The primary display

The main display of the versions program is dominated by a large scrolling window, as shown below. As with most windows-based applications, much of its functionality is available through a menu bar across the top of the display. You choose commands from either a menu (along the top of the display), action buttons (along the right side of the display), or shortcut keys (shown with menu items). Action buttons provide convenient access to the more frequently used functions.

Header/footer

The window header will contain the program name. The left footer of the display shows file statistics. The right footer will normally display the version number of the release of Razor you are using (not as shown above).

Menu bar

The menu bar contains the menus File, Edit, View, Utilities, Scripts, Commands, and Groups.

• File contains file-related commands such as New Folder, Rename, and Exit.
• Edit contains editable items, specifically Tool properties.
• View contains a collection of view manipulation and selection commands, like selecting/deselecting all items in the list and various filtering/sorting options.
• Utilities contains file-specific manipulation commands. This menu is only active when a file is selected in the main list. Utility commands include file information, browse a specific version, revert to a specific version, display differences between file versions, and merge versions back together.
• Scripts contains user-defined scripts that manipulate file/folders.
• Commands¹ (optional) contains site-specific commands.
• Groups contains a list of file control, issues, and threads groups available for this database.

Action buttons

To supplement the menu bar, a column of buttons appears down the right side of the panel for all of the common file version control activities (checking files in, obtaining read-only copies, etc.). These buttons will appear enabled or grayed out based on the status of the various files selected on the main list. For example, if no files have been selected by the user, then only the Introduce button will be available. This type of feedback and control makes use of the tool more intuitive.

Main list

The scrolling list displays all of the files contained within the indicated group. In addition to the filenames, there are three extra columns of information about each file.²




A small glyph is shown on the left edge of each line, and is meant to give a quick indication of what the name represents. Folders, used to represent a hierarchical directory structure, are displayed with a "folder" icon. They will be either open or closed, depending on whether the contents of the folder are to be shown. If the folder is open, then everything within the folder will be shown on subsequent lines, indented slightly to help show the hierarchical relationship.

The next column shows the latest version of the file.

The third column gives a quick indication of whether the file is presently checked out for edit by anyone. If the file is checked out for edit, then the login id of the person who locked the file will be shown.

Finally, although not illustrated in the above example, it is possible to have one or more glyphs associated with each file under control. Whether or not they appear is a function of how your local administrator has set up your environment. If present, these small graphic images will (hopefully) give more insight into each file.³

¹ See "Running commands" on page 116 for more details. Refer to "Commands" on page 269 for details on how to configure the Commands file.
² In truth, you're allowed to have more... See "Controlling your view" on page 116.
³ To learn more about how this would be accomplished, please refer to the section on "Associating glyphs to attributes" on page 209.