The scripts
used by Owl are written in “loosely” typed Java and interpreted
using the BeanShell interpreter. Details on the BeanShell interpreter
can be found at
http://www.beanshell.org/
and general Java tutorials can be found at
http://www.java.sun.com. The BeanShell interpreter conforms to Java SE1.4,
which does not support generics in the collections classes (such as ArrayList, etc).
The Owl installation directory contains a sub-directory called “Scripts”, which
contains a set of scripts used by Owl that can be used for reference. These scripts
can also be called by other (user-defined) scripts. Users are urged to not store
scripts in this directory, as any future upgrades of the program may result in loss
of your scripts.
The scripts areinterpreter has several built in constants and classes
that may useful when writing scripts:
bitmapPath;
A String object that contains the full path to the bitmap directory
in the Owl installation directory. The icons in this directory can
be used within scripts if needed. The default path is:
/bitmaps/.
xmlPath;
A String object that contains the full path to the XML directory in the
Owl installation directory. The xml files in this directory can be used
within scripts if needed. The default path is: /xml/.
This is mostly for FITS headers and users can store there own files in this
directory or in their own.
interp;
A reference to the Bean Shell interpreter. In general, scripts should
have no reason to access the interpreter, but it is there in case. This
is a large and fully documented class that can be found
here.