
to change the command line for invoking this
editor, see its entry in the QNX OS Utilities
Reference.

Print Command Lets you specify the print command that will be
invoked when you ask to print a file. For more
information on print commands, see the QNX OS
Installation & Configuration manual.

Associating files with an application

To have an application start automatically when you double-click on
any of its data files, you use the File Manager’s Associate dialog. This
dialog lets you specify file patterns and the commands they’re
associated with. For example, you can specify that files ending in .c
will start your favorite text editor or viewer.

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To use the Associate dialog, do one of the following:

Bring up the Tools menu and choose Associate.

Or

Click on the Associate icon:

You’ll see the Associate dialog.

Associate
Current Associations:

Pattern Open W ith Add...

*.c pterm vedit
Remov e
*.h pterm vedit
*.jpg pv Edit...
*.jpeg pv
*.gif pv
*.bmp pv

Done Cancel

When you add or edit a pattern, you can use all the standard
pattern-matching characters, including the asterisk (*), question mark
(?), and brackets ([ ]).

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Configuring the File Manager  2005, QNX Software Systems

Here are some examples:

This pattern: Would match:

* all files
*.h all files ending in .h
*.[ch] all files ending in .c or .h
*.bmp all files ending in .bmp

Starting a text-based application

If you wish to have a text-based application (e.g. an editor) load when
you select a data file, you must tell the File Manager to first open a
pterm window for that application. For example, if you’d like the
text-based less utility to load when you double-click on any file
ending in .c, you would specify pterm less.

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 Chapter 6
Using the Print Dialogs

In this chapter. . .
Starting the Printer Setup dialog 83
Print Properties 87
Print Preview dialog 95

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Starting the Printer Setup dialog

Starting the Printer Setup dialog

Before you can print files, you must select a printer from the Photon
Printer Setup dialog. To do this:

From the PWM Workspace Menu, choose Setup Printers. . .

Or

Click the Printer Setup icon in the Utilities Desktop Manager

folder:

If Printer Setup is running but hidden, you can find it by clicking on

the Printer Setup icon in the Taskbar:

Photon Printer Setup

The Printer Setup dialog looks like this:

Photon Printer Setup

I nstalled Printers Available Printers

Printer Name Location Printer Name Location

Lexmark Tech Pubs Tech Pubs HP R&D Beside R & D Board
HP DeskJet HP In Bobbys Office
HP LaserJet HP Outside Graphic
Lexmark R&D Middle of New R&D
Lexmark Cafeteria Cafeteria
Epson Color In Steve Tomkins O
PS Spool File PostScript Spool Fi

Uninstall Install

Set Default Printer Properties... Sav e Exit

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Starting the Printer Setup dialog  2005, QNX Software Systems

☞ If there are no printers listed in the Available Printers pane, talk to

your system administrator or refer to the Photon Installation &
Configuration guide on how to install printer drivers for your system.

Here are the main parts of the Printer Setup dialog:

Installed Printers
Displays the list and location of printers that you have
personally installed for your Photon session.

Available Printers
Displays the list and location of printers that you may
add to your personal configuration. Output that goes
to spool devices is indicated with a printer icon.
Output that is prefiltered and sent directly to a file,
such as a bitmap output, is indicated with a paper icon.

Install Installs the printer(s) that you selected from the list of
available printers.

Uninstall Uninstalls the printer(s) that you selected from the list
of installed printers.

Set Default Printer

Sets your default printer to the one that you selected in
the Installed Printers pane.

Properties For the selected printer in the Installed Printers pane,

you can specify options such as paper size, margins,
and print quality. For more information, see the
section on “Print Properties.”

Save Saves the current configuration.

Exit Closes the Printer Setup window.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Starting the Printer Setup dialog

Setting up a printer
You use the Photon Printer Setup dialog to choose a default printer
and optionally select other printers you might use. To set up a printer:

1 Click on a printer from the list of available printers in the right

pane. The printer name and location is highlighted, and the
Install button is enabled.
2 Click Install. The selected printer moves to the Installed
Printers pane. (If you want, you can select more printers using
these steps.)
3 To save the changes and close the dialog, click Save.

Changing the default printer

Only one printer can be set as the default printer. If you select only
one printer, it automatically becomes the default. If you select more
than one printer, the printer at the top of the Installed Printers list is
the default printer. To change the default printer:

1 Highlight only the printer that you want to make the default
from the list of installed printers. When it’s the only highlighted
printer, the Set Default Printer button is enabled.
2 Click Set Default Printer.

The printer is moved to the top of the list. The Set Default Printer
button changes to Is Default Printer.
Whenever you print from a Photon application, the printer you choose
as the default is displayed in the Printer field. Before you print, you
can accept the default printer, or choose from any of the printers in the
pull-down printer list.

Printing a document when a printer hasn’t been set up

If you haven’t set up a printer prior to printing (for example, you
selected a Print command from an application’s File menu before
clicking on the Printer Setup icon), you’ll be prompted to set one up.
The following dialog appears:

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Starting the Printer Setup dialog  2005, QNX Software Systems

Select Printer
Select a Printer

Printer: Add Printer...

Location: Print to File

Print Range Copies

All Pages Number Of Copies:
Pages
Collate M ethod:
Selection

Print Prev iew Cancel

To select a printer:

➤ Click on Add Printer. . .

The Photon Printer Setup dialog appears. Follow the
instructions in the “Setting up a printer” section.

If you want to: Do this:

Select a printer Accept the default printer. If more
than one printer has been installed,
you can select a printer from any of
the printers displayed in the
pull-down printer list.
View a document on screen Click Preview. For more
information, see the section on
“Print Preview dialog.”
Print a range of pages Click Pages and enter the page
number or range of page numbers
that you want printed (e.g. 3-5).

continued. . .

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Print Properties

If you want to: Do this:

Print multiple copies Enter the number of copies required
in the field.
Change the collate method Select “111” if you want multiple
copies of each page all at once, or
“123” if you want a collated set. If
you don’t select either, the pages are
printed in the order set by the printer.
Print to a file Choose Print to File, then specify the
filename. If you select “BMP Spool
File” or “PS Spool File,” the image
is automatically sent to a file.

Print Properties
You can view the print properties for the selected printer by clicking
the Properties button in the Photon Printer Setup dialog. There are
currently two print property dialogs:

Print Properties — a configuration interface for printers

Image Properties — a configuration interface for saving bitmap

graphical images

Print Properties dialog

Five tabs display properties information:

Paper tab

Graphics tab

Margins tab

Other tab

Info tab

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☞ For the following tab options, the values for the print properties
displayed on your screen may differ from those in this guide because
the supported values for an option are customized in the printer
definition file. For more information, see the Printing Support chapter
in the Photon Installation & Configuration guide or ask your system
administrator.

Paper tab
You use the Paper tab to select print properties such as paper size,
paper source, type, and orientation.

Print Properties for: Lexmark Tech Pubs

Paper Graphics Margins Other Info

Paper Size: Letter

Paper Source: Auto

Paper Ty pe: Normal

Orientation:

Port rait Landscape

Apply Cancel Reset Defaults

Paper size Select the paper size from the combobox (e.g.
Letter, Legal, etc.).

Paper source Select the paper source from the combobox (e.g.
Auto, Upper, Envelope, etc.).

Paper Type Select the paper type from the combobox (e.g.
Normal, HighQuality, Draft, etc.).

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Print Properties

Orientation Select either Portrait or Landscape.

Reset Defaults Select the default settings from

/usr/photon/print/printers.

Graphics tab
You use the Graphics tab to change graphic properties like color
mode, dithering type, ink type, and resolution.

Print Properties for: PostScript Printer

Paper Graphics Margins Other Info

Color Mode: GrayScale

Dithering:

Ink Ty pe: B&W

Resolution: 600 dpi

Intensity :
50

Darkest Lightest

Apply Cancel Reset Defaults

Color Mode Specifies the color mode to use (e.g. GrayScale,

B&W, Color, etc.).

