Initializing GINO

The first call in a graphics application using the GINO library should always be to initialize the library. This is performed by the routine:

This may occur anywhere in a user program but should precede all calls to other GINO routines. If the call to gOpenGino() is omitted, what happens depends largely on the computer system running the program but in most implementations, the initialization will occur when the first GINO routine is called, however GINO error 5 may be output, 'GINO not initialized'.

The routine gOpenGino() should not be called after any other GINO routines with the exception of gCloseGino(). When gOpenGino() is called, GINO is re-initialized and all data previously defined is discarded.

When GINO is initialized, one of the first steps carried out by the library is to check for the existence of a legal Configuration File and if this file does not exist or does not have the correct licence information encoded within it, GINO will immediately stop with an appropriate error message. In order to provided a cleaner check on the existence of the Configuration file, an alternative initialization routine is provided, returning a status flag through its single argument. The routine is gEnqConfigStatus():

where status returns a value of 0 if a legal Configuration File has been located and 1 otherwise. This can be useful in providing a user controlled abort mechanism if the Configuration File does not exist. The optional argument gConfigDir can be used to set an additional location of the GINO configuration file if it is known to be in a non-standard location. The function gEnqConfigStatus() must only be used in place of a call to gOpenGino as it will re-initialize GINO if called anywhere else.

Windows

Under Windows, the GINO configuration file is called GINO.CON and must be located in one of the following directories:

Current Working Directory
Directory pointed to by the environment variable GINO
Directory pointed to by the routine gEnqConfigStatus()
\GINO        (on the current drive)
System PATH

UNIX and Linux

Under UNIX/Linux, the GINO configuration file is called gino.config and must be located in one of the following directories:

Current Directory
Directory pointed to by the environment variable GINOHOME
Directory pointed to by the routine gEnqConfigStatus()
/usr/local/lib
/usr/local
System PATH

OpenVMS

Under OpenVMS, the GINO configuration file is called GINO.CON and must be located in one of the following directories:

Current Directory
Directory pointed to by the logical name GINOHOME
Directory pointed to by the routine gEnqConfigStatus()

Remember that when distributing GINO programs, the GINO configuration file must also be distributed and must also be located in a valid directory.

The GINO configuration file may also contain system administration commands to set or alter system or device parameters specific to the local implementation.  This includes Error output, Window Titles, Window Colours, Fortran output channels etc.  All these settings are described in Appendix A and B.

Closing Down GINO

At the end of an application, GINO should be properly closed down through the routine gCloseGino(). This contains an implicit call to gCloseDevice() to close down the currently opened device.

The routines gOpenGino() and gCloseGino() should be used to open and close the GINO part of a user program.