GHS BULLETIN
The Project System

Rev. 6/02




The Project System in GHS/BHS is a tool for organizing the various files involved in using the program. It helps you establish directories (folders) so that the files for each project are kept in a separate directory, and it's easy to switch to any of these directories. This system operates within the context of the main program. It enables you to launch GHS/BHS, then select the working directory.

In GHS32 and BHS32, there is a pulldown "Project" menu that makes it even easier to use this system because you do not need to remember the various forms of the PROJECT command.

Project System Concepts

There are two subsystems of the project system which can be used either independently or together. One is the Project Name System, and the other is the Project Directory System.

The Project Name System

This system uses a simple mechanism to reduce keystrokes or mouse movements when editing and running files. It consists of storing a short name (1-8 characters) which becomes the default name of the run file and, optionally, the geometry and report files. Once this name is set, you can run a file merely by typing RUN or pressing F5. Similarly you can edit the run file by typing ED or pressing F4. In both cases the actual file name is formed from the Project Name by adding the .RF extension. If you are using more than one run file in the same project, or if you want to use a different extension, you can just give the extension. For example,
  RUN .RF1
will append .RF1 to the project name and use that as the run file name.

Additionally, the Project Name appears at upper right on the screen and printouts. It is also carried in the system variable named PROJECT.

Note that the Project Name System is useful only when entering RUN and EDIT commands from the keyboard. It has no use in conjunction with using pulldown menus to run and edit files, except that the project name still appears on the screen and printouts.

The Project Directory System

This system enables you to easily create directories for organizing the files belonging to individual projects. These directories may contain GHS/BHS files as well as files used by other applications. Once established, the project directories are easy to select and you can quickly return the last one that you worked in. There are two, and optionally three, levels in the project directories. There is what is called the Master Project Directory which contains individual Project subdirectories. You can have more than one Master Project Directory and they can be located on any local or network drive and within any other directory. Within each Project subdirectory are stored the files belonging to that project. Optionally, the GHS/BHS files can be located in a subdirectory within the Project subdirectory that has a common name in all the Project subdirectories, say "GHSDATA". For example,
C: (root of the C drive)
  PROJECTS  (Master Project Directory)
    PRJ0201  (Project subdirectory)
      GHSDATA (optional subdir)
        GHS data files for project PRJ0201
            GREENSEA (Project subdirectory)
      GHSDATA
        GHS data files for project 9702
            etc.
 


Using the Project Menu

The easiest way to set up and navigate project directories is through the pulldown menu labeled "Project". At its first level there is a little menu that offers two choices:
  Same
  Change ...
Select "Same" to return to the same project you worked on most recently. Select "Change" to go to a different project or establish a new one. This brings out the menu,
  Directory ...
  Name ...
  Master Directory ...
  

To go to a different Project directory within the same Master Directory, select Directory. If no Master Directory has yet been defined, it will assume that the root of the current drive contains the Project directories. A browsing dialog box appears showing all the existing Project directories and an input field. To select an existing one, click it from the list and it will appear in the input field. Then press the Directory button at the bottom of this dialog box. To create a new one, type the project name in the input field and likewise press the Directory button. It will then show any existing names of run files (files with .RF extensions). Selecting one of these establishes the Project Name. Or you may type in a new project name, limiting it to eight characters without spaces.

Use the Name selection if you just want to switch to a new Project Name within the same Project directory.

To go to another Master Directory, or to create a new one, use the Master Directory selection. This brings up a more complex dialog box allowing you to select the drive and directory that is to be the Master. If you are creating a new Master Directory, and you want to have the optional intermediate subdirectory for GHS/BHS data, then fill in the bottom input field; otherwise just leave it blank. Once established this Master Directory becomes the default and is remembered between program sessions until you change it.

To verify which directory you are in, you can pull down the "File/Change directory ..." menu and observe the path to the current directory. Another way is to type the command,
  DIR .HERE


Using the Project Command

An alternative to the Project Menu is to use the PROJECT Command directly.

The PROJECT command has two purposes:

1) It defines a Project Name. The Project Name, which may consist of up to eight alphabetic or numeric characters, appears at the upper right-hand corner of the screen and printouts. The Project Name becomes the default name for certain files. For example,
  PROJ ABC
  EDIT
This defines the Project Name as "ABC" and opens ABC.RF with the Run File editor.

2) It manages subdirectories for data files. The PROJECT command will create directories and subdirectories for data files; and after they are created it becomes an easy means of selecting a subdirectory to use. For example, suppose that you want to create the following directory structure for your data files:
  C:
    PROJECTS
      9701
        GHSDATA
          GHS data files for project 9701
      9702
        GHSDATA
          GHS data files for project 9702
This represents a master project directory (C:\PROJECTS) in which individual project directories (9701 and 9702) are located. There can be a subdirectory within the individual project directory which contains all of the files relevant to GHS/BHS (in this case it is called GHSDATA).

This structure could be created by the following two PROJECT commands:
  PROJECT C:\PROJECTS\9701 (GHSDATA)
  PROJECT C:\PROJECTS\9702 (GHSDATA)
Once the directory structure has been established, the PROJECT command can be used to go to a particular data directory. In other words, the new directory is created automatically if it does not exist, but in any case the result is to go to the given directory and make it the current or default directory.

If issued from the keyboard, the above commands will also prompt for a Project Name. If you do not want a Project Name, simply press Enter. You could have also supplied the project name as an additional parameter. For example,
  PROJ C:\PROJECTS\9702 (GHSDATA) INTACT
This would create and/or go to C:\PROJECTS\9702\GHSDATA while also defining the project name as "INTACT".

After the project master directory has been established, a particular subdirectory can be selected as follows:
  PROJ C:\PROJECTS\
Note that the parameter must end in a back slash. This command first changes to the master directory C:\PROJECTS; then it lists the subdirectories and prompts for the subdirectory name. At this point the name can be typed in or the up arrow can be pressed to pick a project subdirectory from the list. If a new name is typed in, a new subdirectory will be created.

When any of these project directory operations are performed, the program remembers the name of the project master directory, subdirectory and data directory name (if any). Thereafter, these names are implied when omitted. For example,
  PROJ \9702
This will automatically change to C:\PROJECTS\9702\GHSDATA.

Similarly, the command
  PROJ \
will change to the last-used project subdirectory.

And, finally, a special case is the PROJECT command without parameters:
  PROJ
This changes to the last-used master directory and asks for the subdirectory.

Note that the first purpose of the PROJECT command, which is simply to define a Project Name, never contains a back slash (\). The second purpose always contains a back slash except for this special case.

While it is not ordinarily necessary to do so, you can remove the current default project setting by means of the command,
  PROJ OFF\


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