Dithering Specifies the type of dithering to use (e.g. None,

Coarse, Fine, etc.).

Ink Type Specifies the ink type for the graphics (e.g. Normal,
B&W, Color, etc.). Note: color ink is necessary for
color printing.

Resolution Changes the DPI (e.g. 75, 150, 300).

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Print Properties  2005, QNX Software Systems

Intensity Sets the color intensity from dark to light (e.g. 0 to

100).

Margins tab
You use the Margins tab to change the printer margins:

Print Properties for: Lexmark Tech Pubs

Paper Graphics Margins Other Info

Top:

Bottom: .001 inches

Left: .01 millimet ers

Right:

Apply Cancel Reset Defaults

Margin settings may be set in inches or millimeters. Use the up and

down scroll arrows to increase or decrease the setting. The default is
.001 inches.

Other tab
You use the Other tab to specify single or double-sided printing and
the collating method.

90 Chapter 6 ¯ Using the Print Dialogs September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Print Properties

Print Properties for: Lexmark Tech Pubs

Paper Graphics Margins Other Info

Duplex: Off

Collating Mode:

Apply Cancel Reset Defaults

Duplex Specifies one- or two-sided printing.

Collating Method
Select “111” if you want multiple copies of each page all
at once, or “123” if you want a collated set. If you don’t
select either, the pages are printed in the order set by the
printer.

Info tab
You use the Info tab to view the selected printer’s name, location,
spool device, and spool filter information.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 6 ¯ Using the Print Dialogs 91

Print Properties  2005, QNX Software Systems

Print Properties for: Lexmark Tech Pubs

Paper Graphics Margins Other Info

Printer I nformation

Name: Lexmark Tech Pubs

Location: Tech Pubs

Dev ice: //61/dev /spool/pubs.phs

Filter: Pp.ps

Apply Cancel Reset Defaults

Graphical Image Properties dialog

You can view the printer properties for images by clicking the
Properties button in the Photon Printer Setup box when the BMP filter
is chosen as the default printer.

☞ Currently only BMP format properties can be set.

92 Chapter 6 ¯ Using the Print Dialogs September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Print Properties

Image Properties

Image Ty pe: BMP

Bitplanes: Dimensions:
As Required
8 bit
As Displayed
24 bit

Scale:
No No

Factor:
Factor: Factor:
Factor:

Apply Reset Cancel

Three main areas display image property information:

Bitplanes

Dimensions

Scale

Bitplanes
Print the image using 8 or 24 bits per pixel.

Dimensions
Choose the dimensions of the printed image. You must specify one of
these options:

As Required The size is set according to the image size.

As Displayed The size of the graphical image is specified by

entering the x and y dimensions in pixels.

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Print Properties  2005, QNX Software Systems

Scale
Here you choose whether the image will be scaled or not. You can set
the scale separately for the x and y dimensions. You can set the scale
to:

No No scaling is done and the image is set to the size of the

source image.

Displayed factor
The image is scaled by the displayed scale factor.

Maintain aspect ratio

The image’s size is set according to the dimension and the
scale factor, but the aspect ratio between the x and y
dimension is maintained. For example, suppose an image is
100
50 pixels and you set the dimension as 200
200 and the
scale as “maintain aspect ratio.” The size of the image printed
is 200
100 pixels because the image’s aspect ratio is 2:1.

94 Chapter 6 ¯ Using the Print Dialogs September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Print Preview dialog

Print Preview dialog

You can view a document on screen from the Select Printer dialog. To
do so:

➤ Click Preview

Print Prev iew

File /tmp/printjob.dscott. 50 %

In Print Preview you can:

Scroll forwards and backwards through your document if it’s

larger than one page.

Zoom closer into the image, or further away from the image by
selecting the magnification.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 6 ¯ Using the Print Dialogs 95

Print Preview dialog  2005, QNX Software Systems

Print or save the document.

96 Chapter 6 ¯ Using the Print Dialogs September 20, 2005

 Chapter 7
DayMinder

In this chapter. . .
What is DayMinder? 99
Starting DayMinder 99
DayMinder at a glance 100
Customizing DayMinder 102
Types of scheduled activities 102
Adding appointments 103
Adding reminders 105
Adding a task to your ToDo list 105
Modifying scheduled activities 107
Address Book 108
Group Planner 109

September 20, 2005 Chapter 7 ¯ DayMinder 97

 2005, QNX Software Systems What is DayMinder?

What is DayMinder?
DayMinder provides a simple, graphical way to organize your daily
schedule and activities. With DayMinder, you can schedule
appointments, plan meetings with your coworkers, track your tasks,
and maintain your address book.
DayMinder is designed to be a simple personal information manager
application to suit the needs of small embedded systems. Note that
some features described in this document may not work on your
particular system.

Starting DayMinder
To start DayMinder:

Click on the DayMinder icon in the appropriate Desktop Manager

folder:

Or

Click on the Taskbar if DayMinder is already running, but hidden

from view:
DayMinder

Or

Type the following in a pterm shell:

dayminder &

September 20, 2005 Chapter 7 ¯ DayMinder 99

DayMinder at a glance  2005, QNX Software Systems

DayMinder at a glance
A typical DayMinder session may look like this:
Menu bar Appointment button bar

Dayminder
button bar

Monthly
calendar Appointments
pane

Weekly Reminders
planner pane

ToDo pane

Here’s what the main parts of DayMinder let you do:

Menu bar Lets you perform most major functions, from creating
appointments and tasks to setting application
preferences.

DayMinder button bar

Lets you quickly default to today’s date or bring up
the Group Planner or your Address Book:
Goto Today
Group Planner
Address Book

Appointment button bar

Lets you quickly add new appointments, reminders,
tasks, or view a different day’s activities:

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 2005, QNX Software Systems DayMinder at a glance

New Appointment New ToDo Next Day

New Reminder Previous Day

Monthly calendar
Displays a month at a glance. You can move forwards
or backwards by a month or year by clicking on the
“next” or “previous” scroll arrows on either side of
the month or year label. The current date is displayed
in bold. The selected date is highlighted.

Weekly planner
Displays your weeks activities at a glance. Black
areas indicate scheduled appointments; blue areas
indicate repeating appointments. A thick horizontal
black line is displayed at the top of each date column
that has a reminder.
Appointments pane
Shows your scheduled appointments for the day
selected on the monthly calendar.

Reminders pane
Shows your reminders (or untimed events) for the day
selected from the monthly calendar.

ToDo pane Shows your ongoing tasks and their details: status,
category, priority, and date due.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 7 ¯ DayMinder 101

Customizing DayMinder  2005, QNX Software Systems

Customizing DayMinder
☞ Some of the fields in the DayMinder Preferences dialog may not be
implemented at time of release.

Resizing windows
The Month and Weekly planner panes are fixed sizes, but you can
adjust the pane sizes for the Appointment, Reminders, and ToDo
panes. For example, to resize the Reminders pane:

1 Move the pointer to the horizontal line that separates the

Appointments and Reminders panes. The mouse pointer
changes to a resize pointer.

2 Click and drag the line upwards until the Reminders pane is the
size you want.

Similarly, you can change the size of the fields in the ToDo pane.
Grab the vertical bar that separates the two fields and move it
sideways until the field is the size you want.

Customizing application preferences

You customize your DayMinder application preferences using the
Preferences dialog. You invoke it in one of the following ways:

From the File menu, select the Preferences item.

Or

Move the mouse pointer into the Appointments, Reminders, or

ToDo pane, click the right mouse button, and select the
Properties. . . item.

Types of scheduled activities

Appointments — scheduled events with a specified date and time.
A meeting is a good example because it’s planned for a specified
time on a specified day.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Adding appointments

Reminders — untimed events with a specified date but no

associated time, such as a birthday or anniversary.

ToDo — events or tasks that are defined over a period of time by a

start and an end date. An example of a task could be the writing
and distributing of the minutes to a meeting because the writing of
the minutes occurs over a period of time and has a due date.

