Preparing a User Account

1. Log on to the account and modify the environment variable PATH in your $HOME/.profile (ksh) or $HOME/.cshrc (csh) file. Insert $HOME/mcidas/bin, the directory with your site's locally developed code (the suggested directory is ~mclocal/mcidas/bin), and ~mcidas/bin, in that order, at the beginning of your PATH.

2. You may also need to modify your PATH if it does not contain all of the required directories or have them in the correct order. If you will be writing and compiling your own McIDAS software, update your PATH with the modifications listed in step 3 of Preparing the mcidas Account.

If you will not be writing and compiling McIDAS software, update your PATH with the modifications listed below.

3. Log out and log on again for the changes to take effect.

1. Bring up the Keyboard Shortcuts window by clicking the following in order: Main Menu (in lower-left corner), Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts.

2. Highlight each shortcut associated with a key combination you want to use in McIDAS-X (e.g., <ALT>F2) and press the Backspace key to change it to Disabled. This allows McIDAS-X to use the key combination for strings and other applications.

1. Start X11 by double-clicking the X11 icon in the Applications>Utilities folder. If X11 is already running, click the X11 icon in the dock to make the application active.

2. Click the X11 menu at the top of the display, then click Preferences to bring up the X11 Preferences window.

3. Click the Input tab, then uncheck the checkbox labeled Enable key equivalents under X11.

Steps 1-3 allow the open-apple keys (on each side of the spacebar) to function as the Alt keys in McIDAS-X.

4. Start a Terminal by double-clicking the Terminal icon in the Applications>Utilities folder. If a Terminal is already running, click the Terminal icon in the dock to make the application active. Then use the xmodmap utility to configure a key to function as the Insert key during McIDAS-X command entry. Choose the appropriate command below, depending on whether you have a fullsize (desktop) keyboard or a laptop.

On a fullsize keyboard, run the command below to configure the help key to function as Insert. The spaces before and after the equal sign (=) are required.

1. Copy files .openwin-init and .Xdefaults to the account's home directory if they do not already reside there.

2. Add the following line to the account's .Xdefaults file.

OpenWindows.KeyboardCommands:    SunView1

This allows McIDAS-X to use the Alt Q key.

3. Add the following line to the account's .openwin-init file.

xmodmap -e 'keycode 16 = F11' -e 'keycode 18 = F12'

This allows McIDAS-X to use the F11 and F12 keys, and their Alt, Shift and Ctrl forms.

4. Log out and log on again for the changes to take effect.

1. Create or modify the account's Xdefaults file $HOME/.Xdefaults and add the following line.

Dtwm*windowMenu:       NoAcceleratorWindowMenu

2. Select the Edit Dtwmrc icon from the Desktop_Tools section of the Application Manager. The Application Manager is started by clicking its icon on the Front Panel.

3. Delete or comment out the line below in the Keys DefaultKeyBindings and Keys DtKeyBindings sections in the account's dtwmrc file.

Alt<Key>F6  window  f.next_key transient

This allows McIDAS-X to use the Alt F6 key.

4. Log out and log on again for the changes to take effect.