Rigi Q&A
In this document the following tools are frequently mentioned:
Q: rigiedit is dog-slow on my machine. Everyting takes for ever. (E.g., it takes a couple of seconds before a node gets selected when I click on it. --
HolgerKienle
A: This is a problem with Rigi and modern window managers (KDE, gnome). I have no idea, how to fix this problem. With KDE 1, you could get the original speed by hiding the start bar, but that doesn't work with KDE 2 any more. If you need Rigi at top speed, use an old window manager or non at all (or fix Rigiedit). --
JohannesMartin
A2: I was using fvwm2, which was fine with Red Hat 7.1 and Debian (potato?) (apart from a little trickery with getting the right versions of two libraries), but that hasn't been working with Red Hat 7.2 or 7.3. However, windowmaker (command "wmaker") and twm do work under Red Hat 7.2.
--EvavanEmden
Q: When I load a graph (i.e., an
RSF file) in
rigiedit, I get funny error messages, such as "Unknown arc type (xxx)".
A: You trying to load an
RSF file in the wrong domain. For example, if the
RSF file has been generated with
cparse, you first have to select the
cparse domain in
rigiedit before loading. See also
RigiRSF. --
HolgerKienle
Q: When I load a graph (i.e., an
RSF file) in
rigiedit, I get error messages on the console that look as follows:
-
- rigiedit alert: RSF file is missing "Root" as root node.
- rigiedit alert: Reading file as unstructured RSF.
- rigiedit alert: Readrsf(), arctype "uml-sample.cc,1,7" unknown
- ...
A: You are trying to load an
RSF file that is in the wrong format.
rigiedit cannot read "4-tuple unstructured
RSF". See
RigiRSF for an explanation of the file formats. --
HolgerKienle
Q: What is the difference between the domain c and
cparse? --
HolgerKienle
A: The c domain is obsolete. Back in 1996 I started fixing the C parser and that made it necessary to change the domain. So not to cause any compatibility problems, we created a new domain. --
JohannesMartin
Q: I want to use the feature in
rigiedit that enables me to see source code displayed as
HTML file. If I choose "Open
URL" in
rigiedit nothing happens. --
HolgerKienle
A: You need to know the following:
- You first have to generate the HTML files. See HtmlRSF for how to do this.
- You have to set
$WEBROOT to point to the directory that contains the HTML files. rigiedit prepends this configuration variable to all URLs. The setting of this variable is typically something like file:///home/kienle/mysources/.
- You have to set
$WEBBROWSER. The browser to be called is specified using this variable. There seems to be some bug in Rigi (maybe caused by the changeover to tcl/tk 8.x) that appends a -catch parameter to the command line. Also netscape -remote (the default setting) does not seem to work properly any more. The following works seems to work: konqueror %s ; exec echo (Linux) or netscape %s ; exec echo. (The latter might produce a netscape error message, which can be ignored, push OK). It takes a long time for netscape to start up. A more convenient way is to use lynx. For this, use the following setting: xterm -e lynx %s ; exec echo.
- Once this is done, you should be able to use the feature by selecting "Open URL" from the Node/Arc menu. See RigiUserManual Sections 4.10.8 and 4.11.6.
- See also http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/x-remote.html -- JohannesMartin / HolgerKienle
Q: How can I open up the corresponding source code from Rigiedit? -- Carlos Loria Saenz
A: Rigi shows an additional menu option "Edit source" in the context window of a node when the following conditions are satisfied:
- the node has a "file" attribute naming the source file
- that source file exists in the directory
SRCDIR where SRCDIR is specified in the Rigi configuration
The Rigi configuration setting
TEXTEDITOR specifies the command that is used to open the source file.
Using the optional
lineno attribute, you can specify at which linenumber the file should be opened. The string
%d in the
TEXTEDITOR setting will be replaced by the line number on invocation of the editor.
As an alternative, you can also specify a
URL to open when a node is double-clicked. Details can be found in this FAQ.
