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The HELP Field

This field is used to specify some help text for a parameter8.

This field is of the form:

HELP help-specifier
where help-specifier is a character string giving help information about the parameter, it may be either a single line of text to be displayed (single-line help) or a string of the form:
%filename key1 key2 etc...
specifying that multi-line help may be found in the help file filename and the module defined by key1 key2 etc...

Note that the preferred way of specifying multi-line help is using the HELPKEY field and that single-line help is not generally considered very useful.

If the user is prompted for a parameter value, and responds with `?', the specified text is displayed at the terminal and the user is re-prompted. (Except in the case where SMSICL outputs multi-line help - then the user is left in the help system and prompted for further topics of interest. When the user exits from the help system, the parameter prompt will reappear.)

If the user responds with `??' and there is no HELPKEY field specified for this parameter, the effect is the same except that if multi-line help is output the user will be left in the help system and prompted for further topics.





next up previous 63
Next: Example
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ADAM Interface Module Reference Manual
Starlink User Note 115
A J Chipperfield, B D Kelly, S L Wright
3 September 2002
E-mail:ussc@star.rl.ac.uk

Copyright © 2002 Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils