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Starting the MIDAS Monitor

   

In order to get properly initialised, MIDAS needs the following information


On a VMS system type SETMIDAS if you want to change the defaults for the mode and the MIDAS work directory.
On a Unix system use the option -m <mid_work> to change the default working directory, and -p or -P to run MIDAS in parallel mode  when you start MIDAS via the command inmidas (see below). There are many more options for the inmidas command in Unix, please, see the man page of inmidas for a complete list of the available options.

Two other variables are very important to MIDAS - MIDVERS, which holds the MIDAS version you use at your site, and MIDASHOME, the root directory for the MIDAS system code. These variables should have been set up correctly by your system manager when MIDAS was installed.


To start MIDAS, type INMIDAS on a VMS system or inmidas  on a Unix system. This will initialise the MIDAS monitor as follows:


On startup the current MIDAS version and the computer and operating system you are using are displayed together with a copyright notice. Then the prompt string

Midas 001>

appears on the terminal screen and you are ready to execute any of the available MIDAS commands.

The internal MIDAS files all reside in the MIDAS working directory ( MID_WORK), the data files are taken from the current working directory unless the complete file specification is given in the data file name.
Since MIDAS executes its applications in a child process (subprocess for VMS) which leaves no traces after termination, you cannot simply use the host command SET DEF (VMS) or cd (Unix) to change the working directory once you are in a MIDAS session. Instead, use the MIDAS command change/direc for that purpose.

MIDAS is a case insensitive system. That means, you can type your input with upper or lower case characters. There are, however, some pitfalls with respect to the data files that reside in the local file system. In VMS, the system automatically translates all file names to upper case, so LOLA.BDF and lola.bdf specify exactly the same file. In Unix, file names may be specified using lower and upper case, so LOLA.BDF and lola.bdf are two different files. The convention in MIDAS is to always use lower case file names (e.g. in tutorial procedures) to guarantee portability between VMS and Unix. Also, all default file types are specified in lower case, e.g. .bdf and .tbl for images and tables.

Note All MIDAS commands in the following sections are printed with capital letters. This is just for reasons of readability, i.e., to highlight them. The commands could all be typed in lower case as well.


next up previous contents index
Next: MIDAS And the Up: Monitor and Command Previous: Monitor and Command



Pascal Ballester
Fri Mar 24 17:17:52 MET 1995