NXM Help MAINHELP

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MAINHELP - Welcome to the HELP facility for the NeXtMidas SYS option tree.

Welcome to the HELP facility for the NeXtMidas SYS option tree. This module catalogs the concepts for Next-Midas users and programmers.

SHELL      - Using the NeXtMidas Shell and features
COMMANDS   - Command specifications and syntax
SWITCHES   - See Users's Guide -> System Operations -> Switches
MACROS     - Writing piped macros and other macro concepts
RESULTS    - Results table for working variables
FILES      - Data files of various types
DATA       - Data handling
QUALIFIERS - Using file qualifiers to modify behavior
RMIF       - Remote Midas InterFace Protocol
SYSMOD     - Systems Modeling Guide for 3D spatial coordinates
HELP       - Help with the HELP engine
DOCUMENTS  - Other non-Help File Format Documents

To find out which libraries comprise each category, type HELP CategoryName. To get help on a particular library routine, type HELP RoutineName. Category and Routine names may be abbreviated.

SHELL - ONLINE_HELP - LENDING A HELPING HAND

Go to full page: NXM_Help_SHELL

ONLINE_HELP - LENDING A HELPING HAND

SHELL - THE SHELL THAT WASN'T 
ONESHOT - Oneshot mode is a method by which NeXtMidas commands can be performed from your
INTERACTIVE - THE OLD SHELL GAME 
CALCULATIONS - A CALCULATED ADVANTAGE
SUBSTITUTION - ACCEPTING SUBSTITUTES
VECTORED - THE ONE AND THE MANY
SCOPE - SAYING WHEN
FILES - HAVING IT YOUR WAY
TRIMMING - JUST A TRIM, PLEASE
METACHARACTERS - There are several characters that have special meaning to the NeXtMidas shell

COMMANDS - Installing, finding and running commands.

Go to full page: NXM_Help_COMMANDS

Installing, finding and running commands.

There are a number of types of commands which may be run from the NextMidas shell:

  1. Command Line Processing
  2. Primitives, Intrinsics, Macros
  3. User Macros
  4. Operating System Commands

Commands are CASE-INSENSITIVE and may be abbreviated depending on how they are entered in the configuration file.

COMMANDLINE - Covers command line syntax and processing.
CONFIGURATION - unknown
RECALL - Recalling and completing commands.
COMPLETION - Completing commands.
INTRINSICS - shell control and other immediate commands
PRIMITIVES - data handling and processing commands
MACROS - the NeXtMidas scripting language commands
USERMACROS - unknown
OS - Executing Operating System commands
SWITCHES - See Users's Guide -> System Operations -> Switches

MACROS - Macros are scripts written in the Midas language.

Go to full page: NXM_Help_MACROS

Macros are scripts written in the Midas language. languages that may or may not have a translation step. In X-Midas, macros have a text (.txt) and binary (.mcr) form. In NeXtMidas, only the text (.mm) form is used.

TRANSLATION - the just-in-time translator
SETUP - Graphical setup files
STRUCTURE - the basic structure of a NeXtMidas macro

RESULTS - SCOPE - global and local scope within the macro language

Go to full page: NXM_Help_RESULTS

SCOPE - global and local scope within the macro language

ATOMIC - Atomic results are results parameters with more than one numeric element.
TYPECASTING - GETTING TYPECAST

FILES - AUXES - How NeXtMidas finds files.

Go to full page: NXM_Help_FILES

AUXES - How NeXtMidas finds files.

GROUPS - Definition of Midas file groups.
RESOURCES - Definition of file resources
TYPES - Types of Midas Data files
TRIMMERS - Using trimmers to thin files in-line.

DATA - A Data object consists of an array of 1 or more Atoms.

Go to full page: NXM_Help_DATA

A Data object consists of an array of 1 or more Atoms.

An Atom is an N-dimensional quantity defined by a data mode (Scalar,
Complex, Vector, ...), and a data type (Double, Float, Int, ...).
Foreign data sources also have a data representation (IEEE, VAX, CRAY, ...).
FORMAT - Atomic Formats available as elements
REPRESENTATION - underlying binary data formats

QUALIFIERS - AUX - This short-circuits the normal search through the read aux list

Go to full page: NXM_Help_QUALIFIERS

AUX - This short-circuits the normal search through the read aux list

TAG - This sets the ID of the file for plot layers.
FLAGS - This sets optional flags to tailor the behavior of the file
FS - This qualifier can be used to override the frame size of a file on-the-fly.
FG - The FG (File Group) qualifier can be used to specify the category of the file.
EXIST - The EXIST qualifier is used to tailor the existence algorithm used for a
TAG - The {TAG=name} qualifier may be used to set the "ID" of a file
CFL - The Circular File Length qualifier sets the length in seconds of the disk file

RMIF - RMI - Java's Remote Method Invocation protocol.

