ADAM Parameter Format

ADAM task parameters can be of a number of different types as follows:

• Numbers -- These can be Integer, Real or Double Precision and are entered in the usual format (e.g. as in FORTRAN)

• Strings -- These are represented in the usual ICL formats. Quotation marks may be omitted where there is no ambiguity. In the above example they were necessary on `Sum of 2 images' when used on the command line as the spaces would otherwise make it appear to be four different parameters. However, they would not be needed for the same string in response to a single parameter prompt.

• Logical values -- These can be represented by the words TRUE, FALSE, YES, NO, T, F, Y or N, regardless of case.

• Arrays -- arrays of any of the above items may be represented by a list of values enclosed in square brackets, e.g. [1, 2, 3]. Two dimensional arrays may be represented as [ [1, 2], [3, 4] ] etc. The outer brackets may be omitted when responding to a prompt.

• Names -- These are the names of HDS (hierarchical data system) objects or files, or the names of devices (graphics devices, tape drives etc.). Normally these names can be typed directly as MTA0, ARGS etc, but there are a few cases of ambiguity. These cases can be resolved by prefixing the name with an @ character. For example, if it is required to specify an HDS container file with a name different from that of the object it contains, or with a specific generation number, the file specification can be enclosed in quotes (e.g. "data.sdf;3"). However, this would be interpreted as a character string unless prefixed with @. Suggested values in prompts are always displayed prefixed with @.