MachineProfileDoc.tioga
Eric Nickell, June 13, 1985 9:07:16 pm PDT
MACHINE PROFILES
CEDAR 6.0 — FOR INTERNAL XEROX USE ONLY
Machine Profiles
Documentation for MachineProfile Options
Eric Nickell
© Copyright 1985 Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved.
Abstract: The MachineProfile package is meant to serve as an extension of Cedar's UserProfile system, serving the needs of options which are more dependent on the specific machine than the particular user.
Created by: Eric Nickell
Maintained by: Eric Nickell <Nickell.pasa>
Keywords: user profile
XEROX Xerox Corporation
Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
For Internal Xerox Use Only
Caveat: Cedar provides a capability for client packages to alter their behavior on the basis of user preferences or requirements, via a mechanism known as the user profile. As a machine profile is a minor extension of this concept, this document assumes familiarity with the use of the user profile. See [Cedar]<Cedar@>Documentation>UserProfileDoc.Tioga for more information.
Some components in the CedarChest permit the user to parameterize their behavior along certain predefined dimensions via a mechanism called the Machine Profile. This operation is performed by consulting a file whose name is []<>MachineName.profile, where MachineName is the machine's Pup name, e.g. []<>Independence.Profile, or if no such file exists, a default profile []<>Machine.Profile. The entries in this profile are of the same form as those in a user profile, namely <key>: <value>RETURN, where key is a sequence of alphanumerics or .'s (case does not matter) and value is either (1) a BOOLEAN, (2) an INT, (3) a TOKEN, which is a rope consisting of either a sequence of characters delimited by SP, CR, TAB, Comma, Colon, or SemiColon, or, in the case that the first character is '", the sequence of characters up to the next matching '", or (4) a ListOfTokens. Comments can appear at any point in the profile, and are ignored.
This file defines and documents the entries in the machine profile. Each entry is presented as though it were a Mesa declaration, although of course it is not. Comments following the entry explain the effect of that entry.
In all cases, if the corresponding entry does not appear in the machine's profile (or the default machine profile), the value of the corresponding parameter is the indicated default. Unless otherwise specified, changing or adding an entry should be "noticed" as soon as you click the Save menu button.
Note: Prefixing any profile entry with "Debugger." will identify it as the one to use only on a Cedar debugger volume. This enables one profile to be used for both worlds.
ColorDisplay parameters
ColorDisplay.Side: TOKEN ← left --Determines the logical side of the color display.
ColorDisplay.Type: TOKEN ← 640x480 --Type of color monitor. Also legal is 1024x768
Notes to MachineProfile Client Implementors
The Call-back Registration Mechanism
MachineProfile does not have its own call-back mechanism using that of UserProfile instead. Thus, whenever either the user profile or machine profile files are edited, the UserProfile package will alert all its registrants.
Interaction Between the Two Profiles
There may be instances where a client package would wish to examine both the user profile and machine profile for the same parameter, giving priority to one of the two. For example UserProfile.GetToken [ "Hardcopy.PressPrinter" , MachineProfile.GetToken [ "Hardcopy.PressPrinter" , "Clover"] will print to the nearest printer, with an appropriate machine profile, unless the user overrides this with an entry in his user profile.
Firing up the Machine Profile apparatus
The load file MachineProfile.load does the job just fine.