Go to full page: NXM_Help_RMIF

RMI - Java's Remote Method Invocation protocol.

HEADER - The RMIF 8-byte packet header.
ADJUNCTHEADER - The RMIF adjunct header.
FUNCTIONS - The currently defined RMIF functions.
METHODS - How RMIF packets are converted to function calls.
RMIVSRMIF - Why RMIF and UDP instead of RMI and TCP.
MFTP - The Midas File Transfer Protocol

SYSMOD - The systems modeling facilities in NeXtMidas are designed to manipulate data

Go to full page: NXM_Help_SYSMOD

The systems modeling facilities in NeXtMidas are designed to manipulate data describing objects moving in 3-dimensional space and the propagation of electromagnetic energy. Although the design requirements are quite focused, the tools developed to support these functions are generally applicable to a variety of problems. These tools include:

  1. Type 3000/5000 record oriented files
  2. Mechanisms for defining or manipulating absolute or relative event times
  3. Coordinate system transformations
  4. General arithmetic operations on 3 element data items (x,y,z)

The basis for mathematical operations in the systems modeling package (SMP) is the vector data atom. Typically, signal processing primitives are coded to interpret either scalar (real) or complex data atoms. Spatial quantities, when expressed as 3 component atoms, are call vector atoms. The SMP also makes use of the matrix (3x3) atom and the transmatrix (4x4) atoms.

There are a number of operations that can be performed on or with vector atoms:

  1. Scaling of magnitude
  2. Rotation of direction
  3. Translation of origin
  4. Addition/Subtraction of two vectors
  5. Scalar product (aka inner/dot product) of two vectors
  6. Vector product (aka outer/cross product) of two vectors

Conceptually, all of these operations are independent of the vector's expressed representation. However, to obtain meaningful numeric results from operations involving two or more vectors, they must be expressed in the same coordinate system, engineering units, and frame of reference. While the choice of representation is entirely arbitrary, sometimes the convenience of a particular form is so overwhelming compared to others as to make it almost (but never quite) mandatory.

For a particular application, different elements of a problem may be expressed more conveniently in different representations. It is this fact that motivates one to have the capability to convert easily among different representations.

NeXtMidas recognizes two types of ENGINEERING UNITS:

  1. ENGLISH
  2. METRIC

The specific units are associated with a numeric key as defined by the Util.unitsName() routine. However, the angular components of a vector are ALWAYS in units of degrees. The units keys are for the distance components of the vector only.

NeXtMidas recognizes four types of COORDINATE SYSTEMS:

  1. Cartesian (x,y,z)
  2. Spherical (R,theta,phi)
  3. Cylindrical (R,theta,h)
  4. Geodetic (alt,lat,lon)

NeXtMidas recognizes five standard types of REFERENCE FRAMES:

  1. NULL - not applicable to problem
  2. ECR - Earth Centered Rotational (X&Y in equatorial plane at 0 and 90
    degrees East respectively, and Z north along rotational axis)
  3. ECI - Earth Centered Inertial (X towards vernal equinox, Y 90 degrees
    east of X, and Z north along rotational axis)
  4. TOPOCENT - X due South in local horizon, Y east in horizon plane, and
    Z perpendicular (up) to local horizon
  5. TOP - X due East in local horizon, Y north in horizon plane, and
    Z perpendicular (up) to local horizon. This system is then
    augmented by a specified azimuth rotation, elevation angle,
    and roll angle.

If the reference name does not match one of these recognized names, it is assumed to be a CUSTOM frame of reference frame as defined by a special type 5000 file of that name with the appropriate transformation matrices.

The TRANSMATRIX is defined as follows

A = a11 a12 a13   b1  s1
a21 a22 a23   b2  s2
a31 a32 a33   b2  s2

where the columns are contiguous in memory. This leads to a matrix transformation of the form y = Ax.

y1  =  a11*x1 + a12*x2 + a13*x3  + b1
y2  =  a21*x1 + a22*x2 + a23*x3  + b2
y3  =  a31*x1 + a32*x2 + a33*x3  + b3

The S term is currently unused. It is for a scaling factor.


HELP - This facility covers the HELP system.

Go to full page: NXM_Help_HELP

This facility covers the HELP system.

COMMANDS - unknown
USAGE - This section describes how to use help
BUILDING_HELP_FILES - Help files are built by writing text as it should appear in a help browser.
NOTFOUND - This help section entry was not found.

DOCUMENTS - ASCII - On-line copy of an ASCII character|dec|hex mapping chart

Go to full page: NXM_Help_DOCUMENTS

ASCII - On-line copy of an ASCII character|dec|hex mapping chart