Part I - Using the Histo-Scope Program

Getting Started with Histo-Scope

The Histo-Scope program is the "scope" part of the tool. It can be run independently or invoked directly from a user's program. If you are not using the workstation console display, and have instead used telnet or rlogin to access the host system, you will need to let the operating system know which display you are using:[1]

Set the DISPLAY environment variable:

% setenv DISPLAY devicename:0

For example, setenv DISPLAY fnpspc.fnal.gov:0 tells the X software on a Unix host to use your X display fnpspc.fnal.gov.

Next, set up Histo-Scope by typing:[2]

% setup histo

And, if running Histo-Scope directly, type:

% histo

You should shortly see Histo-Scope's Main Window pop up. If you experience any problems with starting or running Histo-Scope please refer to the sections on Release Notes and Setup. If invoking Histo-Scope from your own program, please refer to Part III - Histo-Scope Library Subroutines in this guide.

Optionally, if you want to view a Histo-Scope data file, you can specify this file to open on the Histo-Scope command line. If you would like to specify an HBOOK file to open on the command line, preceed the HBOOK filename with "-hbook ". For example, on Unix:

% histo histoFile.hs

% histo -hbook hbookfile.hst

When listing an hbook file on the Histo-Scope command line, you can also specify a blocksize to use to open the file by preceeding the block size with "-blocksize ". For example:

% histo -hbook hbookfile.hst -blocksize 1024

Another command line option is to specify a clientid causing Histo-Scope to connect directly to a client process that is currently running. The clientid is the string which is passed to hs_initialize in your client program. You can optionally specify a hostname by including the -rhost argument and a username by including the -ruser argument. These options are only required if your client is running on a remote host or under another username.

% histo -clientid clientname -rhost hostname -ruser username

You can also specify a configuration file to open automatically by using the -config argument. This will re-load a previously saved configuration file which contains commands for opening windows, scaling plots, adjusting plot appearances, setting slider positions, etc. For further information, see page 21.

% histo -config file.cfg

The -clientid and -config arguments can be used together. Histo-Scope would first connect to the client process and then the configuration file would be read.