3 Common Features

3.1 Navigation between tools

There are five tools available in the environment. Do not worry if you are unsure of the purpose of any of these tools at this stage. You will be introduced to them as and when you need them. The tools available are:

1. If it is not already running, start the environment by double-clicking on the icon labelled 'FreeLisp' in the Program Manager. Click 'OK' on the introductory banner.

The listener window appears, ready for you to type in Lisp forms to be evaluated. The echo area also appears.

2. Select Works > Lisp in the Listener.

A submenu appears which has an item corresponding to each tool.

Note: The echo area does not have a Works menu, so you cannot access tools from it.

FreeLisp has been designed so that you can gain instant access to any tool, simply by choosing one of these items. The first time you select an item, a window is created in which the tool is displayed. Once a window has been created, selecting the item again brings the same window to the front of your screen. This can be very useful if you have several windows open at once, when it may not be immediately obvious which window is which.

Note: By default, the environment 're-uses' windows as described above. However, you can customize it so that every time you select a particular tool, a new instance of the tool is created. For instance, choosing Class Browser creates a new Class Browser rather than bringing the existing one to the front. See Section 3.4.1 on page 21.


FreeLisp User's Guide - 5 FEB 1996

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