NeXTanswers User's Guide

NeXTanswers is a collection of answers to commonly asked technical questions about the NeXT Computer System.  The topics covered include system administration, programming, and NeXT applications.  When incorporated into Digital Librarian, NeXTanswers supplements the existing on-line and printed documentation, helping you to understand and apply the power of the NeXT Computer.  NeXT distributes NeXTanswers on a quarterly basis.

The following instructions will help you get started with NeXTanswers.  Some familiarity with the NeXT Computer is assumed.  For more information about using the Workspace Manager and Digital Librarian, see the NeXT user's manual.

Note:  Many of the NeXTanswers themselves refer to the 1.0 release.  Most but not all of the 1.0 NeXTanswers are still valid for 2.0.  We are in the process of verifying that all are valid for 2.0. The ones that have been verified say ªValid for 2.0º at the bottom.  They may also say ªNot valid for 2.0º  or ªNot checked yet for 2.0.º  As of the winter 91 release, NeXTanswers that apply only to Release 1.0 are no longer included.

I.  Determining the Current Location of NeXTanswers 

If you know that NeXTanswers is already a target of Digital Librarian, skip to  section III, ªUsing Digital Librarian to Search NeXTanswers.º 

Before proceeding further, determine the location of the NeXTanswers directory on your system.  The recommended location is /LocalLibrary/NeXTanswers, or possibly /me/Library/NeXTanswers for a standalone system on which you're the only user.  If you can't find NeXTanswers, consult your system administrator.  (If you are the system administrator, or if you have your own standalone system, refer to the NeXTanswers Installation Guide, in the file named INSTALL.rtf, for instructions on installing NeXTanswers on your computer.)

II.  Adding NeXTanswers to Digital Librarian

The most convenient way to use NeXTanswers is from the Digital Librarian application.  After you add NeXTanswers as a target of Digital Librarian, you'll be able to access it with keyword searches.  The following instructions show you how to add it as a target.

1.	Start up Digital Librarian.  Double-click the Digital Librarian icon in the application dock or /NextApps/Librarian.app in the File Viewer.  

2.	Add NeXTanswers as a Target.  Note:  This only needs to be done once.  If NeXTanswers is already present in the target area of Digital Librarian, skip to the next section, ªUsing Digital Librarian to Search NeXTanswers.º 

Drag the folder icon representing the NeXTanswers directory from the File Viewer to the target area in the Digital Librarian window.  Digital Librarian will place the target directory in the next available slot and label it with the directory's name, NeXTanswers.

III.  Using Digital Librarian to Search NeXTanswers 

A.	Select NeXTanswers from Digital Librarian's target area by clicking the NeXTanswers icon. 

B.	Single Word Selection:  After selecting the target directory, you may enter a word in the query box and click the Search button (or press Return).  Digital Librarian then searches through the selected targets for files that contain your query.  In the summary area, Digital Librarian identifies the file(s) it has found, usually listing the file's pathname and as much of the beginning of the file as will fit on one line.  If the list of files is too large for the summary area, you can use the scroller to view the rest.  You can also drag the resize knob up and down to change the sizes of the target and summary areas.

C.	Combining Words in Searches:  Your query can be a combination of words joined by and, or, and not.  

All of the following queries will find files that contain both words, whether or not the words are adjacent in the file:

		Interface and Builder
		font & adobe
		help submit

These queries will find files containing either or both words:

		export or NFS
		dump | restore

These queries will find files that contain the first word but not the second word:

		printing not printer
		bitmap ! icon

D.	Double-clicking a line in the summary area displays the corresponding file.  If the file is a WriteNow file, WriteNow starts up (if it's not already running) and displays the file in a window that becomes the key window.  You can remain in WriteNow or switch back to Digital Librarian; WriteNow keeps running until you quit it.  If the file is a text file, it will be displayed in a special Librarian window, assuming you have ªOpen text files in Librarianº checked in Digital Librarian's Preferences window.

E.	Use Indexes:  If ªUse Indexesº is checked in the Digital Librarian's Preferences window, Digital Librarian searches only for indexed words; otherwise, it searches for all words.  Searching for indexed words is faster than searching for all words.  You'll probably want to search for all words only when no index is present, or when you don't find what you're looking for but you believe it's in there somewhere. 

If Digital Librarian states ªUnindexed targetº above the Query Box, no index has been created yet for the selected target.  Make sure you have the NeXTanswers icon selected in the target area.  If so, and it still says ªUnindexed target,º ask your system administrator to index NeXTanswers.  (If you're the system administrator, see the NeXTanswers Installation Guide, INSTALL.rtf.)

F.	Find:  The Find command in the Edit menu selects the next occurrence of the text specified in the Find panel.  It starts looking for the text at the end of the current selection, goes to the end of the text area, continues at the beginning, and stops back where it started.  Immediately after searching for a query, Digital Librarian automatically places the first word of the query in the Find panel and locates that word for you in the text area.

G.	File Format:  Each question/answer pair resides in a separate text file.  These files are named according to the convention:

		topic.sequence[.suffix]

The suffix is optionalÐfor example, ª.wnº for a WriteNow file.  sequence is simply a unique number.  Not all numbers are used, as some were taken up by obsolete or forthcoming entries.  The number is also listed at the end of each entry.  You can see how many entries there are for the various topics by examining the NeXTanswers directory with the Directory Browser.  

Many of the entries start with a list of keywords, to help identify the topic in Digital Librarian's summary area.  However, Digital Librarian indexes all the main words in the file, so you can also search on words that aren't explicitly listed as keywords.  

For a more detailed description of Digital Librarian, consult the NeXT User's Reference manual. We hope you are as excited about NeXTanswers as we are!  We'll be updating it quarterly.  Feel free to submit any comments you have, or create your own question/answer pairs and send them to us.  For instructions on how to submit something, use Digital Librarian to search NeXTanswers for "submitting."