Table of Contents > Getting Started with JES > The JES Interface
The JES Interface

Click on the image below to learn about the different areas of the JES interface.



Command Area
Use the command area to type commands that you'd like JES to carry out right away. You'll notice that there are three "greater than" symbols in the command area. This is called the primary prompt. It simply means that JES is ready for a new command.

An example of a command:
>>> print 5+7
12

You will also use the command area to call the programs that you write in JES. For example, if you have written a program called MyProgram() and loaded it, you might call it using the command line like this:

>>> MyProgram()
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Edit Menu
Use the edit menu to carry out the basic text editing commands that you are probably familiar with from using word processors and other applications. These commands include Cut, Copy, Paste and Undo.

The Options menu item opens a dialog box in which you can set the font size and the mode in which you would like to work. Changing modes simply changes the kind of error messages that JES displays when it finds a programming problem. The "normal" mode is the default mode. In this mode, error messages are very simple. In "advanced" mode, error messages are more detailed. Until you feel that you are ready to interpret detailed error messages, you should not change the mode.


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File Menu
Use the file menu to create New files, Open existing files, Save the file on which you are currently working, or Save As to specify a file name for your current file.

You can also exit JES from this menu.


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Help Menu
Look here for information about carrying out basic tasks in JES and creating media computation programs in Jython.

Load Button
Use the load button to load the file that is currently in the program area so it can be recognized in the command area. When you write or open a program in the program area, you must load it before you can call it from the command area. If you forget to load your program, JES either will not recognize your program's name, or will call the last version of your program that was loaded, without any changes you might have made since then.

Hint: Before you can load a program, you must save it!

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Program Area
Use the program area to write and/or edit your programs. Entering commands in this area does not cause JES to carry them out right away; instead, you can type sequences of commands that you'd like JES to carry out in a specific order and give those sequences names. Then you can load the file and call your programs by name from the command line to see what they do.

As you probably know already, JES is used to write programs in the Jython programming language. For more information about writing programs, see Programming in Jython.

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Status Bar
Use the left side of the status bar to determine the line number and position of your cursor in the program window. This can be very useful information when you are testing your programs. Often, error messages will include the line number and/or position of what JES believes is the error in your code. As you will discover, JES is not always right about which line contains the error, but it will give you a good place to start looking.

You should also include line number/position information if you are sending a question about your code to TAs or classmates so they can quickly identify the segment to which you are referring.

The right side of the status bar displays the identity of the current JES user. Its important to be sure that JES knows who you are so that your homework turnins are attributed to the right person!

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Stop Button
Use the Stop button any time you want JES to stop what it is doing. You may start loading a file, only to realize that you still have changes to make, or you may feel that it is taking too long to load. In either of these cases, simply click on the Stop button.

You can also use the Stop button to stop a program that has been called from the command area. This may be useful if the program you have opened, loaded, and called from the command window is taking a long time. You should try to keep media file sizes to a reasonable size, but sometimes it will take several minutes to run a program that you have written so the Stop button can be useful if you decide you'd rather run a long program at a later time.

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Turnin Menu
You will turn in your homework assignments using the Turnin menu. Before you can turn in your assignments, your Turnin Settings must be set correctly. Select Settings from the menu to open the Turnin Settings dialog box.

To turn in an assignment, be sure that it is open and saved, then select Assignment from the menu.

See the help section on Turning In Assignments for more information.