There are a couple of other features of the GUI and its interaction with the Ccaffeine backend that are worth mentioning.
The rc file used in conjunction with a GUI session
need not be limited to path and
repository get-global commands -- it is
possible to include all Ccaffeine commands, such as in the
script of Section 2.2, “Running Ccaffeine Using an rc File”. The GUI will
display all instantiated components, and all connections
between their ports. However, the GUI has no mechanism to
place the components intelligently in the
arena, so it just puts them all on top of each other.
You can, of course, drag them into more reasonable positions.
It is possible to save the visual state of the GUI in a
“.bld” file using the
or button. The .bld file can be loaded
into the GUI and replayed by launching it with the
--buildFile
option.
file.bld
The syntax of the .bld file is similar to that of the
rc file, but they are not
interchangeable. The .bld file can contain commands to
instantiate and destroy components and to connect and
disconnect ports, as well as commands to move components
within the arena, and it can only be interpreted by
the GUI. The path and repository
get-global commands must always be in the rc
file, which is interpreted only by the Ccaffeine backend. Also,
Ccaffeine itself does not understand the movement commands of
the .bld file.