Some Specview attributes can be controlled and customized by the user, throughout the use of preferences files. These files can be used to set attributes at startup time, and can also be input later on to change attributes on the fly. Also, an interactive editor can be used to edit attributes according to user preferences.
At startup, Specview looks for a preferences file named specview-preferences in the user’s working directory (the directory where the “specview” command was issued from). If not found, it then looks for the same file in the user’s home directory. If still not found, Specview reads its own internal preferences file with default settings for the attributes. In any case, Specview creates a specview-preferences file in the user’s working directory. This file can be edited (see below) in order to customize user preferences.
Preferences files can also be read at startup time by a command line setting (Sec. 8). The preferences read in this way will override any startup settings defined at other places.
After startup, custom preferences files can be input into Specview via the Read preferences file entry in the Preferences menu, depicted below. Clicking this entry will bring up a file chooser that enables the user to select a preferences file (these files can have any name). Attributes defined in this manner sometimes do not take effect immediately. If that is the case, their effect will appear only when the corresponding operation is executed again (e.g. redisplaying the data after a color preferences change).
The default system startup file provides for a black-on-white coloring scheme. The Preferences menu provides a means for the user to select alternate coloring schemes. An inverse video, white-on-black color scheme, can be activated by just selecting the Graphics Colors entry in the Preferences menu. Alternatively, inverse video can be activated right at startup by an appropriate command line switch (Sec. 8). Other color combinations can be built up by the user as well, see following paragraphs.
The Preferences menu also allows the quick customization of a few other selected preferences, by just selecting the appropriate menu and sub-menu entry.
User preferences can also be edited using the Preferences Editor that can be
accessed with the Edit preferences entry in the Preferences menu. Selecting this entry brings up an
editing window that looks like this:
The editor will display a comprehensive list of all user-configurable preferences. Each preference is identified by a name on the left column; holding the cursor over a particular name brings up a tool tip text with a short explanation for that particular preference. The right column contains an editing widget for the specific type of the preference. For instance, a preference of boolean type (a yes/no switch) can be edited with a simple check box. A color preference requires a more complex editor, that can be invoked by clicking on the button on the right column. Preferences that require the typing of a value in a field will only change after the Enter or Return keyboard key is pressed.
Any time a preference is edited, the specview-preferences file in the user’s home directory is updated with the new choice. Thus one can use the Preferences Editor to manage preferences, without ever concerning oneself with the details of the preferences file format.
The preferences files internal format is of no concern if one uses the Preferences Editor described in Sec. 9.1 to manage preferences. Only in cases one wants to edit these files using say a text editor, one should be aware of the format details described here.
A preferences file is a plain ASCII text file that uses key = value pairs to define and initialize each preference. The default preferences file looks like this:
Each line in the file contains a key-value pair. The key-value delimiter character can be one or more blanks, a ':' or a '=' sign. Blank lines and lines that begin with a '#' character are ignored. The key names listed above are all that Specview can recognize at this time.
Note that hard copy output will only work with a white background color.
Colors are specified as 24 bit RGB triplets. In the case show above, hexadecimal notation is used for convenience, but octal or decimal constants could be used as well.
The GizmoColor entries select the three colors used by the spectral feature measurement tool (Sec. 3.2)
The MaskBadData preference is used to set on/off the filtering of flagged data points at input time.
The HardcopyIDString preference is used to set on/off
the identification string that is printed along each plot hardcopy. Turning it
off should be used when preparing PostScript plots to be included in documents
or publications.
The RuledCursor preference controls the appearance of
the cross hair cursor.
The CursorSize preference controls the default appearance of the cursor (Sec. 2.4).
The CursorDashPattern preference controls de drawing style of the cross hair lines.
The NativeLookAndFeel preference controls the general appearance of the user interface on a platform-dependent basis . If set to false, the Java look and feel (“Metal”) is used instead. You can also use a Java command line option to select a specific look and feel. See http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/misc/plaf.html#commandLine for details.
The NoFocusControl preference controls the default behavior of the keyboard arrow keys. The default value false causes the graphics surface to request focus whenever the mouse pointer hovers over it, thus enabling fine adjustment of the cross hair cursor with the arrow keys. However, under certain combinations of OS and Java version (e.g. Windows and Java 1.4), the focus request operation causes the plot window to pop on top of other windows on screen, making the software more difficult to operate. Setting this preference to true disables the focus requesting.
The DefaultXUnits and DefaultYUnits preferences define which physical units are used when performing a number of operations, such as displaying together data with different units, or running the spectral feature measurement tool. The PreferredFluxUnits preference defines what units to use when reporting integrated fluxes.
The IntensityUnits preference controls how Specview interprets flux units. See Sec. 1.7.1 for details.
The AutoLog preference controls the behavior of the WCS view port when plotting data sets that encompass a large range of wavelength / frequency / energy. See Sec. 2.9.
The UserLineLists preference defines a path to a specific directory in the local file system where user-defined line lists can be stored and made available for the line identification tool (Sec. 10). The value shown above is an example.
The ISMData preference defines a path to a specific directory in the local file system where user-defined data files for the FUV interstellar extinction model (Sec. 6.1.3.8). The value shown above is the default access to the internally-defined line lists.
The SSAPServers and VORegistries preferences define URLs to user-definable Virtual Observatory resources. See Sec. 13 for details. Values shown above are the default settings.
The TilesPerRow, TileAspect, and TilesFixedAspect preferences
control the layout of tiled plots (Sec. 1.3.2).