Adding appointments
Adding an appointment to your DayMinder is easy:

1 In the Monthly Calendar pane, click the next or previous month

scroll arrows until the appropriate calendar for the month and
year is displayed. Click on the desired day. DayMinder
highlights your selection in the Weekly planner.

2 In the Appointments pane, select the desired block of time for

your appointment. For example, if your appointment is
scheduled from 2 pm to 3 pm on Friday, November 29, you
select the period by:
clicking the 2 pm start time on Friday, November 29, and
dragging to the 3 pm end time
The selected block of time is indicated on the left side of the
Appointments pane beside the time and by a box in the Weekly
planner.

☞ The Weekly planner pane can also be used to select appointment

times.

3 Enter the details of the appointment in the Appointment dialog.

To display the Appointment dialog, do one of the following:
Click the New Appointment button:

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Adding appointments  2005, QNX Software Systems

Move the mouse pointer into the Appointments pane, click

the right mouse button, and then select the New Appt. . .
item.
From the Edit menu, select the New Appt. . . item.
The Appointment dialog looks like this:
m
Appointment

Date Fri 29- Nov- 1996

From 2:00pm To 3:00pm Reminder

Meeting with Mr. Slate

Repeat
Repeat Until Fri 20- Dec- 1996
None
Yearly Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Monthly
Weekly
Daily

OK Cancel

4 Change or add the:

Date — If you selected the wrong day, you can use the
up/down arrows or the month icon to select the desired date.
Time — You can nudge the time in 5-minute intervals using
the up/down arrows.
Description — Enter the appropriate description and
information about the appointment in this field.
Repetition — If the appointment occurs on a repeated basis,
DayMinder can keep track of this for you.
5 To save your changes, click OK. To leave the dialog without
saving your changes, click Cancel.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Adding reminders

Adding reminders
Adding a Reminder to DayMinder is like adding an appointment, but
in the case of a reminder there’s no specific time assigned.

1 To create a Reminder, you can do one of the following:

Select the New Reminder button:

Move the mouse pointer into the Appointments or

Reminders pane, click the right mouse button, and select the
New Reminder item.
From the Edit menu, select the New Reminder item.
The Appointment dialog appears with the Reminder toggle
“lit.”

2 Now enter the date and the description of the reminder.

☞ You can change an appointment into a reminder (or a reminder into an

appointment) by toggling the Reminder button.

Adding a task to your ToDo list

To create a task:

1 Do one of the following:

Select the New ToDo button:

Or
Move the mouse pointer into the Appointments, Reminders
or ToDo pane, click the right mouse button, and select the
New ToDo item.
Or
From the Edit menu, select the New ToDo. . . item.

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Adding a task to your ToDo list  2005, QNX Software Systems

The ToDo dialog appears:

To Do

Priority 3 Category Bowling

Private Done
Description
Order new bowling shoes

Notes
Shoe size 13

Begins: Fri 29- Nov- 1996

Due: Fri 20- Dec- 1996

OK New Category... Cancel

2 Specify the following:

Priority Choose a number between 1 and 5; priority 1

is the most important. The default is 3.
Category You can categorize your tasks by type. Use the
up arrow to select the required task type. The
default is All. You can create your own
categories by selecting the New Category
button.
Description A description of the task.
Notes A field for any other pertinent information.
Notes are displayed only when you edit the
task.
Begin Date The start date of the task. Select the date by
nudging the up/down arrows or by selecting

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Modifying scheduled activities

the required date when invoking the month

icon.
End Date The planned end date of the task.

3 To save your changes, click OK. To leave the dialog without

saving your changes, click Cancel.

Modifying scheduled activities

To modify a scheduled activity, select the activity or event, then do
one of the following:

Select Edit. . . from the Edit menu.

Or

Click the right mouse button and select Edit. . . from the popup
menu.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 7 ¯ DayMinder 107

Address Book  2005, QNX Software Systems

Address Book
☞ Some of the features in the Address Book may not be implemented at
the time of release.

You can keep track of all your friends and colleagues in the Address
Book. To bring up the Address Book, click on the Address Book icon
in the DayMinder button bar:

The Address Book looks like this:

Address Book

Address Book: Private Sort by: Last Name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Last Name: Rubble Company: Slate Industries

First Name: Barney Address 1: 123 Bedrock Way
Title: Address 2: Bedrock
Dept: City:
e- mail @ barney.rubble@slate.com State/Prov:
Work # 555- 1234 Country:
Home # 555- 5555 Post Code:
Fax # 555- 1235 Custom 1:
Other # Custom 2:
Other # Custom 3:

Notes:

OK New Delete Copy Dial... e- mail... Cancel

Here are the main parts of the Address Book:

Address Book
Lets you separate your private and business entries.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Group Planner

Sort by Determines how to sort the entries in the Book. Default:

Last Name
Alphabet Buttons
Let you quickly find entries by selecting the first letter. If
no entries exist for a specified tab, for example the letter
Q, the first entry under the letter R is displayed.

OK Saves the current entry and exits the Address Book. By

default, the Address Book always saves the information
on the screen when you move to another entry.

New Brings up a blank address form.

Delete Deletes the current screen entry.

Copy Copies the information in the current screen entry to a

new screen entry. A plus sign (+) is appended to the last
name of each copied entry to help you differentiate the
entries.

Dial Dials the selected number (if enabled on your system).

e-mail Addresses your email message and invokes your email

editor (if enabled on your system).

Cancel Deletes the current entry and exits the Address Book.

Group Planner
☞ Some of the features in the Group Planner may not be implemented at
the time of release.

You use the Group Planner to plan meetings with your colleagues. To
bring up the Group Planner, click on the Group Planner icon in the
DayMinder button bar:

Here’s what your Group Planner might look like:

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Group Planner  2005, QNX Software Systems

Group Planner
fred Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
wilma 12am
barney 1am
pebbles 2am
3am
bambam
4am
betty 5am
6am
7am
8am
9am
10am
11am
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm
4pm
5pm
6pm
7pm
8pm
9pm
Thu 28- Nov - 1996 10pm
11pm
Done Schedule... 12am

When you first bring up the Group Planner, only your activities are
displayed. Black areas indicate your scheduled appointments and blue
areas indicate repeating appointments. Empty slots are times when
you are available for appointments. When you select the name or
names of the colleague(s) that you wish to plan a meeting with, their
appointments are displayed in gray.
To schedule an appointment:
1 In the Group Planner week at a glance pane, select the desired
block of time for your appointment. For example, if no one has
a previous appointment on Friday, November 29 at 1 pm to 2
pm, you can schedule an appointment by:
clicking the 1 pm start time on Friday, November 29, and
dragging to the 2 pm end time.
2 Click on the Schedule. . . button located on the bottom left side
of the screen. The Appointment dialog is displayed. You use

110 Chapter 7 ¯ DayMinder September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Group Planner

this dialog to enter the details of the appointment. For more

information on how to enter an appointment, see the section on
Adding appointments earlier in this chapter.

☞ When you create an appointment using the Group Planner, you create
an appointment for yourself, not your colleagues.

3 To exit from the Group Planner, click Done.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 7 ¯ DayMinder 111

 Chapter 8
Terminal Window (pterm)

In this chapter. . .
What is pterm? 115
pterm at a glance 116
Starting and ending pterm 116
Using the pterm menu 117
Configuring pterm 118

September 20, 2005 Chapter 8 ¯ Terminal Window (pterm) 113

 2005, QNX Software Systems What is pterm?

What is pterm?
The Photon terminal window (pterm) lets you run text-based QNX
utilities applications from a window on your Photon workspace. You
can open multiple terminal windows, and as a result, run a mix of
text-based applications and Photon applications at the same time.
Note that many text-based applications that use the mouse (e.g. the
vedit text editor) can use the mouse in a terminal window.
The pterm application runs a command interpreter, or shell, that
interprets what you type. The available shells include the QNX shell
(/bin/sh) and the Korn shell (/bin/ksh). The pterm application
determines which shell to use as follows:

1 If the SHELL environment variable is defined, it specifies the

shell.

