• File Qualifiers:
    • File qualifiers are used to override the default interpretation of a Blue File. Usually they are used to override one of the values in the Blue File header.
    • File qualifiers are specified by appending them to the end of a file name. For example: 
      X-Midas:   myfile.prm(<TAG>=<VAL>)
NeXtMidas: myfile.prm{<TAG>=<VAL>}
      In the above example <TAG> is the name of the header value to override and <VAL> is the value to use. (Note that X-Midas uses parentheses while NeXtMidas uses braces.)
    • It is important to note that the syntax for qualifiers and the applicable TAG= names vary between the frameworks.
      • NeXtMidas choose a different syntax to allow qualifiers to be specified using a table (at the time X-Midas had no support for tables).
      • Both X-Midas and NeXtMidas give more details about the available TAG= names in the HEADERMOD explain file.
    • Multiple file qualifiers can be used at once. For example: 
      X-Midas:   myfile.prm(<TAG1>=<VAL1>)(<TAG2>=<VAL2>)
NeXtMidas: myfile.prm{<TAG1>=<VAL1>,<TAG2>=<VAL2>}
       or  myfile.prm{<TAG1>=<VAL1>}{<TAG2>=<VAL2>}
    • Both X-Midas and NeXtMidas allow the use of qualifiers that alter the interpretation/presentation of a file without directly overriding a value in the file header (a common example is AUX= which specifies the read/write AUX for the file).
      • Because of this, it is not uncommon to see qualifiers used with other types of file (especially in NeXtMidas).
    • (See Qualifiers in the User's Guide for details.)