Net -- the class of all nets and strings

Description

A net is a generalization of a string that is designed to facilitate two-dimensional printing on ascii terminals. It consists of a rectangular array of characters subdivided horizontally by an imaginary baseline.

Operations on nets also accept strings by interpreting a string as a rectangle of height one with the baseline just below it. In fact, the parent of String is Net.

Multiple nets per line can be sent to an output file with << but care must be taken to use endl to end lines, for nets with new line characters embedded in them will be displayed in an unexpected way.

Warning: if so many characters are written to a file that an internal buffer is filled before the line ends or first net is seen, then the buffer will be flushed, and writing a net subsequently will produce an unexpected result.

Types of net :

String -- the class of all strings

Functions and methods returning a net :

generateAssertions -- generate assert statements from experimental input
horizontalJoin -- join nets or strings horizontally
"horizontalJoin(BasicList)" -- see horizontalJoin -- join nets or strings horizontally
net -- format for printing, as a net
Net ^ ZZ -- raise a net or string
"String ^ ZZ" -- see Net ^ ZZ -- raise a net or string
Net | Net -- join strings or nets
Net || Net -- join nets or strings vertically
peek -- examine contents of an object
peek' -- examine contents of an object
stack -- join nets or string vertically
"stack(BasicList)" -- see stack -- join nets or string vertically
String ^ Sequence -- vertically stacked copies of a string

Methods that use a net :

"Net == Net" -- see == -- equality
"Net == String" -- see == -- equality
"String == Net" -- see == -- equality
"capture(Net)" -- see capture -- evaluate Macaulay2 code and capture the output
"depth(Net)" -- see depth -- depth of a net
"File << Net" -- see File << Thing -- print to a file
"height(Net)" -- see height -- height of a net
"NetFile << Net" -- see NetFile -- the class of all net files
"pad(Net,ZZ)" -- see pad -- pad a string or net with spaces
"pad(ZZ,Net)" -- see pad -- pad a string or net with spaces
"unstack(Net)" -- see unstack -- list the rows of a net
width(Net) -- width of a net

Fixed objects of class Net :

copyright -- a string containing the copyright notice for Macaulay2
currentFileDirectory -- the directory containing the current input file
currentFileName -- the current source file
"docTemplate" -- see doc -- a simple documentation function
docExample -- an example of a documentation string
newline -- the new line character sequence
rootPath
rootURI
testExample -- an example of a test string
"currentString" -- see value(String) -- evaluate a string

For the programmer

The object Net is a type, with ancestor class Thing.