Hit Samples … and scroll down to choose Colorbar.net and open it. This time, we see an Image window, and also, our first Control Panel. Control Panels permit the DX programmer to provide for input from a user which can change according to the user's whim, rather than having the program 'hard-coded" to perform a specific task with the same inputs over and over. This particular control is a FileSelector control that makes it easier to load a data file by browsing with the Open dialog box rather than memorizing and typing long pathnames and filenames. Hit the ellipsis "…" button in FileSelector if you want to see how this works, but leave the filename unchanged.

The image shows both a colored data object and a Colorbar (Annotation device) that shows the viewer the relationship between data values and colors for this example. Furthermore, note that the label on the colorbar ("cloudwater.dx") tells the viewer what file the data comes from. This is set up in such a way that the label will change if you select a different data file. (You may wish to return to this example and inspect the program itself, after we discuss how to view the network program.)

I'll capitalize the names of modules or tools to get you thinking about their function. When we start building our own programs, I hope some of these names will sound familiar.

File: Quit … the Colorbar.net program, don't save, do exit. All windows associated with Colorbar.net will go away. You don't need to close them one by one.

I'll abbreviate Menu: Action directives using this notation. In DX, many windows share similar menus, but each window type has some unique menus or menu items. In cases where you must choose from a particular menu, I'll prefix with the window name as well, e.g., Data Explorer: File: Quit…, or Image: Options: View Control …