A question about SKILL

Hello,
I am a jackeroo on creating programs by using SKILL language.
When I try to run a SKILL example called "axlform.il" which is in the
Allegro 14.2 installation path, Allegro lists an error by using a
string like the following:
"E-*Error* axlFormDisplay: argument #1 should be an "other" atom (type
template = "o")-nil".
I can not understand what this error message means. Please experts help
me. Thanks a lot!

Tom

 

Hi Tom,

This message means that axlFormDisplay is expecting something other than
a standard SKILL type -- these types are listed on page 20 of the
(PDFized) SKILL language reference. (Unfortunately, SKILL itself
doesn't know about most GUI elements, so you get this rather ambiguous
message.)

I'm not familiar with Allegro (I'm over in CIC), but if you search on
SourceLink for axlFormDisplay, it will direct you to the Allegro/APD
Design Guide: SKILL Reference Manual, in the Form Interface Functions
chapter (11). It gives the following example on how to use these functions:

-----
; User-callable function to set up and
; display the Extract Selector form
(defun myExtract ()
fileList = (cdr (cdr (getDirFiles
cadr( parseString( axlGetVariable("TEXTPATH"))))))
form = axlFormCreate( (gensym)
"extract_selector.form" `("E" "OUTER")
`_formAction t)
axlFormTitle( form "Extract Selector")
axlFormSetField( form "view_file" (car fileList))
selectedFile = (car fileList)
foreach( fileName fileList
axlFormSetField( form "file_list" fileName))
axlFormDisplay( form)
); defun myExtract

 

I get it! Thank you very much!