GDL/GWL 1.5 Documentation

How to use General-purpose Declarative Language to do "KBE" as well as web applications to deploy those models.

GDL/GWL 1.5 Documentation

interim update for gdl1578

Becoming effective with GDL consists of three (3) basic skills:

Editing text and managing files with Gnu Emacs (yes, other editors will work, but Emacs provides special support and only Emacs is supported by Genworks);

Very basic Common Lisp programming;

Writing Object Definitions in GDL itself, using the define-object macro.

Beyond this, if you want to create nice Web applications with GDL, it helps to know something about HTML and server-based computing. But these concepts can be picked up over time and are not necessary to get started or to make simple applications or 3D geometric objects.

To download the software and retrieve license keys:

Visit the following URL:
```
   http://www.genworks.com/dl
```
Enter your email address. If you don't have an email address on file with Genworks, send email to licensing -at- genworks -dot- com
Read and accept the applicable license agreement and click the checkbox
Click the link to download the .zip or .exe install file, and start the download to a known location on your computer.
Click the "Retrieve License Key" link, to have your license key file(s) emailed to you.

GDL is currently distributed for all the platforms as a self-contained "zip" file which does not requiring official administrator installation, or an install executable ("exe") file. To install the downloaded software, you can either:

unzip the "zip" file to a known location
run the installer executable (exe) file and follow the prompts

After the GDL application directory is in place (typically in "c:/Program Files" on Windows, or "/usr/local/" on Linux), you have to copy your license file into that GDL application directory. The license file was obtained via email in a previous step, and should be named either "devel.lic" for Enterprise or Student editions, or "gdl.lic" for Professional/Trial versions. Now you can start the GDL development environment by running the included "run-gdl.bat" startup script (Windows) or "run-gdl" script (Linux/Mac).

NOTE on Windows, the Start Menu item which gets installed by the Windows installation is not the usual way to start GDL (it will start it without Emacs, which is not what you normally want). This will be updated in a future release, but to start GDL with emacs, you should simply navigate to the GDL installation directory and run the batch file:


   run-gdl.bat

This will start Emacs and should give you the welcome screen with instructions for starting GDL itself within Emacs.

(Note -- a license key file is not required in order to get started with Emacs)

Start Emacs with the GDL environment with the "run-gdl.bat" script (Windows) or the "run-gdl" shell-script (Linux). Emacs should come up with instructions for:

doing the Emacs tutorial,
starting the GDL process, and
special keychord shortcuts for working with GDL

The following resources should provide sufficient CL background to start with GDL:

Basic Lisp Techniques (Chapters 1, 2, 3)
Online CL Training Slides (designed to be used with lecture)
Norvig and Pitman Lisp Style Guide
Full ANSI Common Lisp Specification (for later reference)

GDL Tutorial A Tutorial for GDL. This tutorial is somewhat outdated and we hope to have it revised relatively soon, but it still gives a decent overview of the fundamentals.
Online GDL Training Slides (designed to be used with lecture)

GDL Reference This is where you will spend 95% of your time after you are familiar with the basics. This documentation is auto-generated from GDL when we do the builds, so it gets updated with every new patch release. We are also working on a context-sensitive interface to this documentation from the live Emacs editing session. For now you have to refer to the Web version, and look up the object, message, or operator you want to know about.

Currently, some of these files are in PDF format, some of the files are plaintext, and some are linked HTML.

Managing Projects Utilities for compiling and loading your GDL codebases.
GDL Usage Concise GDL Language Specification.
GWL Usage Concise syntax guide to Web User Interface layer -- currently being updated for new GDL Ajax features
Testing and Tracking Utility (Ta2) Overview of GDL's graphical development testing and inspection utility -- this will soon be replaced with a functionally equivalent, but CSS-styled, upgrade, name yet to be determined.
Generating Runtime Applications Generating runtime GDL and GDL/GWL applications (this is under construction, to be released with 1577 Enterprise)
Output Formats and Lenses Creating output from GDL objects in various formats.
GDL Drawing Package Creating Engineering Drawings with Dimensions and Annotations, as well as Typeset Text Blocks
Reserved Symbols A listing of certain symbols you should avoid using as message names in your own apps, to avoid clashes with pre-defined GDL/GWL message names.
Conversion Tools Conversion tools for object-oriented code in legacy Lisp-based and KBE formats.

Evaluation and Student Licensees are not entitled to support directly from Genworks. -- Please register for the Genworks Google Group then post your questions there.

For commercial licensees, Genworks Customer support is usually available on U.S. business days from 9am to 5pm Michigan time (Eastern Standard Time, same as New York). Support for all included components of GDL/GWL is provided by Genworks as your single point of contact. Our VAR agreements with vendors such as Franz Inc. and SMS stipulate that Genworks' customers contact only Genworks for support, and not e.g. Franz Inc. or SMS directly. As necessary Genworks will follow up with our vendors for second-level support on Allegro CL, SMLib, etc.

Genworks Technical Support can be reached at:

support@genworks.com
+1 248-330-2979

All information contained in this documentation set is copyright (c) 2009, Genworks International, and is intended exclusively for use in operating a properly licensed installation of the Genworks GDL/GWL product. It may not be redistributed or otherwise used for any other purpose.