ASTHELP provides a comprehensive online HELP system for ASTERIX.
Details of all available commands, including information on all of their parameters, are included.
ASTHELP can be used hierarchically, working down from the top level headings to the section of interest, or by going directly to a section by specifying a predefined keyword. All ASTERIX commands are predefined keywords, so invoking it with
will go straight to the section for that command. Once inside ASTHELP, keywords can be activated by preceding them withICL> asthelp command_name
\
eg. \line_style
You may also append a path to a keyword to take you onwards
to a sub-section for that keyword eg. \COMMAND PARAM will
take you straight to the parameter section for that command.
Defined keywords are indicated in help text by being displayed
in different intensity. Unambiguous abbreviations of keywords
may be used. At present there aren't very many but in future
more will be defined so that ASTHELP has a more hypertext feel
about it.
Other commands available are:
\ goes back to top level
<RETURN> goes back one level
- go back to previous display ***
? display current level
Ctrl-Z exit from ASTHELP
*** if you've made a jump through hypertext to get more
information on a keyword then this is intended to
get you back to your starting point - navigation
isn't always precise and a final adjustment under
impulse power may be required
The above commands and \KEYWORD may also be given at the
more... prompt except that <RETURN> continues the display.
The full syntax of the asthelp command is,
where the the -p switch causes output to be sent to the printer and the -f filename switch sends output to the named file. With either of these options the -q switch can be used to suppress screen output. which may be useful if you wish to make hardcopy of a large section.asthelp [-p|-f filename [-q]] keywords
Also useful for copying large sections is the ellipsis feature eg.
will write to file the whole help section for image processing.csh> asthelp image... -f im.lis -q