AIPS HELP file for PROC in 31DEC24

As of Thu Oct 10 6:56:57 2024

HELP SECTION

PROC or PROCEDURE
Type:  Pseudoverb
Use:   To declare a procedure name and calling sequence and to begin the
       compilation of the procedure.
Grammar:   PROC   name ( adv1, adv2, adv3, ..., advn)
       where name is the desired procedure name and the advi are the
       names of dummy variables used to pass values when the procedure
       is called and to return values when the procedure exits.  If name
       has already been declared as a procedure, the old procedure will
       be destroyed by this pseudoverb.  You may have any number of
       dummy arguments from 0 to 10 or so.  They may be scalars, arrays,
       or strings.  New scalar adverbs may be created by this
       pseudoverb.  However, if the dummy argument is to be a string or
       an array, it must have been declared as such before the present
       use of PROC.  When the procedure is invoked, the calling
       arguments must agree in number, type, and dimension with the
       specified dummy arguments.  After handling the PROC statement,
       AIPS will go into a compile mode and prompt you for input with :
       sign.  This mode ends with the FINISH statement.  The code
       generated during compilation is stored away and may be executed
       by giving the procedure name together with any calling arguments.
Example:   PROC  DUMMY (STRA3, ARRAY2, X)
       where STRA3 and ARRAY2 are a string and an array known before and
       X is to be a new scalar adverb.

Note: Bad choices for the name of the procedure can cause problems.  It
      should not match in its first characters any task you intend to
      use.  For example, if a procedure called FRINGIT is created, then
      GO FRING will actually do TPUT FRINGIT; FRINGIT since the POPS
      parser does not know any task names.  Of course, in this case you
      could say TASK='FRING'; GO; and keep FRINGIT as a proc name, but
      you would have to remember never to use the immediate argument
      form for FRING.

EXPLAIN SECTION