Chapter 13
Current  Software

The complete lists of software in  are kept up-to-date in certain special files which may then be accessed with the AIPS verb ABOUT. Semi-automatic software makes these listing files using the primary and secondary keywords entered by  programmers in the numerous help files. The explanations given for each symbol are also those entered by the programmers as the “one-liner” descriptions of the symbol for which the help file is written. The lists of primary and secondary keywords may be viewed directly by typing:

The help file for ABOUT is more explanatory, however. The general help file (for HELP itself) lists a number of general help files which will be of interest. These are also mentioned in the section called INFORMATION below.

The following sections are verbatim reproductions of the various listing files used by ABOUT and are roughly current to the current release of . Each section title is the name of the keyword which is used as the ABOUT topic. Each line within a section lists a task, verb, pseudoverb, procedure, adverb, or RUN file with a very brief description of its function. Pseudoverbs come in two flavors: those that act roughly like verbs and those that must be treated specially, i.e., that must appear alone on a line or only in certain contexts. The help file for each pseudoverb should clarify the its grammatical limits. Typing

where name is one of the entries in the left-hand column, will give more useful information about that  symbol.