There are two kinds of files important for writing your own presets: ``.pre'' files and ``.htm'' files. The ``.pre'' files contain the program parameters and are needed by the simulations to set the sliders and buttons to the desired values. The ``.htm'' files contain the description of the corresponding preset and are needed by the html browser to display the annotations in some readable format. We describe first how to save your own presets and to create the ``.pre'' file; then we give the procedure to load customized sets while running a program; and finally show how to access your own presets through the help menu and how to add annotations to the presets.
Warning! Using somebody else's presets might cause damage to your computer system. A preset file consists of a set of commands which are executed when the preset is loaded. These commands set the parameters of the simulation such as lattice size, atomic radius, and so on. There is, however, no protection for damaging commands that might have been added to the preset file. On Unix systems, make sure that any preset files for shared use have their file permissions set such that the files cannot be modified by unauthorized people. Check with your system administrator for details.
For example, to add a preset 9 to the presets for ``ising'':
<a href="ising09.pre">09</a> -- <a href="ising09.htm"> My new title </a>.
Click on save to save the changes you made to ising.htm. When you later click on the number 09, the preset 9 will be loaded into ``ising''; and once you have constructed the annotation file ising09.htm, clicking on the My new title will load the file ising09.htm into the html browser.
<a href="pathname"> reference name</a>
on an existing html page using the editor for that page and then save.
The exercises provided on the SSS disk involve the use of figures: ``frame grabs'' of displays and graphs from the SSS programs. To make such an exercise, you will need a frame grabber for your platform which can save files in GIF format.
For the additional exercises in the SSS package, these GIF files are saved in the sss/lib/program_name/figures directory. They are loaded onto the html page with a link to the figure written as <img src="pathname">. A quick look at one of the additional exercises in the SSS package will be helpful. Each exercise in the SSS set has an answer linked from the question and stored in an answer directory. The exercises are easily converted to quizzes by moving or restricting read permission for the answer files.