SpiceSpicein Dyalog

V1.02

Oct 2008 2

Spice Utilities

Spice is a cover for SALT.

It uses an input area at the bottom of the screen to issue user defined commands using SALT.

Spice can be initialized directly from SALT:

Oct 2008 3

Initializing SpiceSpice can be started automatically when

starting APL by setting the SALT registry key AddSPICE to ‘1’

Oct 2008 4

Initializing Spice

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

)LOAD SALT

enableSpice

Oct 2008 5

Initializing Spice in V12The configuration menu:

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Spice HelpTo get a list of all available commands you

enter ‘?’ in the input area:

?

Oct 2008 7

Example of a custom Spice command: locate

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

locate \babc\b>0

Will find in SALT files where syntactic abc is greater than 0

Oct 2008 8

Using SALT commands in Spice

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

save myclass file1

compare file1 -ver=4

list mine

settings

load myfile

removeversions filex -v=<9

Oct 2008 9

How does Spice work?

- Spice commands are kept in script files,

like SALT.

- Spice files have a .dyalog extension.

- All Spice script files are kept in folder

[Dyalog]\SALT\spice

Oct 2008 10

How does Spice work?

Each script file contains a class with a

number of presumably related

commands.

For example a script/class could contain

1. a command to search text

2. a command to replace text

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How does Spice work?

A script file MUST contain at least 3 public

shared functions:

1. A <List> function

2. A <Run> function

3. A <Help> function

It may contain other functions.

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How does Spice work?

The <List> function

The <List> function is niladic.

It returns a list of as many namespaces as

there are commands in the script file.

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

file it returns 2 namespaces.

Oct 2008 13

How does Spice work?

The <List> function

Each namespace returned by <List> contains

4 variables; each one is a string:

1. Name: the name of the command

2. Group: the group the command belongs to

3. Desc: a short description

4. Parse: the parsing rules

Oct 2008 14

How does Spice work?

The <List> function

The 4 variables:

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

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

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

4. Parse: a string describing the command

syntax, e.g. 2 –exclude=

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How does Spice work?

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

Oct 2008 16

How does Spice work?

The <Help> function

The <Help> function is monadic.

It takes a string naming the command to

return detailed help for, e.g. locate

It returns a string describing help for that

command.

Oct 2008 17

How does Spice work?

The <Help> function (example with 2 cmds) ∇ r←Help Cmd :Access Shared Public r←'' r,←⊂'Arg: string; shows where the string

is found' r,←⊂'Arg: 2 strings; replace the first

one by the other' r←r⊃⍨'Locate' 'Replace'⍳⊂Cmd ∇

Oct 2008 18

How does Spice work?

The <Run> function

The <Run> function is monadic.

It takes 2 arguments:

1. a string naming the command to deal

with, e.g. locate

2. either a string or a namespace which is

the argument to the command

Oct 2008 19

How does Spice work?

The <Run> function (example with 2 cmds)

∇ r←Run(Cmd ca);ct;w

:Access Shared Public

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

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

:Select Cmd

:Case 1⊃Fns ⋄ w ct.showExpr¨⊂ca.Argument

:Case 2⊃Fns ⋄ w ct.replExpr¨⊂ca.Argument

:EndSelect

∇

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Example

See script Spice\aSample.dyalog

It contains 2 examples of Spice commands:

1. no parsing rules

2. with specific parsing rules

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Example

The syntax is described in the help:

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Example

If the syntax is wrong Spice will complain:

No arguments!

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Example

If the syntax is right Spice will do it:

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Special Spice command

When Spice starts a special command is run

That command is 'Setup'

It is found in spice\Setup.dyalog

It can be modified to suit your needs

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Special Spice command

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Final

SPICE is a development tool.

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

commands.

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Short Final

More information can be found in the Spice document.

Dyalog 2008