Current Page: NeXtMidas User's Guide X-Midas Interoperability Capabilities And Limitations
| ### Summary of Capabilities and Limitations While this section shows the most important similarities and differences between NeXtMidas and X-Midas, it is intended solely to answer questions that experienced X-Midas users are expected to have. No attempt is made to explain X-Midas operating concepts or jargon. Readers without X-Midas experience can skip this segment without missing any essential information about NeXtMidas. Although NeXtMidas borrows many operating concepts from X-Midas, it shares none of its code. #### Similarities NeXtMidas extends the following X-Midas features: All commands accept both positional and name=value parameter styles, which simplifies entry of commands that have a large number of parameters. The NeXtMidas command dictionary is the central repository for parameter names and default values, an approach that eliminates the need to search primitive source code to determine command-specific conventions. NeXtMidas option trees can include directories containing .jar files. In NeXtMidas, aux directories are named, not numbered, and are not restricted to being on the local file system. This simplifies NeXtMidas access to files identified by URL. Results parameters are generalized objects stored in hierarchical tables. They default to local visibility but can be promoted to global. Messages have names, do not require configuration, are transmitted to queues unique to each recipient rather than a central queue, accept generalized values, and permit reference as objects. Explain files are rendered as HTML documents but can also be given the traditional treatment as plain text files. Menus, responsive controls and readouts and dynamic plot updates are used and are more portable in NeXtMidas due to its Java implementation. #### Obsolete Commands The following X-Midas commands are missing from NeXtMidas because they provide a service that is not relevant to NeXtMidas or have a functional replacement: MTRANSLATE is unnecessary. STARTCONTROLS is unnecessary. XCALL is functionally replaced by GCONTROL. XCNTRL, XCOLORMAP, XMREMOTES, and XWINDOW are unnecessary. XCONTROL is functionally replaced by GCONTROL. XDATALIST is functionally replaced by LIST. XMBLD is functionally replaced by BLD. XMOPT is functionally replaced by OPTION. XMPATH is functionally replaced by PATH. XMSGLOG is functionally replaced by MESSAGELOG. XPIPE is functionally replaced by PIPE. XPLOT is functionally replaced by PLOT. #### Quiet Changes The following X-Midas features operate differently in NeXtMidas without necessarily warning the user or macro programmer of the change or of possible misunderstanding. Known bugs or temporary NeXtMidas limitations are not listed here. The NeXtMidas file reader delivers scalar-packed (SP) data on a little-endian machine in 0, 1, 2, order. X-Midas always delivers data in 7, 6, 5, order, regardless of native data representation. The NeXtMidas CONFIGURE command recognizes only K (clear) and C (command merge) functions. The order of CONVERT command parameters has changed. The order of FFT command parameters has changed. The NeXtMidas GOTO command ignores the X-Midas <direction> parameter and will automatically find the first statement in the macro with the sought-after label. The order of MENU command parameters has changed. The order of RAMP command parameters and the meaning of the <format> parameter have changed. UPDATE command parameters have changed substantially.