2 If SHELL isn’t defined, pterm uses the shell specified in your

entry in the /etc/passwd file.

3 If the shell isn’t specified by either of the above, pterm runs

/bin/sh.

For more information, see your system administrator.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 8 ¯ Terminal Window (pterm) 115

pterm at a glance  2005, QNX Software Systems

pterm at a glance
Here’s a sample pterm session:
tty p1: ksh
$ pwd
//222/bedrock/fred
$ ls -l
total 21
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 13 Oct 22 13:25 bambam
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 12 Oct 22 13:26 barney
-rwxrwxr-x 1 fred cavemen 7 Oct 22 13:42 crush
drwxrwxr-x 2 fred cavemen 2048 Oct 23 09:26 dino
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 6 Oct 22 13:31 flint
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 8 Oct 22 13:32 marble
drwxr-xr-x 2 fred cavemen 2048 Oct 23 09:35 pebbles
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 4 Oct 22 13:32 rubble
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 6 Oct 22 13:33 slate
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 5 Oct 22 13:33 stone
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 4 Oct 22 13:33 triassic
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 6 Oct 22 13:33 tusk
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 4 Oct 22 13:33 volcanic
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 6 Oct 22 13:34 wilma
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred cavemen 7 Oct 22 13:34 wood
$

In this session, you can see the QNX Shell prompt. From this prompt,
you can run most of the commands and text-based programs available
for QNX — without ever leaving Photon!

Starting and ending pterm

To open a pterm window, do one of the following:
Point to any blank area of the Photon workspace, click the right
mouse button, then choose Shell.
Or
Click on the pterm icon in the Desktop Manager:

Or
Click on the pterm icon in the File Manager:

116 Chapter 8 ¯ Terminal Window (pterm) September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the pterm menu

You’ll see a pterm window. You’re now in the QNX Shell, where you
can invoke text-based utilities and applications as you would from a
QNX terminal or console.
To log off from your session and close the pterm window, do one of
the following:

Type exit.
Or

Press Ctrl – D.
Or

Press Alt – F4.

Using the pterm menu

The pterm window has its own menu for configuring the window,
enabling or disabling the mouse, cutting and pasting text, and so on.
To display the menu, point to any area within the pterm window and
click the right mouse button.

Properties... Ctrl- Alt- C

Copy Ctrl- Alt- X

Paste from clipboard Ctrl- Alt- V
Paste special
Paste from selection Ctrl- Alt- P
Text mouse disable Ctrl- Alt- S
Text mouse enable Ctrl- Alt- T
Unselect Ctrl- Alt- R
Restore selection Ctrl- Alt- R
Search help Ctrl- Alt- H

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Configuring pterm  2005, QNX Software Systems

☞ If the application running within the pterm window uses the mouse,
you may have to press Alt before clicking the right mouse button.

Configuring pterm
To change the configuration for pterm, choose Properties. . . from the
popup menu. The Terminal Properties dialog appears:

Terminal Properties
W indow Title

%d: %N Default Format Characters...

W indow Size Terminal Options

Curr Min Max
Cursor Blink
Rows: 25 1000
Never Focus only Always
Cols: 80 1000
Terminal Emulation
Reset to 25x80 ANSI QNX

Scroll- back buffer size Miscellaneous

Visual Bell Alt keys
64 lines

Config file Tex t Font

pterm.rc PC Serif 14

pterm.sh.rc Customize... Sample

Apply Sav e & Close Close

You can use this dialog to change the size of the pterm window, the
font for the window, and more.
Some character-based applications need to receive Alt key presses. To
run such an application successfully, you need to configure its pterm
window to pass the Alt to the application. To do this:

Set the Alt keys toggle button in this dialog.

Or

118 Chapter 8 ¯ Terminal Window (pterm) September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Configuring pterm

Specify the -A option on the command line when starting pterm.

For more info on using and configuring pterm, see the Utilities
chapter in the Photon Installation & Configuration guide.

September 20, 2005 Chapter 8 ¯ Terminal Window (pterm) 119

 Chapter 9
International Character Support

In this chapter. . .
Languages supported 123
Photon compose sequences 123

September 20, 2005 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support 121

 2005, QNX Software Systems Languages supported

Photon is designed to handle international characters. Following the

Unicode Standard (ISO/IEC 10646), applications built with Photon
can easily support the world’s major languages and scripts. Unicode
is modeled on the ASCII character set, but uses 16-bit encoding to
support full multilingual text.

Languages supported
Photon has keyboard drivers that support these languages:

Danish German Polish

Dutch Italian Portuguese
English Japanese Spanish
French Norwegian Swedish

Photon has font sets that support these languages:

Afrikaans Estonian Indonesian Romanian

Basque Finnish Irish Slovak
Catalan Flemish Italian Spanish
Croatian French Latvian Swahili
Czech German Lithuanian Swedish
Danish Greenlandic Maltese Turkish
Dutch Hawaiian Norwegian Welsh
English Hungarian Polish
Esperanto Icelandic Portuguese

There are tools available to help you make new keyboard drivers to
support other languages. For more information, see the Keyboard
tables section in the Unicode Multilingual Support chapter in the
Photon Installation & Configuration guide.

Photon compose sequences

Photon comes equipped with standard compose sequences. If your
keyboard doesn’t include a character from the standard ASCII table,
you can generate the character using a compose sequence. For

September 20, 2005 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support 123

Photon compose sequences  2005, QNX Software Systems

example, ó can be generated by pressing the Alt key, followed by the

’ key, followed by the o key.

☞ These aren’t keychords; press and release each key one after the other.

The following keys can be used for generating accented letters:

Key Accent Example sequence Result

’ acute Alt ’ o ó
, cedilla Alt , c ç
ˆ circumflex Alt ˆ o ô
> circumflex Alt > o ô
" diaeresis Alt " o ö
‘ grave Alt ‘ o ò
/ slash Alt / o ø
˜ tilde Alt ˜ n ñ

If your keyboard doesn’t have the following symbols, you can create
them by pressing the Alt key, followed by the first key in the sequence,
followed by the second key in the sequence.

Symbol Description Unicode value Sequence

æ small letter ae E6 Alt e a
(ligature)
Æ capital letter ae C6 Alt E A
(ligature)
Ð capital letter eth D0 Alt D -

continued. . .

124 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Photon compose sequences

Symbol Description Unicode value Sequence

ð small letter eth F0 Alt d -
ß small letter sharp DF Alt s s
s (German
scharfes s)
micro sign B5 Alt / U
Alt / u
þ small letter thorn FE Alt h t
Þ capital letter DE Alt H T
thorn
# number sign 23 Alt + +
@ commercial at 40 Alt A A
 copyright sign A9 Alt C 0
Alt C O
Alt C o
Alt c 0
Alt c O
Alt c o

registered AE Alt R O
trademark sign
[ left square 5B Alt ( (
bracket
] right square 5D Alt ) )
bracket
{ left curly bracket 7B Alt ( -
} right curly 7D Alt ) -
bracket

continued. . .

September 20, 2005 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support 125

Photon compose sequences  2005, QNX Software Systems

Symbol Description Unicode value Sequence

» right-pointing BB Alt > >
double angle
quotation mark
« left-pointing AB Alt < <
double angle
quotation mark
ˆ circumflex accent 5E Alt > space
’ apostrophe 27 Alt ’ space
grave accent 60 Alt ‘ space
| vertical bar 7C Alt / ˆ
Alt V L
Alt v l
 reverse solidus 5C Alt / /
(backslash)
Alt / <
˜ tilde 7E Alt - space
no-break space A0 Alt space space
° degree sign B0 Alt 0 ˆ
¡ inverted A1 Alt ! !
exclamation mark
¿ inverted question BF Alt ? ?
mark
¢ cent sign A2 Alt C /
Alt C |
Alt c /
Alt c |

continued. . .

