Entering Commands

The command line editing keys, command entering protocols, and methods of recalling previously-entered commands are described below.

Editing Keys

Listed below are the command line editing keys available with the default McIDAS command input editor. See the EDITMODE command for other available editors.

Key	Function
Home	moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
End	moves the cursor to the end of the line
Insert	toggles the insert typing mode
Delete	deletes the character over the cursor
Backspace	deletes the character to the left of the cursor
Right/Left arrows	moves the cursor one character to the right or left
Tab, Shift Tab	moves the cursor one parameter to the right or left
Enter	runs the command; if the text frame's bottom line is not displayed, Enter forces the display to the bottom showing the echoed command
Esc	erases the command from the command line and places the cursor at the front of the line
Alt ?	displays an abbreviated help for the current command in the command line
& and ^	recalls a command if the command line is empty or contains a command recalled with & or ^; the & recalls the previous command from a circular recall list; ^ scans the recall list in the opposite direction; the recall list consists of the number specified with the -ih flag in the .mcidasrc file; see Recalling Commands below for additional ways to recall commands for editing

NOTE: The Home, End, right/left arrows, Ins and Del keys on the numeric keypad do not work.

Command Protocols

Use the following protocols when entering McIDAS commands.

The number of characters is system-dependent, but at least 512.
Enter most command, parameter and keyword letters in uppercase. Lowercase letters should only be needed when a command uses a single(') or double quote (") to indicate a text field. To enter lowercase letters after the quote, use the Caps Lock key or press the Shift key while typing. The state of the Caps Lock light may be incorrect.
After typing a command, press Enter to run it.
Run system-defined, single-letter commands by pressing the Alt key (open-apple key on macOS systems) and letter key at the same time, or by typing the letter and pressing Enter. You can enter single-letter commands using the Alt key while entering a multiple-letter command in the Text and Command Window.
Enter single-letter strings with a pound sign (#). Press Ctrl and the letter if the single-letter string is a complete command.
Press Ctrl and the left mouse button to echo the latitude and longitude at the cursor position to the command line. This option is useful for entering latitude and longitude values in commands such as IMGDISP.
Generally, parameters and keywords are separated by one space. McIDAS interprets multiple spaces between parameters and keywords as a single space.
Run multiple commands in a single entry by concatenating the commands. Concatenate commands by placing a semicolon (;) between commands. For example, SF 3;EG;MAP USA. To concatenate commands that use quote fields, substitute curly brackets ({ }) for the quotes. For example,
PC L KMSN;ZA 3 10 {Madison};PC L KMIA;ZA 3 10 {Miami}.
Use the question mark (?) command to display status. Active processes are listed with a Process IDentification (PID) number. To stop a command, use the / (Slash) or KILL command with the appropriate PID value. See Chapter 3 for more information.

Recalling Commands

As described in Editing Keys above, the & and ^ keys can be used to recall previously-entered commands from a buffer containing the commands entered via the command line during the current McIDAS session. Those commands, as well as commands entered during previous sessions and entered through the McIDAS-X GUI are also available in the file MCCMDHIST.TXT. In the file, each new McIDAS session is indicated with the line Starting a new McIDAS session on <date and time>. The number of commands stored in the file is equal to the value set in the -ih flag in the .mcidasrc file. You can access the commands in MCCMDHIST.TXT for recall and editing through the Command History GUI under the main GUI window's List menu or through the SEE command or a text editor for cutting and pasting.

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