5. Configuring pyFormex

Many aspects of pyFormex can be configured to better suit the user's needs and likings. These can range from merely cosmetic changes to important extensions of the functionality. As pyFormex is written in a scripting language and distributed as source, the user can change every single aspect of the program. And the GNU-GPL license under which the program is distributed guarantees that you have access to the source and are allowed to change it.

Most users however will only want to change minor aspects of the program, and would rather not have to delve into the source to do just that. Therefore we have gathered some items of pyFormex that users might like to change, into separate files where thay can easily be found. Some of these items can even be set interactivley through the GUI menus.

Often users want to keep their settings between subsequent invocation of the program. To this end, the user preferences have to be stored on file when leaving the program and read back when starting the next time. While it might make sense to distinct between the user's current settings in the program and his default preferences, the current configuration system of pyFormex (still under development) does not allow such distinction yet. Still, since the topic is so important to the user and the configuration system in pyFormex is already quite complex, we tought it was necessary to provide already some information on how to configure pyFormex. Be aware though that important changes to this system will likely occur.



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