Creating Command Help

Every command has an explain file which documents its parameters, switches, and a brief explanation of how to use the command. Explain files are placed in the exp area of an option tree, and are identified by the command name (all lower-case) with an .exp extension.

Like X-Midas, NeXtMidas explain files have a simple, plain-text format with a semi-uniform structure. Below, the explain file for INRANGE illustrates a few standard conventions:

  INRANGE - Determines if all of the data is within a given range.

  <IN>  The input file. [Required Parameter]
  <MAX> The maximum allowable value. [Required Parameter]
  <MIN> The minimum allowable value. [Default=0]

  Keyword Only Parameters:
      [CXMODE] - complex mode = NONE,MAG,PHASE,REAL,IMAG,10LOG,20LOG [DEF=NONE]
  
  Determines if all the data is within a given range. This will loop
  through all data points and check to see that they fall between
  <MAX> and <MIN> (inclusive).

  Methods:
      None

  Messages:
      None

  Examples:
    1. Check to see that all data is between 0 and 100:
       nM> INRANGE myfile 100 0

    2. Check to see that all data is between 0 and 100 (using magnitude of
          the complex data:
       nM> INRANGE mycffile 100 0 CXMODE=MAG

  Switches:
      None

  See Also: FCALCULATOR, ANOTHERCOMMAND

An explain file template is provided in $NMROOT/nxm/sys/exp/TEMPLATE.EXP.