--
JohannesMartin
Q: In the C and C++
HTML documentation there is a section "Node Names" that says that they should look like
xx^yy^zz, but when I look at my
RSF file I do not see names like that. --
HolgerKienle
A: This has recently been changed. You are probably looking at an old
RSF file. These new names are now consistently generated by
cparse and
vacppparse.
The benefit of this naming scheme is that filtering is much easier. For example, you can remove all the standard library nodes by using
rcl_grep.
BTW,
rigiedit does not "unparse" the names to obtain information about the source file, line number etc. This information is still obtained with the
lineno and
file attribute (if present). --
JohannesMartin /
HolgerKienle
Q: What does it mean if an arc type is defined without source and target nodes? For example, in the
cparse domain there are 3 such arcs:
level,
composite, and
multiarc.
A: This means that source and destination can have any type. The following
two lines seem to be equivalent:
-
-
someArc
-
someArc Unknown Unknown
See
RigiUserManual, Section 4.4.1. (The explanations there are not really enlightning...) --
JohannesMartin /
HolgerKienle
Q: The Rigi C++ parser (
vacppparser ) generates 4-tuple unstructured
RSF. When I try to load such a file into
rigiedit, it complains because it does not understand this format. What should I do? --
HolgerKienle
A: Simple, once you know that
sortrsf transforms 4-tuple unstructured
RSF into (3-tuple) unstructred
RSF as a side effect of the sorting.
rigiedit unstands this format. Simply run
sortrsf < in.4.rsf > out.3.rsf. (When you load
out.3.rsf in
rigiedit, it gives a warning at the command line, which can be ignored.) --
HolgerKienle
Q: I want to transform a file from 4-tuple unstructured
RSF to (3-tuple) unstructured
RSF. I know that I can use
sortrsf to do this, but is has the side effect that the file gets sorted and duplicate entries get reomoved. I do not want that! --
HolgerKienle
A: Well, from what I understand, this transformation simply means to drop the 4th component of the
RSF file. Thus, use a bit of Unix magic:
-
out -f1-3 < in.4.rsf > out.3.rsf
--
HolgerKienle
Q: Why is so much postprocessing of the
RSF files necassary that the parser? Shouldn't this take already place in
vacppparser resp.
cparse? (See
RigiRCL) --
HolgerKienle
A: No. The preprocessing takes away detail and creates a specific structure in the graph. It is the structure and content that
we are usually interested in, but other people might be interested in other stuff. For example, we filter out all of the standard library, but other people might be interested in what parts of the standard library are used. --
JohannesMartin
Q: When I load a (unstructured)
RSF file in rigiedit, I get error messages such as the following one:
rigiedit alert: fscans(), buffer overflow, contents are
...(huge name)...
What's wrong? --
HolgerKienle
A: This is currently the expected behaviour. (The parser creates very long names, especially when templates are involved; Rigi doesn't like that). It is 'safe' to ignore these errors. --
JohannesMartin
Q: Why aren't my node id's coming out right? If I define a node like this: type 23!name Class it shows up in Rigi exactly that way. --EvavanEmden
A: Sorry, that's an omission in the
RSF documentation. I just fixed that.
You need to start your rsf file with the definition of the root node, and then connect your root node to every node on the top level of the graph using a level arc (i.e. to all other nodes if you have a flat graph).
Example:
type 10!Root Function
type 14!a Function
level 10!Root 14!a
type 15!a Function
level 10!Root 15!a
calls 14!a 15!a
--JohannesMartin
In other words, you can't have any node id's in your rsf unless it's structured rsf, in which case you have to have a root node defined and level relationships for all your nodes. --EvavanEmden
Q: I can get a filter effect by using rcl_filter_nodetype method on the command line, but it doesn't apply until I hit apply on the node filter dialog box. How can I get rcl_filter_apply to work? --EvavanEmden
A:
rcl_filter_nodetype "nodetype" "nnn", where "nodetype" specifies the node type (case sensitive), and "nnn" specifies window number
rcl_filter_apply "nnn" [arc|node|any] where [arc|node|any] specifies which filters to apply, and "nnn" specifies window number
Example
rcl_filter_nodetype Function 1
rcl_filter_apply 1 node
--JohannesMartin
Q: I'm finding rigiedit (version 5.5.0 for Linux) crashes unpredictably on repeated node creation.
