Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | CLOS Intro

Allegro CL version 8.0

### Doodler interface builder tutorial

The steps are divided into Chapters, each a logical chunk of work. Steps are numbered. Do the Chapters in sequential order; each one builds on the changes you make in the prior Chapter(s).

### Notation

A menu command is denoted Menu | Command, thus click File | Save means click the Save command on the File menu. We sometimes say choose File | Save instead of click File | Save.

### A note on pathnames

We use either forward slashes (/) or backward slashes (\) to identify directories in pathnames (so tutorial/steps/readme.txt or tutorial\steps\readme.txt). Backward slashes are standard in Windows but Allegro CL accepts either forward or backward slashes.

### Using ToolTips

In the early Chapters of the tutorial you'll see many illustrations for Allegro CL controls, toolbars, and menus. They are meant to help familiarize you with everything in the interface and will begin to diminish in number as you push further into the tutorial material. This leaves you to rely on your memory and the ToolTips. ToolTips are the tiny pop-ups you see whenever you pause your mouse over a button or another feature having 'what's this?' functionality.

The first time you move your mouse over a button the ToolTip will take a second to display; if you then move your mouse to another button, the ToolTip appears immediately.

### Saving files

We instruct you to save files at appropriate places as you work through the tutorial. However, certain actions, such as running a form or project (by choosing Run | Run Project or Run | Run Form or clicking on the Run button), causes the system to prompt you to save project files if necessary. You can either save files at that point or not. Saving when instructed is sufficient but additional saves are harmless.

### Entering code

Running the tutorial is easier if you copy and paste rather than enter all of the code yourself. You can select and copy code from this document to the editor buffers in Allegro CL in the usual Windows way.

1. Select the code in this document.
2. Click Edit | Copy (or Control-c) and go to Allegro CL.
3. Give focus to the desired editor buffer with the cursor at the desired location.
4. Click Edit | Paste (or Control-v).

When you paste code in an editor buffer, extra spaces or blank lines may appear. They can be ignored. Only be concerned if a break appears within a word rather than at a space or a carriage return.

### Getting Help: if you are stuck

Some of the Chapters in the Tutorial are long. You may find that you’ve either lost your place or missed a step if you had to save your work and are resuming it later on. Figuring out which step you’ve missed can be time-consuming and frustrating. We’ve provided a time-saving device for you.

There is a set of directories of code files created at points (checkpoints) in the tutorial where you are most likely to encounter a problem. If you are stuck and would like to copy the code for that checkpoint and move on to the next step, these directories will help you.

Read the tutorial/steps/readme.txt file. It gives an explanation of how the check-pointed files were created. Subdirectories containing code files are numbered according to a tutorial-chxx-sxxx convention, where chxx is the Chapter and sxxx is the Step. You should be able to copy the files from that directory into your tutorial directory and then to move on from that point in the tutorial.

For example, if you are stuck in Chapter 2, Step 10, then you are looking for the tutorial/steps/tutorial-ch2s010 directory. All the files you need to move on from Chapter 2, step 10 will be there. If you are stuck on an intermediate step for which there is no directory, look for the most recent check-pointed step you’ve passed and copy those files. You can move on from that point.

Adding files to the Project Manager is covered in Chapter 1.

Online help (in HTML format) is available for every function, variable, system dialog, class, etc. Typically, pressing the F1 key while in a Lisp window displays online help for the currently selected object. Also, see the file doc/cgide.htm, which provides general information on CG/IDE documentation and essays on particular topics.

### Finished application

Here is a picture of the application when you are finished.

This is a list of books on Lisp at the end of Chapter 6. An introduction to CLOS (the Common Lisp Object System) from ANSI Common Lisp by Paul Graham is here. Links to all chapters and to the introduction to CLOS from Paul Graham's ANSI Common Lisp book are in the header and footer of each HTML file.

Start the tutorial at Chapter 1.

Copyright © 2001-2004, Franz Inc. Oakland, CA., USA. All rights reserved.

Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | CLOS Intro

Allegro CL version 8.0