The help facility of MIDAS (command HELP) provides detailed
descriptions of all supported commands and qualifiers. This applies
also to the HELP command itself.
If you work in an X-Window environment we suggest to use XHelp, the
graphical user
interface to the MIDAS Help facility, by executing the MIDAS command
CREATE/GUI HELP.
It is recommended to execute this command before any
LOAD/IMAGE command, otherwise you could get problems with missing
colors.
Besides providing a separate and convenient interface to the MIDAS Help utility
this GUI also supports a
feedback facility for reporting errors,
problems and suggestions to the
MIDAS group at ESO (this problem-report
mechanism is based on the commercial Action Remedy System).
And if you use the readline line-editor you can
also update the MIDAS Help facility with the current command-line by typing
or 1.
Also, the TUTORIAL commands will help you in exploring the
MIDAS system. Use the MIDAS command HELP TUTORIAL to find out
which tutorials exist and try them out.
There is also a tutorial about the HELP command itself. Use
TUTORIAL/HELP to exercise many of the features described in this section.
Besides the HELP GUI you can enter HELP commands from the terminal;
the syntax for using HELP from the command line are given in the
table Help Syntax.
Command | Description |
---|---|
HELP | To display all currently existing MIDAS commands and topics |
HELP comnd | To display all the comnd/qualif combinations available for the given comnd |
HELP comnd/qualif | To get detailed information about the specified comnd/qualif combination |
comnd/qualif ?? | To display full command syntax (one line) of specified comnd/qualif |
pattern? | To list all commands which begin with given pattern |
HELP/QUALIF qualif | To list all commands which may use the given qualif |
HELP/SUBJECT subject | For any info related to subject |
HELP/CL comnd | To get detailed information on the MIDAS command language comnd |
HELP/KEYWORD keyword | To get detailed information about the specified keyword |
HELP [Topic] | To get information about a topic, e.g. the standard descriptors or available contexts |
HELP/APPLIC | To get information about available application procedures |
HELP/CONTRIB | To get information about available contributed procedures |