root/trunk/CUSTOMIZE.txt

================================================================
Logtalk - Open source object-oriented logic programming language
Release 2.33.1

Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Paulo Moura.        All Rights Reserved.
Logtalk is free software.  You can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the "Artistic License 2.0" as published by 
The Perl Foundation. Consult the "LICENSE.txt" file for details.
================================================================


This file contains detailed instructions for customizing your Logtalk 
installation and working environment. Customization is mostly done on a 
per-user basis by editing configuration files on the Logtalk user folder 
(whose path is stored on the LOGTALKUSER environment variable; this folder 
can be (re)created by running the "cplgtdirs" shell command). The default 
paths for the Logtalk user folder are:

    POSIX systems: $HOME/logtalk
    Windows: My Documents\Logtalk


1. SETTING LIBRARY PATHS

In Logtalk, a library is simply a directory containing source files. Library 
paths can be declared using a dynamic predicate. This allows compiling and 
loading of libraries and library files using the library names instead of the
full library paths.

Inside your Logtalk user folder, you will find a "libpaths" folder containing 
a sample file which, when loaded, defines the library paths for the Logtalk 
standard library and for all the supplied examples. This file may need to be 
edited to match both your Logtalk installation and your Prolog compiler and 
operating-system requirements. For details, see the "libpaths/NOTES.txt" file.


2. CUSTOMIZING PROLOG CONFIGURATION FILES

Logtalk interfaces with a specific Prolog compiler using a configuration file 
that can be found on the "configs" folder inside your Logtalk user folder.
These configuration files can be customized by changing the default values 
of the flags that are used by Logtalk when compiling source files. For a 
full description of these flags, consult the "Running and debugging Logtalk 
programs" section of the User Manual. Some of the default flags that you may 
want to change include: "smart_compilation", "startup_message", "altdirs", 
"tmpdir", "portability", "underscore_variables", and the documentation-related
flags ("xmldocs", "xmldir", "xslfile", "xmlspec", and "xmlsref"). Be sure 
to read the "configs/NOTES.txt" file for Prolog specific compatibility notes; 
some Prolog compilers do not support some of the possible compilation flags 
values.


3. CUSTOMIZING DOCUMENTATION PROCESSING SCRIPTS AND SUPPORTING FILES

Inside your Logtalk user folder, you will find a "xml" folder containing a 
set of shell scripts, CSS and XSLT style-sheets, and DTD and XML Schema files 
for processing the XML documenting files that are automatically generated 
when you compile source files. You may want to customize the CSS and XSLT 
files to modify the layout or style of the resulting PDF/(X)HTML files or to 
write new scripts and transformations to generate other formats. You may also 
edit the file "custom.ent" in order to specify XML entities for your personal 
data that can be used on Logtalk documenting directives. For details, see the 
"xml/NOTES.txt" file.


4. ADDING SUPPORT FOR EDITING LOGTALK SOURCE FILES TO TEXT EDITORS

Inside your Logtalk user folder, you will find a "wenv" folder, containing 
configuration files for several text editors, which add support for syntax 
highlighting and other text editing services for Logtalk source files.
For details, see the "wenv/NOTES.txt" file.