*FORMATS | |
*TRIGGERS | (optional) |
*DATA | (optional) |
*SPECTRA | (optional) |
*AUTOGAIN | (optional) |
*COMMANDS | (optional) |
*FINISH | (denotes end of sortfile) |
and should appear in the data file in the above order. Items in the data file are in free format separated by spaces. Each starword section is described in a following chapter.
All starwords, commands and other sort language statements are expected on a new line. Any statement which exceeds a single line may just be continued on the following line. There are no line continuation symbols.
Names used may contain one or two components depending on whether the quantity is a group name or not . Each component must commence with an alphabetic character and may be up to 16 characters in length. Only alphanumeric and underscore (_) characters are allowed.
All names used for single and group parameters, sortwords, items, arrays, maps, parameter lists and routine arguments must be unique, eg. a parameter list may not have the same name as a sortword.
Numerical values should be specified as appropriate to the command:
Reserved words1 consist of all keywords and maths function names and cannot be used as other sort program names.
Comments may be placed anywhere in the text. Any text following an exclamation mark (!) or double forward slash (//) up to end-of-line is ignored by the setup procedure.