Source-Navigator 4.1

Frequently Asked Questions

This document answers a few questions which are not answered by the Source-Navigator 4.0 Users Guide. The latest version of this document can be found at http://www.cas-gmbh.de/SN-FAQ.html. If you want to contribute or if you have comments or questions contact frank@cas-gmbh.de.

1998-11-05, Version: 1.0

Contents

1. General 2. Project Creation 3. Settings 4. Tools 5. Version Control Systems 6. Windows NT/95

1. General

1.1. Which versions of Source-Navigator are available?

A: HP-UX 9.x, 10.10, AIX 3.x, 4.x, Solaris 2.x, SunOS 4.x, Linux, Irix 5.x, 6.x, DEC OSF1 V4.0, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 95/98.
For FreeBSD support see section 1.4.
 

1.2. Does Source-Navigator run on other Linux distributions than Red Hat?

A: Yes! It has also been tested with S.u.S.E. Linux. Other distributions should work as well.
 

1.3. How does the licensing work?

A: Cygnus provides a platform independent floating network license. The specified number of users can work on any platform in the LAN. There is a restriction for pure Windows NT networks (see section 6.3.).
 

1.4. Can I use Source-Navigator with FreeBSD?

A: You can use the Linux version of Source-Navigator with FreeBSD using a Linux emulator. Here is some information about this topic from Chris Kukulies:
"The FreeBSD Linux emulation is part of the operating system and can be loaded as lkm (loadable kernel module) in FreeBSD using the command 'linux'. This works with FreeBSD-2.2.2 (the current version), maybe also in earlier versions, but I'm not sure. In /etc/rc.conf set linux_emulation="YES". Then the Linux emulator is loaded during the boot process. Actually, only the Linux system calls are translated. Some even say Linux programs run faster under FreeBSD than under Linux - the code is i386 native. Both ELM and Linux a.out format is supported.An unknown Linux ELF binary has to be 'branded' with the command 'brandelf -t Linux' - this is done once to let the system know this is a Linux binary.To make sure X11 based and other programs work you should install the package ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/packages-2.2.2/All/linux_lib-2.4.tgz using the command 'pkg_add linux_lib-2.4.tgz' (as root)."
 

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2. Project Creation

2.1. Source-Navigator does not find all symbols in my project.

A: Make sure to include all directories when you specify the source directories. If you miss out include directories the corresponding header files will not be parsed. You can add files later by using the Project Editor.
 

2.2. Why does parsing take ages while creating a project?

A: Make sure to have the database directory on a local disk. Having the database on an NFS-mounted directory is a poor solution in terms of performance.
 

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3. Settings

General remarks:
In <snav-root>/shared/etc/profile global settings are stored. The file $HOME/.sn/profile (or %USERPROFILE%\.sn\profile on Windows NT, and C:\.sn on Windows 95/98) is for user specific settings.
 

3.1. I changed something in "profile" but it has no effect. What is wrong?

A: Source-Navigator has to be re-started after a change in "profile". There must not be a space between the colon and the parameter.
 

3.2. I chose "German" as my GUI language, but I don't get it ?

A: In "profile" check the line:
sn_language:german
You can copy profileg.txt to profile to fix this.

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4. Tools

4.1. Which Cobol dialects are supported?

A: The Cobol parser is a Source-Navigator extension and not part of the standard package. At this time the following dialects are supported:

The Cobol parser can be adopted to your special Cobol version. Just ask!
 

4.2. Can I customize my grep patterns?

A: Yes, open the file <sn-install-dir>/share/etc/grep.fil in an editor. Here you can specify your own regular expressions used by the menu of the Grep tool of Source-Navigator.
 

4.3. Is there an Ada95 parser for Source-Navigator?

A: Yes, CAS ships an Ada95 parser for Source-Navigator. This parser is quite extensive, supports Ada packages and other special features of this language. Contact muzaffar.ahmad@cas-gmbh.de for more information.
 

4.4. Is there a Perl parser for Source-Navigator?

A: Yes, there is an experimental Perl parser for Source-Navigator. This parser understands comments, keywords, and subroutines. Contact muzaffar.ahmad@cas-gmbh.de for more information.
 

4.5. Is there an Pascal or Delphi parser for Source-Navigator?

A: Yes, CAS ships a Borland Pascal/Delphi parser for Source-Navigator. On our WWW server's Pascal page you can see some of the features of the parser. Currently it does support Borland Pascal and some basic Delphi concepts, it can be extended to fit Delphi 3.0, Delphi 4.0, or Pascal dialects of other vendors...
Contact muzaffar.ahmad@cas-gmbh.de for more information.

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5. Version Control Systems

5.1. My Revision Control commands do not work?

A: In some cases the predefined Revision Control commands have to be adjusted manually. The Programmers Reference Guide guides you through the necessary steps. The commands called by the Source-Navigator GUI are located in <sn-install-dir>/share/etc/sn_prop.cfg. CAS provides customer specific adjustments.

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6. Windows NT/95

These are questions regarding Source-Navigator on Windows NT/95.
 

6.1. Can I print my graphical trees on Windows NT?

A: Source-Navigator uses a Tcl/Tk canvas to display the graphical trees. This canvas widget produces PostScript output, only. Make sure the printer you select in the printing menu is a PostScript printer, or print to a file and use ghostscript to convert the PostScript file to the appropiate data format. On Windows 95 this might not work.
 

6.2. Does Source-Navigator run on Windows NT 3.51?

A: Source-Navigator is not supported on Windows NT 3.51. Users reported that file dialog boxes do not work on this version of NT.
 

6.3. Can I have a floating network license in a pure Windows NT network?

A: Yes. The license server now uses FlexLM which provides complete platform support. You can get more information about this at Globetrotter.
 

6.4. How will HTML files be displayed on Windows platforms?

A: On Windows platforms the browser gets used which is linked with *.html documents. The Users Guide and Getting Started documents are also accessible via the "Start->Progranms->Source-Navigator" menu of Windows.
 

6.5. I have a previously existing installation of the Cygwin32 tools, but after I install Source-Navigator, they no longer work.

What happened here is that there are 2 copies of the cygwin.dll in the path. Both Source-Navigator and the cygwin32 toolchain are getting confused as to which cygwin.dll to use.  The quick solution for this is to rename the older version of the cygwin.dll (probably the one which was distributed with the toolchain) to something like cygwin.dll.bak.  This should fix the problem.

For future releases of the cygwin32 toolchain, the name of the cygwin.dll will be changed to reflect the release number in which is was distributed.
 

6.6. Source-Navigator does not start.

If Source-Navigator does not start right away when you double click on the newly created icon you may need to add these two system variables to your autoexec.bat (Windows 95) or your system settings (Windows NT):

SET PATH=%PATH%:<sn-install-dir>\bin;<sn-install-dir>\libexec
SET SN_INSTALL_DIR=<sn-install-dir>

<sn-install-dir> is for example "C:\Program Files\Cygnus\SN41E". After installation you need to reboot the computer to get the registry and PATH variables updated.

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