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2 File format

A menu file is a simple text file which may describe up to 5 menus. The first word in any line of the file should be one of the two keywords - MENU or BUTTON. Alternatively the semi-colon (;) character may be used, as the FIRST character in the line, to denote a comment line. Any other first word will produce a "Keyword not understood" message.

The MENU keyword simply means start another menu and the BUTTON keyword tells the system that a button within the current menu is being defined. e.g. the following

  ;Image proc menu
    MENU
  ;
      BUTTON SLICE ISLICE
      BUTTON STATS ICENTROID|IMODE KEY|ICIRCLE RAD=0.1|ISTATS|IMODE CUR
      BUTTON RADIAL IRADIAL
      BUTTON EXTRAS USEMENU 2
      BUTTON QUIT QUIT
  ;
  ; Second menu of additional options
     MENU
  ;
      BUTTON "SET DEF" DEFAULT /scratch/rds
      BUTTON SPOKES XSPOKES
      BUTTON QUIT USEMENU 1

The above is a simple two menu file which defines a number of image processing operations in the first menu and some extra functions in a second menu. The second menu may be called from the first by pressing the "EXTRAS" button.

Note the use of the pipe character (|) in the STATS command to allow several operations to be performed sequentially. The QUIT button in the first menu, has been set up to issue the QUIT command. This is a special command which is recognised by the RUNMENU procedure as a means of exiting the menu system. A top level menu should include one button which executes this command so that a neat exit from the menu system can be achieved (otherwise CNTL C works).

The format for the BUTTON command is 'BUTTON name command'. If a button name is required with an embedded space then the name should be enclosed in quotes, e.g. the 'SET DEF' command.

A menu file may be loaded with the LOADMENU command. It is then executed by typing "RUNMENU 1".

Example menus exist in the $AST_DAT_MENU directory.

Next: 3 Method Up: Menu Commands Prev: 1 Buttons