Sample periods
given that the circle representing the de Bruijn diagram is too congested to be of practical use, some alternatives are provided which deliver the information in a more usable form. For convenience, they are shown in a small pop-up menu which appears when the de Bruijn calculation has finished; it occupies the region marked ``print'' in Figure 9.
The options are
- p - Print a list of all the links in the diagram.
- r - Show a random walk through the diagram
- s - Scan all the random walks according to initial link
- CARRIAGE RETURN - return to the de Bruijn menu
As the presence of the option CARRIAGE RETURN suggests, one is dealing with a mini-mini menu, which allows some exploration before exiting. Unfortunately, one often forgets the level in which one is operating, and becomes confused.
According to the program and its date of revision, the option p will either display the links on the screen, or copy them to a disk file. The screen display halts after each screenfull of information, so that the results can be copied down or saved via a screen dump. It is a terminal option, returning to the de Bruijn menu on completion.
The option s may be interrupted at any time, although the presentation of the evolution panel will always be completed. Then, either after finding a satisfactory r or having halted at an interesting s, two CARRIAGE RETURN 's will return one to the main menu while retaining the same line image. By proceeding to the main menu option g, the configuration's evolution can be followed indefinitely. Usually it begins to degrade, given the fact that the configuration is rarely compatible with the periodicity of the screen.
Harold V. McIntosh
E-mail:mcintosh@servidor.unam.mx