DataLab is a compact statistics package aiming at exploratory data analysis. Please visit the DataLab Web site for more information....


DLabPascal - Meta Tags

DataLab supports the definition of meta tags which contain additional information about the particular script. Syntactically the meta tags have to be included as a comment within the first 25 lines of a script (the number of lines which are analysed for meta tags can be adjusted in the preferences dialog). Each tag starts with a hash-tag (#) immediately followed by the tag identifier. Only one tag per line is allowed.

Meta Tag Parameters Explanation & Details
#Author name Name of the author of the script (this meta tag has informational purposes only and is not evaluated by DataLab)
#Caption text A short description of the script. This text is displayed in the selection list of the DataLab GUI.
#DateTime text The date and time when the script has been created or changed (this meta tag has informational purposes only and is not evaluated by DataLab).
#InstallBtn order icon hint If the tag #InstallBtn is defined, DataLab installs a shortcut button for the script. The parameter order is a positive numeric value which determines the position of the button if more than one script buttons are defined (buttons with lower order numbers will be displayed first). The parameter icon specifies an icon file. The icon file must be a 42x21 pixel graphic (for details see below) stored as a BMP file in the script directory. The filename must not contain blanks. The hint parameter defines the hint which is displayed when the mouse is over the button. A maximum of 9 shortcut buttons can be set up.
#MinDLabVersion DLabVers Minimum required DataLab version. If the copy of DataLab has a release number which is less than the minimum required version the script cannot be executed. This way you can ensure that certain features of DataLab are supported. The parameter DLabVers is a floating point number with two decimal places.
#ProgName name The name of the program as it is listed in the "Program" column of the script selector. Please note that this tag is only evaluated if the Pascal source code lacks the "program" statement, otherwise it is ignored.
#Publish AccessRights Access rights given by the author: possible values are 'private', 'public', 'personal', and 'group'. Default is 'private'. Personal access rights have to be followed by a list of email addresses of the users who are allowed to use the script, group access rights have to be followed by a list of groups whose members may access the script. Please note that the management of access rights is currently not implemented and will be available only in future versions of DataLab.
#ReadOnly TRUE/FALSE If set to TRUE the script cannot be edited without resetting the read-only state. In order to reset the readonly state, open the script, right click the corresponding tab of the script editor and deselect "Read Only" in the context menu. Please note that readonly scripts are displayed using a gray background.
#Version text Version identifier of the script. The identifier text can be any string reflecting the version (we recommend to use a major/minor revision approach, but it is left to the user how to identify different versions of a script).

Here is an excerpt of a DLabPascal script showing the definition of four meta information tags. The script is assigned to a button using the icon "scrbtn_1.bmp":

program SampleScript1;

(*************************************************************************
  #AUTHOR John Doe
  #DATETIME 2022-02-18 10:10:26
  #VERSION 1.00
  #CAPTION opens a data file and performs a few transformations
  #MINDLABVERSION  4.202
  #READONLY FALSE
  #INSTALLBTN 1 scrbtn_1.bmp just a sample script
 *************************************************************************)

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Hint: Please note that the meta tags for DLabPascal scripts can start with either one or two hash characters (in contrast to Python scripts which always have to use two hash characters in order to distinguish meta tags from normal comment lines).

Shortcut Buttons

The shortcut buttons use icons which can be configured by the user. A button icon has to have a resolution of 42 by 21 pixels. The left part (first 21 pixels on the x-axis) contains the icon used when the button is enabled, the right part is used to display the disabled state:

DataLab provides default icons for the first 9 shortcut buttons (named scrbtn_1.bmp to scrbtn_9.bmp). You can create your own shortcut icons either by editing the existing ones or by creating new ones.