STab: a graphical interface for viewing and editing data in tabular form

Miguel Filgueiras
 
DCC-FC & LIACC, Universidade do Porto

last changes on 9 February 2002

STab is a graphical interface that allows the user to inspect and edit data in tabular form. It is implemented in Tcl/Tk (version 8.3 or later).

Data is assumed to be in text files, each line being composed by fields separated by a tabulation character. STab will present the data under a format defined by the user (either through a dialog or by editing a text file).

Two kinds of data files are dealt with:

1. STab files, that start with a format specification followed by data and/or commands specifying files containing only data. It is a good idea not to have data in these files, otherwise it will not be possible to modify them interactively.
2. data files that only contain data: these cannot be opened directly from the main window, as they do not provide a format specification.

Features

STab (version 1.8) has the following features:

• no need for the user to know the syntax of format specifications and commands in STab files, as they can be created and modified (if they contain no data) interactively in a declarative way.
• the distinction between STab files and data files allows for the same data file to be referred to by several STab files and viewed under different formats or in conjunction with other, different, data files.
• a separate data window will be created each time a STab file is opened for showing data; several data windows may exist at the same time.
• data fields have different presentations under the following classification:
  • generic text
  • an option from a list defined by the user
  • a value of either 1 or 0
  • ignored: not shown.
• data fields have a name and a length (in characters); text entries may be left- or right-justified.
• the following editing operations are available in a data window:
  • text edition in text fields
  • choice of options through a menu in option fields
  • choice of value through a checkbutton in 0/1 fields
  • adding an empty line after the line currently selected or at the end
  • deleting a selected line
  • moving a line
• a count of lines in a window may be displayed.
• data from a data file may be added to a data window.
• data in a window may be saved either as a STab file or as a data file, in this case either as text or as a LaTeX tabular environment.
• the STab file used in a data window may be modified from it, if the file contains commands only; the window will not be changed.
• on-line help.
• multilingual support: English, French (kindly contributed, in July 2000, by Jacques Pronchery, jacques.pronchery_at_wanadoo.fr) and Portuguese are currently supported; other languages may be easily added.

Installation and Configuration

1. get the STab package (this is a gziped-tar file).
2. unpack to get stab (the Tcl/Tk program), a README file and stab-doc.ps (this text in Postscript).
3. edit the stab file to
   1. set the correct path of the wish interpreter (on first line).
   2. set the character to use as field separator; the default is a tabulation character.
   3. choose the language to be used.
   4. choose whether there should be confirmation on exit and when closing data windows.
   5. set the initial positions for the main window, data windows (note that these will be cascaded), and dialog and message windows.
   6. set the size of data windows and of lists in dialogs.
   7. set the interface colours.
   8. decide on the use of the DELETE key to delete the previous character and of compose character bindings for entries.
   9. set the access permissions for created files.
4. move the stab file to a directory where it can be executed.

Acknowledgements

The support for French has been kindly supplied by Jacques Pronchery (jacques.pronchery_at_wanadoo.fr).