How to use Agat:

Preparing a C program for animation

To prepare a C program for animation, the programmer uses the functions in the Agat library to send the interesting data manipulated by the program on streams. He is free to use as many streams as he wants and to name them as suits him (a stream is just identified by a character string).

The user then needs to link its program with the Agat library, where the functions are defined . If can be done with a command line like:

gcc -o aleat aleat.c -lAGAT.

Remember to add a -I and/or -L if the libAGAT.h libAGAT.a is not in the directory where you are doing your compilations. Thus leading to something like:

gcc -o aleat aleat.c -I /net/safir/Agat/Sun4/ -L /net/safir/Agat/Sun4 -lAGAT

Take a look at reference manual ;)

Preparing a Fortran program for animation

First you should add a C file to declare the fortan interface to Agat functions (this file will be given in the next Agat release). For example, name this C file: fortranInterf.c

#include <libAGAT.h>

void sndint_( char *ch, int *code){
  agatSendInt(ch,*code);
}

void sndlng_( char *ch, int *code){
  agatSendLong(ch,*code);
}

void sndflt_( char *ch, int *code){
  agatSendFloat(ch,*code);
}

void snddbl_( char *ch, double *code){
  agatSendDouble(ch,*code);
}

Now, here is a sample of a Fortan program:

	program dummy

	do i=0.d0,10.d0,1.d-1
	  f=dsqrt(x)
	  snddbl ("squareroot",f)
        enddo

	stop
	end

Then to compile and link your programs together you should execute this line to generate a .o file.

gcc -c fortranInterf.c

. And at the end:

f77 -o dummy dummy.f fortranInterf.o -lAgat

Caution

The stream name:

The steam name should be a constant. If you don't use a constant in the Agat function, you should specify the '\0'. For example:

        text="squareroot\0"
        snddbl (texte,f)

The corresponding C->Fortran functions:

the C type int, double and float are integer, real and double in the Fortran syntax. But there is non exactely corresponding type for the C type long.

Big thanks to Eric Hassold who done the wrappers and who is the first to integrate and use Agat in a Fortran code.

Animating a program

As final step to obtain an animation, the programmer has to write a file in a little stream processing language, the Agat language, to describe how the streams coming from program will be altered or combined and what exactly will be displayed and how. Take a look in directory Samples.

Finaly just run your prepared programm under control of the agat server.

agat -f test.agt myprog

Customize your Agat windows

You should add some defaults for agat in your X ressources. For example insert Agat.ad in your .Xdefault. Or better copy Agat.ad as Agat in your $XAPPLRESDIR directory.

A good idea is to ask your Window Manager to place new windows at random position. (eg for ctwm: RandomPlacement) If you don't specify this, you won't be able to use button1 function.

Have a look to the Agat.ad file to see the different default ressources.

And That's All Folks !!! Very easy, don't you think so???