NAME

pds − Portable display shell interface for Solbourne system administration tools

SYNOPSIS

/usr/lib/pds/drivers/display_type

DESCRIPTION

pds is the application on which the Solbourne System Administration Tools are built.  This interface allows shell scripts to be written that interface with the user through items such as buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, and text fields.  The current version of pds supports only a terminal (curses(3X)) interface, which allows it to work on all types of systems.  Future versions will support the X Windowing System and possibly SunView. 

Moving Around

In the current interface, there is no mouse support.  Instead, the cursor is placed at a “current” location, which is associated with an interactive object that is not locked.  The user may not move to an object that is locked, though an object that is locked at one point may become unlocked for some reason.  There is no way at this time to know if an object is locked or unlocked other than trying to move to that object. 

Moving around the screen is done with four actions: up, down, left, and right.  The “left” action moves the cursor to the next unlocked object to the left on the same line, or, if there are none, to the last unlocked object on the previous line.  The “right” action moves in the opposite direction, moving down a line if needed.  In essence, “left” moves backwards towards the upper left of the screen, and “right” moves forwards

Currently, “up” is a synonym for “left” and “down” is a synonym for “right.”  This will be fixed in the future to accommodate movement with arrow keys. 

It is possible for an application to move the cursor to a new location.  This should only happen when the application locks the current location, but not all applications behave properly. 

Default Configuration

The following gives the default string->action mappings in each item context. 

When the current item is a button, checkbox, or a radio button, a newline clicks the button and moves to the right.  A tab moves to the right.  An escape moves to the left.  A space clicks the button. 

When the current item is a text field, a newline or a tab enters the current value and moves to the right, but only if no problems were encountered in setting the value.  An escape enters the current value and moves to the left, again only if there were no problems.  A Control-K (^K) erases to the end of the field.  A Control-B (^B) moves one space left, beeping if this is not possible.  A Control-F (^F) moves one space right, beeping if this is not possible.  Your “erase” character erases the character to the left of the cursor. Your “line kill” character erases to the beginning of the field.  Any other character entered is converted to printable ASCII and entered. 

When the current item is a file pager, a newline or space clicks the current button.  A tab moves to the right.  An espace moves to the left. 

In all items, a Control-L (^L) redraws the screen.  Note that Control-L is not a valid input character to a text field. 

ENVIRONMENT

PDS_EXTRACFG
name of configuration file to be read after the standard configuration file (.pdsrc).

PDS_LIB[1-5]
names of shell function libraries that are read in before execution.

PDS_COMMAND
name of top level shell script to be executed.

FILES

$HOME/.pdsrc
file that contains string mappings and preferences.

SEE ALSO

satools(8)

Solbourne System Administration Tools, Programming Utilities and Libraries

COPYRIGHT

Copyright ©, Solbourne Computer, Inc. 

AUTHOR

David Elliott, Solbourne Computer, Inc. 

Solbourne Computer, Inc.  —  31 May 1989