This website is no longer maintained. Its content may be obsolete. Please visit http://home.cern/ for current CERN information.
M. Liébana, M. Marquina and R. Ramos CN/DCI
ADAM 1.3 has been released on 9 May after several weeks of beta testing. It is installed as the default version in the ASIS server and it can be executed from any of the Workgroup servers and CN central services by issuing the command adam or adding it to your Xsession startup file (/.hepix/xclients).
A full list of the new features was published on the cern.computing newsgroup and is available on The ADAM Project WWW page (see below).
Among the new features in ADAM 1.3 the major change from the user point of view is the new look and feel of the ADAM trays (see figure 5.1) and the new set of Starters provided.
This appearance is based on a new set of customised icons created with some special characteristics. They all:
The UMTF-X11 Working Group has adopted these as the default icons for the proposed configuration of the fvwm Window Manager. In addition, all ADAM Starters have also been revised to comply with the recommendations of the UMTF-X11 Working Group in a way which is consistent with what is offered through the fvwm root menus.
Some of the new features added to ADAM 1.3 are aimed to facilitate the always tedious task of tailoring the desktop to each person's preferences, that is, choosing which programs are launched upon ADAM startup, and choosing their location on the screen, the size of their windows, their colours, and their fonts.
This customisation is achieved using some of the ADAM features:
Using the iWindow Object Library we have developed so far two applications which are included in the ADAM main tray: the Print Servant and the File Servant. The first one is a graphical front end to the xprint command while the second is a file navigator which includes handling of AFS ACLs.
The so called iWindow Object Library was built extracting part of the code of ADAM 1.2. The library encourages the reuse of code for applications providing a graphical user interface by means of the traditional object-oriented paradigms. It is an object-oriented toolkit which provides developers with a complete hierarchy of objects from which they can build their applications. It is written in [incr tcl], and provides mechanisms to develop [incr tcl] applications in an homogeneous and efficient way. It provides a framework for constructing graphical applications using the Tcl/Tk advantages in an organised way allowed by the object-oriented approach.
A training session within the UMTF Computing Tutorial series will be held on 13 June at 10:00 am in the CN Auditorium. This tutorial is aimed at novice UNIX users who want to run applications (news, WWW, mail, etc.) on the CN central services. Aspects addressed will include: creation and handling of starters and trays, access to a large set of UNIX applications, and customisation of the X applications and of your desktop. The tutorial will be developed in an interactive fashion with an on-line demonstration of all the issues described.
The following list of URL's contains all the information related to ADAM and its training program:
We encourage you to test ADAM and to give us (ADAM.Support@cern.ch) your impressions, comments, suggestions and, of course, any problem you may find using it.