126 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Photon compose sequences

Symbol Description Unicode value Sequence

£ pound sign A3 Alt L -
Alt L =
Alt l -
Alt l =
¤ currency sign A4 Alt X 0
Alt X O
Alt X o
Alt x 0
Alt x O
Alt x o
¥ yen sign A5 Alt Y -
Alt Y =
Alt y -
Alt y =
¦ broken (vertical) A6 Alt ! ˆ
bar
Alt V B
Alt v b
Alt | |
 section sign A7 Alt S !
Alt S 0
Alt S O
Alt s !
Alt s 0

continued. . .

September 20, 2005 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support 127

Photon compose sequences  2005, QNX Software Systems

Symbol Description Unicode value Sequence

Alt s o
¨ diaeresis or A8 Alt " "
umlaut
 middle dot B7 Alt . .
Alt . ˆ
¸ cedilla B8 Alt , space
Alt , ,
 not sign AC Alt - ,
soft hyphen AD Alt - -

macron AF Alt - ˆ
Alt ˆ
Alt
 plus-minus sign B1 Alt + -
superscript one B9 Alt 1 ˆ
Alt S 1
Alt s 1

superscript two B2 Alt 2 ˆ
Alt S 2
Alt s 2
 superscript three B3 Alt 3 ˆ
Alt S 3
Alt s 3
 pilcrow sign B6 Alt P !
(paragraph sign)

continued. . .

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Photon compose sequences

Symbol Description Unicode value Sequence

Alt p !
ª feminine ordinal AA Alt A
indicator
Alt a
º masculine ordinal BA Alt O
indicator
Alt o

 vulgar fraction BC Alt 1 4

one quarter

vulgar fraction BD Alt 1 2

one half

 vulgar fraction BE Alt 3 4
three quarters
 division sign F7 Alt - :

multiplication D7 Alt x x
sign

September 20, 2005 Chapter 9 ¯ International Character Support 129

 Chapter 10
Using Photon on a Network

In this chapter. . .
Using the Message Pad 133
Exploring Jump Gates 136
“Dittoing” a remote Photon display 138
Running remote Photon applications 139

September 20, 2005 Chapter 10 ¯ Using Photon on a Network 131

 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Message Pad

In this chapter, we assume your Photon machine is a node on a QNX

network. If not, then you won’t be able to use the features discussed
in this chapter. But feel free to continue reading to learn more about
Photon’s unique connectivity features for future reference.
Connectivity is a two-way street — the remote node you want to
connect to must be running Photon. Also, you must have the
appropriate filesystem permissions on the remote Photon device (i.e.
/dev/photon). If you have only read (but not write) permission,
then you can view but not interact with the remote Photon.

☞ For information about your filesystem permissions, see your system

administrator.

Using the Message Pad

Photon includes a handy “sticky note” utility that lets you post a to-do
list or free-form text message on your workspace. You can also pass
the note to another Photon user.

Posting a note to yourself

To post a note on your workspace:

1 In the Applications folder, click on the Message Pad icon:

You’ll see a bright yellow note, like this:

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Using the Message Pad  2005, QNX Software Systems

Menu button

Title bar

Message area

Send/Forward button Resize corner

If you want to move the note on your workspace, put your

pointer in the title bar and drag the note wherever you want —
it will stick when you release the mouse button.
To resize the note, simply grab the resize corner (bottom right)
and drag the note in the direction you want to shrink or stretch
it.

2 To put a title on your note, click on the title bar. The I-beam
pointer appears, waiting for you to type your title.

3 When you’ve finished your title, press Tab to go to the message

area. Now you can start typing your message.

☞ The Message Pad facility doesn’t save messages. As soon as you

close the Message Pad, the contents of your messages disappear.

4 To close the Message Pad, click on its menu button (top left),
then click on Close.
The menu button also contains a convenient Tips item if you
need help.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Using the Message Pad

Sending a message to another user

Suppose you were using the Message Pad to jot down some important
design ideas, and you wanted your teammate to see what you just
wrote. Instead of shouting “Hey Betty, come and see this!” (not very
effective, especially if her office is on another floor), you could simply
send your sticky note right to Betty’s screen.
When Betty gets your note, she could forward it — along with her
annotations — to Fred’s screen. And so on.

☞ Although you’ll find Message Pad quite useful, it’s not meant to be a
substitute for email; it lacks (among other things) the record-keeping
functions of a true email system.

To send a message to another Photon user:

1 Click on the Send/Forward button on your sticky note (bottom

left). You’ll be prompted for a name.

2 Type the name of the person you’re sending your note to and
press Enter. You’ll be prompted for a node number.

3 Type the node number and press Enter. Your note will instantly
appear on the recipient’s current workspace.

☞ After you’ve entered a name/node pair, the Message Pad saves this
information so that next time you can just type the person’s name and
the message will be transported immediately.

If you try to send the message to a person who isn’t running Photon,
the note will stay on your screen and won’t be transported.
You can also type a node number in the Name field if you’re sending a
one-time message and there’s no need to save the person’s name.
The recipient will see:

The sender’s name in a heading above the message (“Fred

writes:”).

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A Return-to-sender button (top right), which looks like this:

To reply to the sender’s message:

1 Type your comments immediately below the title bar.

2 When you’re ready to send your reply, click on the

Return-to-sender button.

To forward a message to another user, simply add your comments in

the message area and then click on the Send/Forward button (bottom
left). You’ll be prompted to enter the user’s name in the Fwd: box.
Sending messages back and forth from one user to another may seem
somewhat simplistic. But imagine being able to send applications!
Photon’s unique Jump Gate connectivity is akin to the transport
technology at work in the Message Pad utility, but on a much larger
and more powerful scale.

Exploring Jump Gates

A Jump Gate is a transport link (either LAN or modem) between
computers. You can send a Photon application running on your
workspace to another user’s workspace, making Jump Gates ideal for
worksharing or “groupware” applications.
Jump Gates are also the perfect tool for remote diagnostics and
technical support. You can go though a Jump Gate in order to “be” at
another user’s workspace, so you can see and control the application
that’s running there.

Sending an application through a Jump Gate

To send an application to another user:

1 With the application open on your workspace, click on the

Jump Gate icon in the Utilities folder:

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Exploring Jump Gates

Jump

The icon becomes an animated image.

2 Click on the window of the application you want to send.

You’ll see a dialog box asking for the Transport Node. Enter
the destination node number.

3 Click on the Done button. The window becomes an animated

image that “goes through” the Jump Gate icon! Your
application is now “at” its destination. The other user now has
complete control over the application and is free to use it, return
it to you, or shut it down.

4 To return the application, the recipient must click on the

Return-to-sender button in the application’s title bar.

!
CAUTION: Although the application window disappears from your
workspace when you send an application, the application itself is still
running on your machine and will die if you power down.

Setting up predefined Jump Gates

For quick, convenient jumps, you can set up node-specific Jump Gates
in order to bypass the Transport Node dialog.
When you set up a node-specific Jump Gate, you’ll create a new icon
in the Applications tab. Follow these steps:

1 Click on the Configuration tool on the Desktop Manager.

2 Click on the small Jump Gate button.

3 Click on the Jump Gate Name field and type the name you want
to give this node-specific Jump Gate. For example, “Betty.”

4 Press Tab to move to the next field (Photon node or device).

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5 Type the destination node number and press Tab.

☞ To ensure speed, it’s a good idea to enter a fully qualified path for the
node number. For example: //250/dev/photon.

6 Click on the Add button. For each new Jump Gate you want to
set up, repeat steps 2 through 6.

7 When you’ve finished adding new Jump Gates, click on the

Save & Close button. You’ll see your new Jump Gate icons
appear in the Applications folder in the Desktop Manager bar.

