CONVENTIONS - how to read an explain file.

This file explains the general format and notation used in explain files.

Syntax:

The Syntax section begins with a model of the command line. Optional arguments are surrounded in square brackets; for example,

passwd [newpassword]

indicates the new password may or may not be included on the command line. Marking an item with a star means that the item may be repeated several times. For example,

ftn infile [infile]* [options]*

shows that there must be at least one input file and more may be specified if desired. There may also be a number of options specified on the command line.

If a command has a small number of options, they may be listed on this model command line as in

grelber [+All]

Otherwise, they will be listed immediately following the model command. The format

(+|-)Option

means that either +Option or -Option may be specified on the command line. If one of these settings is a default, the default will follow the option keyword in parentheses. For example,

(+|-)Paginate (-)

means that you may specify either +Paginate or -Paginate. If you do not specify either, -Paginate will be in effect.

The other standard format of option is

Keyword=value

The value may be a number, a string, a file name, or some other kind of value. Thus you might see

Option=nn
Option="string"
Option=file

and so on. Again, default values are often included in parentheses after the option, as in

PageLength=nn (66)

When specifying an option keyword, the letters shown in upper case must be included but letters shown in lower case may be omitted in the interests of abbreviation. Thus the PageLength option shown above may be abbreviated to

pl=, pagel=, pgl=, pagelen=

and so on, when typing in the command. (Note that the case of letters is only an explain file convention; commands and their options may be typed in any case you choose.)

Usage:

This follows the same conventions as the Syntax section.

Examples:

Examples show sample command lines. At times, examples will be commented on the right; such comments are introduced with either "<-" or "--" as in

expl ec >temp    -- directs explanation into file

Options:

This section describes the options that were listed in the Syntax section. When an option is of the (+|-) variety, the explain file will usually only describe the option that is NOT the default. There will only be separate explanations for +Option and -Option if it is not obvious how the two functions reverse each other.

Description:

This section describes the command, its uses, and some of its idiosyncrasies. More serious idiosyncrasies may be described in sections with the headings "Notes" or "Bugs".

Files Used:

This section lists the files that are used by the command. Some of these may be library files used by the command; others may be output files created by the command and placed in your AFT.

See Also:

This section lists related explain files.

Copyright:

Almost all our explain files contain a copyright notice at the bottom, and those that don't already will be given such a notice eventually. Before we began to do this, we had problems with other sites pirating our explanations and publishing them without giving us credit.

Our current approach to copyright is that our users may make printed copies of any on-line documentation, but the origin of the documentation (i.e. Thinkage Ltd.) must be included whenever the material is distributed. This applies to the actual explain files, as well as the source (e.g. TF source) for the explain files.

Copyright © 1996, Thinkage Ltd.