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3 Shortform commands

Many commands have switches or options which determine the way they behave. These switches are parameters entered by keyword on the command line. This can sometimes make the overall command quite long, so shorter forms of popular combinations have been predefined using the ICL 'defstring' facility. An example is:

  ICL> defstring div(ide) arithmetic oper="/"

When the command DIVIDE (may be abbreviated to DIV) is given, ICL expands this into arithmetic oper="/" and thereby invokes ARITHMETIC with the option OPER="/". Any other quantities entered on the command will be appended to the expanded string before it is interpreted. So a full example might be:

  ICL> divide img 2.0 newimg

which expands to arithmetic oper="/" img 2.0 newimg.

Where shortform commands have been defined a section is included in the help for the full command. Shortform commands also have their own entry in the relevant command group and to distinguish them from primitive ASTERIX commands they have the suffix '+'. You may of course define your own and in this way ASTERIX can be customised to suit the way in which you normally use it.

Next: 4 Macro commands Up: Asthelp Prev: 2 Command summary