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On-Line Help

The help facility of MIDAS (command HELP) provides detailed descriptions of all supported commands and qualifiers. This applies also to the HELP command itself. If you work in an X-Window environment we suggest to use XHelp, the graphical user interface to the MIDAS Help facility, by executing the MIDAS command
CREATE/GUI HELP.
It is recommended to execute this command before any LOAD/IMAGE command, otherwise you could get problems with missing colors.
Besides providing a separate and convenient interface to the MIDAS Help utility this GUI   also supports a feedback facility for reporting errors, problems and suggestions to the
MIDAS group at ESO (this problem-report mechanism is based on the commercial Action Remedy System).

And if you use the readline line-editor you can also update the MIDAS Help facility with the current command-line by typing \fbox{\tt Ctrl/X}or \fbox{\tt F1}.
  
Also, the TUTORIAL  commands will help you in exploring the MIDAS system. Use the MIDAS command HELP TUTORIAL to find out which tutorials exist and try them out.   
There is also a tutorial about the HELP command itself. Use TUTORIAL/HELP to exercise many of the features described in this section.   
Besides the HELP GUI you can enter HELP commands from the terminal; the syntax for using HELP from the command line are given in the table Help Syntax.

 
Table 3.1: Help Syntax
Command Description
HELP To display all currently existing MIDAS commands and topics
HELP comnd To display all the comnd/qualif combinations available for the given comnd
HELP comnd/qualif To get detailed information about the specified comnd/qualif combination
comnd/qualif ?? To display full command syntax (one line) of specified comnd/qualif
pattern? To list all commands which begin with given pattern
HELP/QUALIF qualif To list all commands which may use the given qualif
HELP/SUBJECT subject For any info related to subject
HELP/CL comnd To get detailed information on the MIDAS command language comnd
HELP/KEYWORD keyword To get detailed information about the specified keyword
HELP [Topic] To get information about a topic, e.g. the standard descriptors or available contexts
HELP/APPLIC To get information about available application procedures
HELP/CONTRIB To get information about available contributed procedures
 

  
Normally, the HELP text is not written to the MIDAS logfile (to save space in the logfile)  but if you wish to include this, you may do so by setting keyword LOG(3) to 1 via e.g. the MIDAS command LOG(3) = 1. To print out the help text, use PRINT/HELP.


next up previous contents index
Next: Input/Output Redirection in Midas Up: Command Syntax Previous: Command Line Suspension
Petra Nass
1999-06-09