quanta.gui - Function

Use the quanta GUI interface

Synopsis
gui()

Arguments

Returns
Bool

Description

Start a GUI interface for the handling of units and quanta.
A menu bar will appear with 3 sets of menu headings.
The File menu contains options to close the current window (start again with dq.gui()).
The last menu is the Help menu, which can drive to different parts of the Reference manual. The '?' menu selects how popup help can be displayed (initially hover for short-help, MB3 down for longer help).

A way of starting automatically a GUI interface is by adding the following to your .aipsrc file

quanta.default: gui

Note that all actions available on the screen, are also available as tool functions for the command line interface. They are each described separately.
The screen has a top area, and three other areas. The Map menu in the top area allows you to check which units are recognised, and which constants are available.
The quantity calculator works as an RPN calculator. Values are typed in the Value input field, the top of the stack. Values can have either the units attached (e.g. 5km/s), or detached (e.g. 5 mm.s/A), or be of the recognised time/angle possibilities (e.g. today, 12:15:2.2, 12.3.5.7 12d3m5.7, 1996/12/2/12h15m). The top of the stack is always shown in canonical units in the window below the action buttons (the right side of the window) Some simple actions are available on the bar below the entry window:

$\wedge$: pops stack to enter window (e.g. for editing)
$\vee$: pushes top of stack down onto stack (like Return)
x < > y: interchanges top two values on stack
hand: allow edit of top of stack
dup: duplicates top of stack
copy: copy top of stack to clipboard
paste: paste clipboard to top of stack

Note that the internal precision of the numbers is not reflected in the output precision.
The bottom entry is used to enter units used in the convert and define actions.
The Operators (right-hand) window works on the top, or top two, values of the stack. Most actions will be clear to the user. The last action is displayed in the action window. The actions in the left column and bottom row are:

pop: pops top of stack to enter window
clear: clears the whole stack
convert: converts the top of stack value to the units entered in the Units window (do not forget to hit Return). Note that with the possibilities of entering angles as 5d11m, there is a difficulty having days as a unit. This is solved by having a decimal point in the number. I.e. 5d will be interpreted as 5 degrees, 5.d as 5 days.
canon: convert top of stack to canonical units
define: define the top of stack as your own unit in the Units field (e.g. define the value;1Jy as your unit:JY)
const: put the selected constant on top of stack
FITS: define some FITS units for use (check them with Map:User)

The functions available to the non-GUI user are the same as to the GUI user. They are, a.o.: quantity, canonical, convert, define, map, fits, angle, time, add, sub, mul, div, neg, norm, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, atan2, abs, ceil, floor, compare, check, pow, constants, totime, toangle, tos (see list at top of tool description).

If at any stage you want to use a GUI result on the command line, the 'copy' button of the GUI will transfer the last result to the clipboard. Most of the fields in the GUI have individual popup help, which can be viewed hovering on the field.

Trigonometric functions expect either angle units, or no units. In the latter case the selected units in the bottom of the right-hand side are used.

Next: quanta.setformat - Function Up: quanta - Tool Previous: quanta - Constructor Contents Index

	Package	general
	Module	quanta
	Tool	quanta