- viewable(?ViewableName)
- Test/enumerate names of all existent viewables.
- viewable_create(?ViewableName, +Elements)
- Create a viewable.
- viewable_create(?ViewableName, +Elements, ++Type)
- Create a viewable, specifying type.
- viewable_create(?ViewableName, +Elements, ++Type, ++LocNamesList)
- Create a viewable, specifying both type and location names.
- viewable_expand(++ViewableName, ++DimensionNumber, +ExtraElements)
- Expand a dimension of a viewable by adding new elements.
- viewable_expand(++ViewableName, ++DimensionNumber, +ExtraElements, ++LocName)
- Expand a dimension of a viewable by adding new elements, specifying the name of the new location.
- viewable_size(++ViewableName, ?SizeList)
- Query the sizes of the dimensions of an existent viewable.
- viewable_type(++ViewableName, ?Type)
- Query the type of an existent viewable.
Module for the management of viewables. These are logical, multidimensional arrays and graph structures whose elements can be accessed globally for visualisation purposes. The creation, destruction and modification of viewables and their contents can be monitored by visualisation clients.
The library lib(graph_algorithms) contains
predicates to create and manipulate graph structures.
Viewables are created using viewable_create/2/3/4
and last until this call is
backtracked over. During its lifetime, a viewable is said to be
existent. This can be tested with
viewable/1, which can also be used to enumerate all
existent viewables.
One or more of the dimensions of a viewable can
optionally be flexible in size while the viewable is
existent. This allows new elements to be added to the
viewable, using viewable_expand/3/4. The
fixity of a dimension denotes whether it is fixed
or flexible. In the case of graph typed viewables, the
fixity refers to the ability to add new nodes and/or edges
to the graph. Currently only fixed graphs are
supported.
A viewable is given a type when it is created. For
array types, this specifies the number of dimensions, the
fixity of each dimension and the type of viewable elements
which the viewable can contain. For graph types, this
simply specifies whether the graph structure (number of
nodes, edge direction etc) may be modified during the
viewables lifetime. An existent viewable's type can be
retrieved using viewable_type/2, and its
current sizes of the dimensions can be retrieved using
viewable_size/2.
viewable_create/2/3/4 and
viewable_expand/3/4 succeed with any arguments. It is
therefore reasonable to leave these predicates in your code even
when not visualising.viewable/1, viewable_size/2 and
viewable_type/2 fail whatever the arguments. If
these predicates are used (normally they should not be
necessary) the possibility of failure should be taken into
account.