Many characters have special meaning in the NeXtMidas
shell. This table lists their precedence (from highest to lowest) and function.
Character |
Position |
Function |
& |
end |
Continues command to next line. In a macro, the
line following is concatenated without its leading white space. |
&& |
end |
No continuation, becomes literal final & |
? |
end |
Prompts for command arguments. Does not function within macros. |
$ |
start |
Forces command to be executed in the shell that is running NeXtMidas (instead of a subshell).
This is run from Java and does not affect your Unix or other shell. |
$$ |
start |
Forces command to operating system. This will affect your Unix or other shell. |
! (bang) |
start |
Recalls recent commands. |
! (bang) |
anywhere |
Designates inline commenting within a macro (except within doublequotes). |
| (pipe) |
between arguments |
Used by commands such as PLOT to indicate a group of files. Also used by some commands
to indicate multiple mask (flag) values. |
/ |
after command name |
Applies following switch to command. |
, (comma) |
between arguments |
Separates arguments. |
(space) |
between arguments |
Separates arguments. |
^ (caret) |
before name |
Forces the substitution of the result or macro argument name following. |
{ } |
after a caret |
Defines the range of characters to which the caret (^) applies. |
{ } |
anywhere |
Defines the start and end to a NeXtMidas table definition
(see Tables). |
{ } |
after filename |
Treats characters in the brackets as file name qualifiers. |
" " |
around argument |
Preserves characters bracketed by " " as a leteral string argument, leaving the
white space and capitalization alone. |
% |
before macro name |
Designates the macro as a user macro. |
_ (underscore) |
before file name |
Designates the file name as the name of a pipe in a piped macro. |
( ) |
after file name |
Treats characters bracketed by ( ) as a file name trimmer. |
( ) |
around expression |
Groups expressions in an inline calculation. |
[ ] |
after a STARTMACRO argument |
Defines the default value for that argument. |
[ ] |
within ASK prompt |
Defines the default for the ASK prompt. |
: (colon) |
between type and name |
Separates type from argument or result label. |
: (colon) |
in trim qualifier |
Separates start from end. |