The Multiple-Users Feature in SB v4.x & v5.x
Starting
from version 4.0, a new feature of allowing up to 20 different users (or
virtual user-entities) has been made available in Shabda-Brahma ET-Feel Word-Storm
Processor (SB). As this
feature is rather independent of the other features in SB, so this section has
been written in this separate file.
While pursuing its mission of typing words and word-sets faster, Shabda-Brahma creates a large set of auto-suggestions and accepts a large set of shorthand abbreviations, and these sets are distinct for every copy of SB depending on the text-pieces typed or opened (and file-read) therein. Depending on the chronology (time) of upgradations of the auto-suggestion database through the file-reading process, there also forms a distinct hierarchy of relevance (of the words & word-sets) in this database, which is distinct in every copy of SB in every given point of time. Thus, if an user of SB typed the word straight in a file somewhere above the word straight-line, and then got the file file-read by SB, then both the words will get into the auto-suggestion database, and in a hierarchy (at that point of time) of straight-line over straight. Just after that, if the user again types str, the auto-suggestion of straight-line is going to be displayed. But if, in another computer, one user has just let SB read a file with the words strategy and strategic contained in it instead, on typing str, it'll display the auto-suggestion of either strategy or strategic (with higher hierarchy for one of them as per later location in the file read).
What we've just encountered in the above example would be perfectly acceptable for the user, provided only a mathematician types in the first computer and only a political analyst in the second one. But what to do if both persons share the same computer (or if the same person simultaneously happens to be both), and happen to use SB alternately? Then, the mathematician will be frustrated by the strategy or strategic etc. words appearing when he is actually going to mean straight-line or straight, and vice-versa for the political analyst. To solve such a problem for several persons, or several writer-entities within the same person sharing the same copy of SB in the same computer, SB v4.0 has the provision of defining multiple users or multiple virtual user-entities within it, up to a maximum of 20 such users or user-entities in one copy of SB. However, the first two (numbered 01 & 02) of the user-entities (the user-entities are to be numbered as 01, 02, 03, .... ,19, 20) are pre-defined by the programmer, so that leaves the owner of SB with the option of defining up to 18 new and different user-entities. Thus, if a researcher physician who is also a popular-science activist shares the computer with an economist who is also a poet, four new user-entities numbered 03, 04, 05 and 06 may need to be defined as (say) Medical Researcher, Popular-Science Activist, Economist and Poet (the fourteen remaining user-entities may be simply kept undefined). Whenever the economist want to write poems, she should do so by entering the No. 06 user-entity named Poet.
The No. 01 user-entity is called the Default User-Entity, and its name can never be changed. It contains three pre-defined moderately large sets of auto-suggestions in the English, Spanish, Hindi and Assamese languages, small sets of shorthand-abbreviations in English, and also three inbuilt symbolizers (i.e., symbol-producers or conjunct-consonant makers for South-Asian languages) in the Times New Roman (Spanish & other West-European/ American languages), Kiran (Hindi) & Aadarsha Ratne Internet (Assamese) Fonts. The sets of auto-suggestions may however be enlarged or modified by the file-reading process, and more shorthand abbreviations may be newly defined. The other user-entities (including the second) also normally use the same symbolizers, unless the font to script assignment set is different (say, if a Manipuri-language script is assigned to the Assamese script in SB for, say, the No. 04 user-entity). The second or No. 02 user-entity (the name of which also can't be changed from Other Language - Same Script User) is meant for typing in languages such as German, Bengali, Marathi, Nepali etc., as such a typing work requires the same set of programmer-assigned scripts, but for which the pre-defined set of auto-suggestions in English, Assamese or Hindi will be nothing but a nuisance. So this user-entity originally has only blank sets of auto-suggestions. The newly definable user-entities (No. 03 through 20) may be created (built) either from the Original Default (original state of No. 01), or from a Blank one (which in effect implies creation of a user-entity similar to the original state of No. 02), from Current Default i.e. from the present form of No. 01, from the present form of No. 02, or from (the present form of) another already existing user-entity.
The guiding rule about wherefrom to create a new user-entity may be stated as follows: If the user is planning to use the three vendor-assigned languages (English, Hindi and Assamese) in the user-entity, it'll be generally advisable to build from the Original Default, unless the benefit of the newly developed vocabulary in the default user-entity is sought (in which case it should be built from the Current Default). If a totally new and different language is mainly intended, it is advisable to build from Blank. If the user-entity No. 02 was already using a non-assigned language say, Bengali, and a new user-entity is to be made to concentrate on some aspect of writing in that same language, it might be advisable to build the new user-entity from the existing state of that user-entity No. 02. Thus, in general, if the user wants to benefit from the vocabulary newly developed within an existing user-entity, it is advisable to build the new one from that Existing User-Entity (EUE). Thus, if a new user-entity termed Egyptologist is to be made, and there has already been thriving a (non-default) user-entity called Historian, it'll be probably advisable to build Egyptologist from Historian.
The processes of choosing to use a desired existing user-entity, and of creating a new user-entity is extremely user-friendly. On opening SB, it first does its preliminary preparation work for around three seconds, and then for the next three seconds it waits for the specification of the user-entity. If no mouse-click or keystroke is made till the end of these six seconds, it automatically proceeds to choose the default (i.e., No. 01) user-entity. If, on the other hand, a mouse-click is made on the large button I am Another User-Entity, or on any of the smaller number-buttons (01, 02, 03 etc.) lying towards the bottom of the opening screen, a non-default user-entity may be chosen. If the chosen user-entity is not an existing one, a screen appears to provide it with a desired name (say Poet, Historian etc.). After that, another screen appears that asks wherefrom the new user-entity is to be built, for which an appropriate mouse-click is to be made to provide the answer and to finally build the new user-entity.
Note: You may even keep the above-mentioned multiple-users facility deactivated (blocked), so that every time you open SB, only the default (i.e., the No. 01) user-entity gets instantly (and automatically) selected without any time-gap. To get it blocked that way, just put a file (containing any text within it) named Block4th.txt in the DontOpen subfolder.