“Dittoing” a remote Photon display

If you’ve used QNX before, you may be familiar with the Ditto utility,
which lets you view and interact with a remote user’s text-based
applications. Photon provides a graphical Ditto that lets you view and
interact with another Photon user’s display.
In Photon, sending an application to another user and dittoing another
user are similar — both operations use Jump Gates as the transport
link. But there’s a difference: When you send, you’re sending a single
application to another user; when you ditto another user, you’re
interacting with the other user’s entire screen, which may have several
applications up and running!
To ditto another Photon user’s display:

1 Click twice on the Jump Gate icon.

☞ If you click twice on a node-specific Jump Gate, then you won’t be

prompted for a node number.

2 Enter the node number of the user whose screen you want to
ditto.

You’re now “at” the remote user’s workspace. You can now share the
remote workspace with the remote user (provided you have the
appropriate permissions).

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For more information see the phditto utility, and the section on
“Viewing/Using remote Photon sessions” in the Configuring Photon
chapter, in the Photon Installation & Configuration guide.
To end your ditto session, press Alt – F4 simultaneously.

Running remote Photon applications

From within Microsoft Windows
Phindows, an optional Photon product, lets you run the Photon
environment as an application on the MS-Windows desktop.

How does Phindows work?

Phindows lets you interact with Photon from MS-Windows by means
of a utility called phrelay.
The phrelay utility captures Photon draw events and relays them
across a transport such as TCP/IP or a serial line. Phindows, which
resides on the target system, takes the incoming phrelay protocol
commands and then uses MS-Windows draw routines to display on
the MS-Windows desktop.

Who doesn’t use MS-Windows?

If you’re a Photon developer, your customers may be wedded to
MS-Windows. That’s okay, because if you have Phindows, they can
keep Windows!
You can take advantage of Phindows yourself. For example, let’s say
you often use a word processor or spreadsheet package under
MS-Windows. If you use NFS or SMB to cross-connect your
MS-Windows and QNX filesystems, you could then use Phindows to
edit, compile, and even test your Photon applications right from your
MS-Windows machine!

From within the X Window System

PhinX, an optional Photon product, lets you run the Photon
environment as an application on the X Window System. As a result,

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Running remote Photon applications  2005, QNX Software Systems

you can take full advantage of the rich variety of tools available under
X as you develop or use your Photon applications.

140 Chapter 10 ¯ Using Photon on a Network September 20, 2005

 Chapter 11
Customizing Photon

In this chapter. . .
Customizing your workspace 143
Changing the graphics resolution and color depth 148
Launching an application at startup 151

September 20, 2005 Chapter 11 ¯ Customizing Photon 141

 2005, QNX Software Systems Customizing your workspace

Customizing your workspace

To customize your Photon workspace, you use two facilities:

the Options item on the Workspace menu

the Desktop Manager Configuration tool

Setting workspace options

The Photon Window Manager menu lets you set several options that
control how windows behave and appear on your workspace.
To set a workspace option:

1 Click on the Window Manager menu button (the one with the
QNX logo) on the Taskbar to bring up the Workspace menu.
Or
Position your pointer anywhere on the workspace background
and click the right mouse button.

2 Click on the Options item.

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Customizing your workspace  2005, QNX Software Systems

The following dialog appears:

PWM Options

Full Window Dragging

Cursor Focus
Click To Front
Taskbar Front
Taskbar Hide
Multi- Monitor Placement

Left Center Right

Window Active Frame...

Window Inactive Frame...

Window Title Color...

Background Color...

Cursor...

Apply Defaults

Apply &Sav e Cancel

You’ll see a toggle button beside each option in the dialog. You enable
an option by clicking on its toggle button, and disable it by clicking
again. If a button appears pressed in, you know the option is enabled.
At the bottom of the dialog are four buttons:

Apply Apply your changes, but leave the dialog open.

Apply & Save

Apply and save your changes, and close the dialog.

Defaults Reset the options in the dialog to their default values.

Cancel Close the dialog, discarding any changes that haven’t

yet been applied.

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Here are the options you can set:

Full Window Dragging — Lets you drag a full window (rather

than just its outline) around the workspace. If you have a slow
CPU or graphics card, you shouldn’t enable this option.
Cursor Focus — You need to click on a window in order to make it
the focus window. But if you want focus to occur merely by
passing your pointer over a window, enable this option.

☞
Make sure your pointer is on the focus window when you’re entering
text. If it’s not, the characters you type won’t appear in the window.

Click to Front — Lets you click anywhere on a window (rather

than just its title bar or frame) to bring it to the front.
Taskbar Front — Normally, the focus window appears on top of all
other windows on your workspace. But if you want the Taskbar to
be the topmost window, enable this option.
Taskbar Hide — Normally, the Taskbar always appears at the
bottom of your workspace. If you want to hide it, enable this
option.

☞
If you hide the Taskbar, it will reappear temporarily whenever you
move the pointer to the very bottom of your workspace. To keep the
Taskbar on your workspace, just click again on the Taskbar Hide
toggle button.

Multi-Monitor Placement — New windows usually appear on your

current monitor. But in a multi-monitor environment, where
several monitors make up a single workspace, you may want the
new windows to open relative to the entire group of monitors,
rather than just the current monitor. If so, enable this option.
Left, Center, Right — These buttons allow you to specify how a
window’s title is to be aligned in the title bar.
Window Active Frame — Lets you choose the color of the frame
for the active window.

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Window Inactive Frame — Lets you choose the color of the frame
for inactive windows.

Window Title Color — Lets you choose the text color of your
windows’ title.

Background Color — Lets you choose the background color for

your workspace.

Cursor — Lets you customize the basic mouse pointer shape and
color.

☞ If you want to specify the background color in this way, turn off any
backdrops. See “Using the Configuration tool” for more information.

Using the Configuration tool

The Configuration tool lets you set up the Desktop Manager to suit
your needs. The tool also lets you select backdrops and screen savers
for your workspace.
When you click on the Configuration tool, the following dialog
appears:

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Customizing your workspace

Photon Desktop Manager Configuration

Display
Applications Groups Backdrops Screen Sav ers
Group Name
Applications

Application Info
New Application Name:
Voyager Browser
Command:
sh - c "SOCK=1 voyager"
Pterm
Icon:
Brow se...

Change Icon...

QNX Help Vie Jump Gate Add Update Delete

Ok Cancel Apply

You’ll find the following folders in the Configuration tool dialog:

Applications — Lets you set up the quick-launch applications and

their icons that appear in the Desktop Manager bar. This is also
where you set up a Jump Gate to a specific Photon node in the
QNX network.

Groups — Lets you create or edit the quick-launch tab groups.

Backdrops — Lets you choose the backdrop images you see in

your workspace, and in the Extended Workspace View and World
View.

Screen Savers — Lets you choose the Photon screen saver and set
the wait time.

Display — Lets you specify display options, including the

graphics resolution and color depth.

To change any of the default settings, simply:

1 Click on the appropriate tab within the dialog.

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2 Enter your changes in the text fields.

3 Click on Apply.

☞ You can enter shell (sh) commands in the Command field. For
example, the following command runs Voyager in compact mode in a
shell:
sh -c "SOCK=1 voyager"

Configuration example: changing the backdrop

Here’s a simple exercise to show you how to use the Configuration
tool. We’ll change the workspace backdrop image.

1 Click on the Configuration tool.

2 Click on the Backdrops tab.

3 Try choosing a different backdrop image from the file list. As

you select an image file, you’ll see a small sample in the box
beside the list. Below the box is a group of tiling options that
indicate how the selection should appear. To see what the
backdrop will look like, click on Apply. Feel free to
experiment!

4 Once you’ve decided on a backdrop, click on Save & Close.

You’ll see your new backdrop immediately.

Changing the graphics resolution and color

depth
When you start Photon for the first time, you’ll be presented with the
following dialog to choose display preferences for your workstation
(you can also use the Display folder in PDM’s Configuration tool, or
select Configure Display... from the PWM menu to display this dialog
at any time):

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 2005, QNX Software Systems Changing the graphics resolution and color depth

☞ The list of available graphics modes displayed in the following dialog

will most likely be different from those on your machine.

