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The title bar

The ruleset editor title bar conveys important information. It can tell you what source file you are editing, whether the file has been changed since the last save, whether a serialized form of the file has been saved, and whether the source file has been verified for correctness (or compiled).

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Source file indicators

First of all, the title bar tells you what source ruleset file you are editing and whether the file has been changed since the last time it was saved. If you are editing a brand new ruleset, for example, that has not yet been saved to disk, the source file name appears as:

Src: Untitled.rs

When you save the source ruleset to disk, you are asked to give the ruleset a file name, which then appears in the title bar. For example,

Src: myVeryOwnRuleset.rs

Any time you make a change to the ruleset, an asterisk (*) appears after the source file name:

Src: myVeryOwnRuleset.rs*
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Serialized file indicators

A second thing that the title bar tells you is whether the source ruleset has been saved as a serialized, ready-to-run AbleBean. If you are editing a ruleset that has not been saved in serialized form, the serialized file name appears as:

Ser: Untitled.rs_ser
When you save the ruleset in serialized form, you must specify a file name for the serialized file; this name then appears in the title bar. For example,
Ser: myVeryOwnRuleset.rs_ser
Note that the source file name and the serialized file name do not have to be the same. That is, mySource.rs and yourSerialized.rs_ser can refer to two different representations of the same ruleset.

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XML file indicators

A third thing that the title bar tells you is whether the source ruleset has been saved as an XML document. If you are editing a ruleset that has not been saved in XML form, the XML file name appears as:

XML: Untitled.rs_xml

When you save the ruleset as an XML document, you must specify a file name for the XML document; this name then appears in the title bar. For example,

XML: myVeryOwnRuleset.rs_xml

Note that the XML file name, the serialized file name, and the source file name do not have to be the same. That is, mySource.rs, yourSerialized.rs_ser, and someXml.rs_xml can all refer to three different representations of the exact same ruleset.

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Verification indicator

Lastly, source ruleset files can be saved at any stage of editing, but serialized ruleset files and XML ruleset documents can be saved only when the source represents a valid, executable ruleset. Use the Verify editor action to cause the source ruleset to be parsed (or compiled) and verified for correctness. If the ruleset is valid after the Verify action, the title bar displays the word "(verified)" and you may only then save the ruleset in serialized and XML forms, or process the rules with an inference engine.

After an initial load of a source ruleset or after any editing change, the ruleset is in an unknown state and the title bar displays the word "(unverified)". At these times it is not possible to save the ruleset in serialized and XML forms, nor is it possible to process the rules. Use the Verify editor action to change this state.

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Example title bar and its interpretation

An example title bar and its interpretation follows:

      
Src: Controller1.rs* | Ser: Controller1.rs_ser | XML: Untitled.rs_xml (unverified)
      
      
The user is editing a source file named "Controller1.rs". The asterisk (*) after the file name indicates that the file has been changed since it was last saved. At some point, the source file was saved in serialized form to the file named "Controller1.rs_ser", but the file has not yet been saved in XML form (as indicated by the file name "Untitled.rs_xml"). Currently, neither a serialized form nor an XML form can be saved to disk because the ruleset has not been successfully compiled, or verified (indicated by the word "(unverified)") since the last change was made to the source.

At this point, a typical action might be to use the Verify editor action to compile the source file and then notice whether the title bar switches to show the word "(verified)". If the title bar changes, the verification process was successful and the user might then use the editor actions Save ruleset, Save serialized, and Save XML to save the ruleset in its source, compiled, and XML forms. The title bar might subsequently look like this:

      
Src: Controller1.rs  | Ser: Controller1.rs_ser | XML: Controller1.rs_xml (verified)
      
      
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Last modified: Wed Jun 6 10:00:29 CDT 2001