--EvavanEmden
A: JohannesMartin found and fixed the bug that was apparently causing this and sent me a new binary. Should be included in the next version I imagine. --EvavanEmden
Q: I'm running up against the 500 node limit for my layout again. I'm sure my machine can handle some more nodes without a totally impossible delay... is there any possibility of changing this? How did they get around this for the SQL demo?
--EvavanEmden
A: As far as I know, the 500-node limit applies only to the sugiyama layout.
The spring layout should work with larger graphs, too (and that's the
layout that was used for the SQL demo).
The 500-node limit for the sugiyama layout was introduced not only for
memory/speed but also a visualization contraint. With so many nodes, the
graph just doesn't show you a whole lot any more. You might be better off
breaking it down before you try the visualization.
Anyways, you should be able to increase the limit by changing the SIZE
constant in plugins/sugiyama/def.h.
--JohannesMartin
Follow-up: Changing the above value and recompiling worked. If anyone else wants to do something similar, the Rigi source code is available by special request.
--EvavanEmden
Q: When I run a RCL (or tcl) command in
rigiedit I cannot see the output it generates. For example,
rcl_env_get RIGILIB shows me nothing. How can I see the output?
--
HolgerKienle
A: Send the output to a message window with
demo_msg [rcl_env_get RIGILIB] or to stdout with
puts [rcl_env_get RIGILIB].
--
HolgerKienle
Q: When I run
rigiparse I get the error "rsx not found, DPMI not supported by emx". I'm using Windows 2000.
A: You need to download the RSX runtime environment, available from
http://www.rigi.csc.uvic.ca/pub/rigi/windows95/
The file RSX.EXE needs to be in your
PATH, or you need to set the RSX
environment variable to contain the path and name of the RSX.EXE file, for
example: set RSX=C:\RSX\BIN\RSX.EXE.
For more information on RSX, consult the RSX homepage at
http://www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/~rainer/
--JohannesMartin
Q: When I try to load a Tcl file into
RigiEdit with
source C:\mytclfile, I get an error message. However, I know that the file is there!
A: So you are working under Windows, eh? In Tcl, you have two options:
- use Unix notation:
C:/mytclfile
- escape the backslash:
C:\\mytclfile
(Actually,
\ is Tcl's escape character I believe. So, in the wrong path above Tcl expands the path to
C:mytclfile.)
--
HolgerKienle
Q: When I execute an RCL script I get an error message "couldn't execute 'X': permissing denied" (X could be
gel-spring ).
A: The the Tcl error message can be misleading. Most likely it means that the program X cannot be found. Make sure that X's directory is in the
PATH.
Q: Selecting incoming/outgoing nodes in Rigiedit does not seems to work.Nothing ever happens...
A: Select incoming/outgoing nodes selects only along arcs of the type chosen in the "arctype" selection box on the left side of the rigi workbench. This is usually set to "level", which doesn't match any arcs in a regular Rigi view. If you set the selection to "any", you should get the result you expect. --
JohannesMartin
Q: When I try to use the Filter menu,the dialog boxes for filtering nodes and arcs do not provide any checkboxes. What is the problem?
A: This is a Tcl/Tk bug that seems to show up in Windows XP and Vista only. In fact, with this bug all checkboxes in all dialogs are gone!
As a workaround you can type in the corresponding Tcl commands in the Rigi Command Language (RCL):
rcl_filter_nodetype and then
rcl_filter_apply. Here is an example to for how this can be done for filtering:
- Start rigiedit
- Go to Demo -> List
- Click OK
- Click OK
- Now you should see a window of a tree view. This window has the heading "Overview - 2 Rigi"
- In the Rigi Workbench type in the following RCL Commands:
rcl_filter_nodetype Data 2
rcl_filter_apply node
As a result two yellow nodes should disappear in the view. Unfortunately, this workaround is rather inconvenient and slows down interactive work.
--
HolgerKienle
CategoryRigi