Photon Display Configuration

Display Driver

Driver Family: rage Sort Display By: Resolut ion

Resolut ion & Color Dept h Driv er Accel DPMS Ref resh
1280x 1024
1024x 768
16- Bit High Color/64K rage Yes Yes Hard Low
15- Bit High Color/32K rage Yes Yes Hard Low
8- Bit 256 Color rage Yes Yes Hard Low
800x 600
640x 480
640x 400

Display Settings

Refresh Rate: Low Palette: def ault

Rate: Disable Hardware Cursor Advanced...

Cancel (F3) Apply

Apply (F4)
(F4) Done (F2)

The initial settings are the result of a hardware scan Photon did during
the installation. The default selection is a “safe” choice based on this
scan; you’ll probably want to choose something better. The hardware
detection program presents only options that correspond to the kind of
graphics card you have. To save these initial settings, choose the
Done button.

Changing the graphics resolution

Photon supports the following settings for the color depth, depending
on the capabilities of your graphics card:

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Changing the graphics resolution and color depth  2005, QNX Software Systems

Number of colors Number of bits

16 million 32
16 million 24
64,000 16
32,000 15
256 8
16 4
monochrome 1

Choose the best one!

The resolution setting that’s currently in effect for your type of
display is shown by an icon to the left of the setting. The default
setting is 256 color with a 640
480 resolution.
The type of graphics card Photon detected is one of a family of cards
that are listed in the Driver Family list (top left corner). One card may
support different families, such as generic drivers. A driver can be
selected using the Driver Family button.

Selecting the refresh rate

The refresh rate determines how often the image on your display is
redrawn. Selecting a higher refresh rate can produce a better screen
image with less flicker, but it may slow down some graphics cards.
The options include:

Interlaced The horizontal refresh is interlaced (one pass on even

scan lines, followed by one pass on odd scan lines).
There may be a noticeable flicker at this setting.

Low A vertical refresh, typically 60 Hz. This setting could

apply to a card that supports an interlaced refresh.

Medium A vertical refresh rate that’s higher than 60 Hz.

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High The best refresh rate supported by your graphics card.

Custom Allows the entry of any refresh rate.

WARNING:
Setting the refresh value incorrectly can damage your monitor.
Consult your monitor and video card manuals first.

Selecting the color palette

The color palette is used by 256- and 16-color graphics drivers. It
provides the base set of colors a graphics driver can use to display
images on your screen.
Click the button beside the Palette field to choose from a list of palette
files. All palette files are kept in the /usr/photon/palette
directory. The default setting is symbolically linked to the
photon11.pal file. For a life-like rendering of flesh tones, try
portrait.pal.

Launching an application at startup

If you want Photon to automatically launch an application at startup,
add the name of the application’s executable to your
$HOME/.photon/phapps configuration file.

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 Glossary

September 20, 2005 Glossary 153

 2005, QNX Software Systems

accelerator
See hotkey.

active window
The window that currently has focus.

backdrop
An image that’s displayed as a background on your screen.

balloon
A small box that pops up to define or explain part of the user interface.
A balloon is displayed when the pointer pauses over a widget.

bitmap
A color picture consisting of one or more bitplanes.

bitplane
An array of bits representing pixels of a single color in a bitmap.

Common User Access

See CUA.

compose sequence
A sequence of key presses that can be used to type a character that
might not appear on the keyboard.

console
One of nine virtual screens on the desktop. Also called a workspace.

CUA
Common User Access — a standard that defines how you can change
keyboard focus.

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  2005, QNX Software Systems

cursor
An indicator of a position on a screen, such as a pointer or an
insertion point in a text field.

DayMinder
A Photon application that you can use to organize your daily schedule
and activities.

dead key
A key that, when pressed, doesn’t produce a symbol, but initiates a
compose sequence.

desktop
The virtual screen provided by the Photon Desktop Manager. The
desktop consists of nine consoles or workspaces.

desktop manager
See Photon Desktop Manager.

dithering
A process whereby pixels of two colors are combined to create a
texture or a blended color.

ditto
A QNX utility that lets you attach a local console or terminal to a
remote console. See also phditto.

File Manager
The Photon File Manager (PFM), an application used to maintain and
organize files and directories.

focus
A widget that has focus will receive any key events collected by its
window.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems

folder
In the Photon File Manager, a metaphor for a directory.

Helpviewer
A Photon application for viewing online documentation.

hotkey
A special key or keychord that invokes an action (such as a menu
item) without actually selecting a widget. Also called an accelerator.
Contrast keyboard shortcut.

hotspot
The part of the pointer that corresponds to the coordinates reported
for the pointer (e.g. the intersection of crosshairs, or the tip of the
arrow of the basic pointer).

HSB
Hue-Saturation-Brightness color model.

HSV
Hue-Saturation-Value color model.

Image Viewer
A Photon application (pv) that displays images.

Jump Gate
A mechanism that “transports” an application from one QNX node to
another.

keyboard shortcut
A key that selects a menu item. The shortcut works only if the menu
is displayed. Contrast hotkey.

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  2005, QNX Software Systems

Message Pad
A Photon application that lets you post notes on your computer’s
screen or send them to other users over the network.

palette
An array of colors. A hard palette is in hardware; a soft palette is in
software.

PDM
See Photon Desktop Manager.

PDR
See Press-drag-release.

PFM
See Photon File Manager.

PhAB
Photon Application Builder. Visual design tool that generates the
code required to implement a user interface.

phditto
A utility that accesses the Photon workspace on a remote node. See
also ditto.

Phindows
Photon in Windows. An application that accesses Photon from a
Microsoft Windows environment.

PhinX
Photon in X. An application that accesses Photon from an X Window
System environment.

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 2005, QNX Software Systems

Photon Desktop Manager (PDM)

An application that provides a “control panel” that lets you launch
applications, move around the desktop, and change the desktop’s
settings.

Photon File Manager (PFM)

An application used to maintain and organize files and directories.

Photon Terminal
An application (pterm) that emulates a character-mode terminal in a
Photon window.

Photon Window Manager (PWM)

An application that manages the appearance of window frames and
other objects on the screen. For example, the window manager adds
the resize bars, title bar, and various buttons to an application’s
window. The window manager also provides a method of focusing
keyboard events.

phsac
A utility that displays system activity.

pixmap
A bitmap or image.

pointer
An object on the screen that tracks the position of a pointing device
(e.g. a mouse, tablet, track-ball, or joystick). Photon has several
pointers indicating various states: Basic, Busy, Help, Move, Resize,
I-beam, No-input.

Press-drag-release (PDR)
A method of selecting a menu item by pressing down a mouse button
while pointing to a menu button, dragging until the desired item is
highlighted, and releasing the mouse button.

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  2005, QNX Software Systems

pterm
A Photon Terminal; an application that emulates a character-mode
terminal in a Photon window.

pv
See Image Viewer.

PWM
See Photon Window Manager.

Snapshot
A Photon application for capturing images of the screen.

table-of-contents (TOC) file

In the Photon Helpviewer, a file that describes a hierarchy of help
topics.

Taskbar
An area in which the Photon Window Manager displays icons
representing the applications that are currently running.

topic path
Help information identified by a string of titles that are separated by
slashes.

topic root
A topic path that’s used as a starting point for locating help topics.

topic tree
A hierarchy of help information.

Unicode
The ISO/IEC 10646 16-bit encoding scheme for representing the
characters used in most languages.

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UTF-8
The encoding for Unicode characters, where each character is
represented by one, two, or three bytes.

vsin
A utility that displays system information.

widget
A component (e.g. a pushbutton) in a graphical user interface.

Window Manager
See Photon Window Manager.

workspace
See console.

workspace menu
A configurable menu that’s displayed when you press or click the
right mouse button while pointing at the background of the screen.

