Commands follow the syntax of MIDAS, that means parameters are passed by keywords. Up to 8 parameters can be passed per command. There are specific applications where more than 8 parameters have to be defined. This problem was overcome by introducing parameter files. The name of the parameter file has to be passed as a parameter. The command referring to SOURCE DETECTION tasks are interfacing via a parameter file. Besides the name of the parameter file also an edit flag is passed. This makes it possible to edit (and modify) the parameter file in the course of executing the command. The parameter files for the SOURCE DETECTION tasks have default names but the user has also the possibility to choose a different name. The local source detection task would look like
DETECT/LOCAL ? edit
in the default mode. The question mark stands for defaulting the name of the parameter file which will be dlpar.par in this specific case. Default file extensions for MIDAS table files (.tbl), images (.bdf) and EXSAS parameter files (.par) have not to be passed.