September 20, 2005 Glossary 161

 Index

! sending to another node 34,

136–138
/bin/ksh 115 switching between 17
/bin/sh 115 Taskbar button 14–17, 31
viewing remotely 138–139
window elements 14
Window menu 15
A Applications folder 33
adding Jump Gates 138
applications See also window
Associate dialog 78–80
adding to a folder 147
associating with data
files 78–80
closing 15, 23 B
events 3
help button 13, 14, 39 backdrops 146–148
launching 28, 33, 68, 69, 80, background color 146
115 balloons, help 36, 39, 42
mouse buttons 12 bookmarks 40, 42, 45, 48
printing from 85
quick-launching 33, 35, 69,
70, 78–80, 147
running on MS-Windows 139 C
running on the X Window
System 139 Calculator 34
CD Player 34
clipboard shortcuts 20

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Index  2005, QNX Software Systems

color Address Book 108

active window frame 145 Appointments 103
background 146 customizing 102
depth 9, 149 Group Planner 109
inactive window frame 146 Reminders 105
mouse pointer 146 starting 99
palette 151 ToDo tasks 105
window title 146 desktop
Common User Access (CUA) 18 defined 10
Configuration tool 146–148 Desktop Manager See Photon
backdrops 147, 148 Desktop Manager
display options 147–151 display preferences 9, 148–151
quick-launch applications 147 color depth 9, 149
screen savers 147 graphics resolution 9, 149, 150
setting up Jump Gates 137 palette 151
tabs 147 refresh rate 150
console See also workspace dittoing 138–139
current 31 dragging options 145
cycling through 32
defined 10
Extended Workspace View 29
switching between 30, 32 E
World View 31
conventions used in this guide xiii environment variables
conventions, typographical xi MAILVIEWER 36
CUA (Common User Access) 18 PHWMEXIT 24
cursor SHELL 115
customizing 146 events 3
focus 145 exiting Photon 19, 23
customizing your Extended Workspace View 29–32,
workspace 143–151 147

D F

DayMinder 34, 99–111 File Manager See Photon File

Manager

164 Index September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Index

focus window 14, 17, 19, 31, 145 Maximize Text View button 48
Force front button 28, 46 Next button 48
opening a topic 42
Options pane 42, 46
Previous button 48
G Print button 48
Print pane 42, 46
graphics resolution 9, 149, 150 Reload button 48
Group folders See Photon Desktop retracing your steps 48
Manager (PDM) Search pane 42, 43
specifying a file 41
starting 40
tabs 42
H title bar 41
help See also Helpviewer Where? button 43
application-specific 13, 14, 39
balloons 36, 39, 42
button 13, 14, 39
comprehensive 39, 40
I
in pterm 39, 40 Image Viewer 34
kinds of 39 international characters 123
Message Pad 134
Photon Desktop Manager 29
pointer 13
Helpviewer 33, 40–49 J
Backtrack button 48
Bookmarks pane 42, 45, 48 Jump Gate 34, 136–138
buttons 48 dittoing 138
changing pane sizes 47 node-specific 137
closing a topic 42 returning an application 137
Contents pane 42 sending an application 136
displaying HTML files 49
divider bar 47
forcing to front 46
History pane 42, 45 K
Home button 48
home page 46, 48 keyboard

September 20, 2005 Index 165

Index  2005, QNX Software Systems

Common User Access 18 N

compose sequences 124–129
focus 18 networking 133–140
shortcuts 18 dittoing 138
Korn shell 115 Jump Gate 136
Message Pad 133
Phindows 139
PhinX 139
L
languages supported 123
less 78 O
online documentation See
Helpviewer
M
MAILVIEWER environment
variable 36 P
mailx 36
Message Pad 33, 133–136 palette 151
closing 134 pathname delimiter in QNX
help 134 Momentics documentation
note xii
adding a title 134 PDM See Photon Desktop Manager
forwarding 136 PFM See Photon File Manager
moving 134 ph 9
posting to yourself 133 Phindows 139
replying 136 PhinX 139
resizing 134 Photon
sending to another user 135 clipboard 20
vs email 135 exiting 19, 23
mouse buttons 12 keyboard compose
moving around your desktop 19, sequences 124–129
29, 30, 32 starting 9
MS-Windows 139 Photon Desktop Manager
(PDM) 10, 27–36
Applications folder 33, 138

166 Index September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Index

bringing to front/back 19 Copy 65

Configuration tool 29, Delete 66
146–148 Edit 65
backdrops 147, 148 Move 65
display options 147–151 Print 70
quick-launch Properties 67
applications 147 Run a Command 69
screen savers 147 Terminal Window 68
setting up Jump Gates 137 View 65
tabs 147 files
console selector 30–32 associating with
Demos & Games folder 35 applications 78–80
Development Tools folder 35 changing properties 67
Extended Workspace controlling which are
View 29–32, 147 displayed 74
forcing to front 28 copying 65
getting help 29 creating 64
Group folders 33 deleting 66
hiding 28 deselecting 62
launching applications 35 details 73
mail indicator 36 editing 65, 78
menu 28 finding 59, 77
running commands 28 hiding dot files 76
scroll arrows 36 icons 55
Utilities folder 34 moving 65
version number 28 printing 70, 78
World View 31 selecting 60–62
Photon File Manager (PFM) 53–80 sorting 71
about 33, 53 viewing 65, 78
Associate dialog 78–80 folders
button bar 54 changing properties 67
changing the display 71 creating 63
configuring 75, 76 deleting 66
File list 55 displaying first 71, 76
opening a folder 59 opening 58, 59
popup menu 56 Hotlist 55
File menu opening a folder 58

September 20, 2005 Index 167

Index  2005, QNX Software Systems

popup menu 56 files 70, 78

pattern-matching graphical images 93
characters 74, 79 help 42, 46
popup menu 56 preview 95
pterm 68, 78, 80 pterm 33, 68, 115–119
Reopen Folder 64 about 115
running an application 69, 70 closing 117
selecting fonts 76 configuring 118
starting 53 help 39, 40
starting a terminal window 68, menu 117
78, 80 opening 116
starting a text-based sample session 116
application 80 using the mouse 115, 117
starting Photon applications 69 PWM See Photon Window
status bar 56 Manager
Tools menu
Associate 79
Photon Terminal Window See
pterm
Q
Photon Window Manager (PWM)
QNX shell 115
bringing to front/back 19
question-mark button 39
clipboard shortcuts 20
quick-launching applications 33,
keyboard shortcuts 18
35, 69, 70, 78–80, 147
menu 143
Options dialog 144–146
photon11.pal 151
phrelay 139 R
PHWMEXIT environment
variable 24 refresh rate 150
pointers 13, 146 remote applications,
portrait.pal 151 viewing 138–139
printers resolution 9, 149, 150
changing 85
print properties 87
selecting 85
setting up 83
S
printing 83–95 screen savers 147

168 Index September 20, 2005

 2005, QNX Software Systems Index

set home page 46 W

shell 115
SHELL environment variable 115 window
shortcuts, keyboard 18 active frame color 145
Snapshot 34 anatomy of 14
starting Photon 9 bringing to front 19, 145
closing 14, 15, 19
cycling through 19
frame 14, 31
T getting help 14
inactive frame color 146
Taskbar manager See Photon Window
about 16 Manager
expanding 16 maximizing 14, 15, 19
forcing to front 145 menu 12, 14, 15, 19
hiding 17, 145 minimizing 14, 15, 19
indicating focus window 31 moving 14, 15, 19
switching between opening on multiple
applications 17 monitors 145
time resizing 14, 15, 19
setting 17 restoring 14, 15, 19
topic tree 43 sending to back 15, 19
typographical conventions xi, xiii title alignment 145
title bar 14
title color 146
workspace
U backdrops 147, 148
background color 146
Unicode 123
cursor 146
customizing 143
defined 10
V menu 12, 19, 23
Shell 116
vedit 78 mouse pointer 146
World View 31, 32, 147

September 20, 2005 Index 169

Index  2005, QNX Software Systems

X
X Window System 139

170 Index September 20, 2005