DBHELP
Name
DBHELP
Purpose
List available databases or items in the currently open database
Explanation
Procedure to either list available databases (if no database is
currently open) or the items in the currently open database.
Calling Sequence
dbhelp, [ flag , TEXTOUT=, /SORT ]
Input
flag - (optional) if set to nonzero then item or database
descriptions are also printed
default=0
If flag is a string, then it is interpreted as the
name of a data base (if no data base is opened) or a name
of an item in the opened data base. In this case, help
is displayed only for the particular item or database
Outputs
None
Optional Input Keywords
TEXTOUT - Used to determine output device. If not present, the
value of !TEXTOUT system variable is used (see TEXTOPEN )
textout=0 Nowhere
textout=1 if a TTY then TERMINAL using /more option
otherwise standard (Unit=-1) output
textout=2 if a TTY then TERMINAL without /more option
otherwise standard (Unit=-1) output
textout=3 <program>.prt
textout=4 laser.tmp
textout=5 user must open file
textout=7 same as 3 but text is appended to <program>.prt
file if it already exists.
textout = filename (default extension of .prt)
/SORT - If set and non-zero, then the help items will be displayed
sorted alphabetically. If more than one database is open,
then this keyword does nothing.
Method
If no data base is opened then a list of data bases are
printed, otherwise the items in the open data base are printed.
If a string is supplied for flag and a data base is opened
flag is assumed to be an item name. The information for that
item is printed along with contents in a optional file
zdbase:dbname_itemname.hlp
if a string is supplied for flag and no data base is opened,
then string is assumed to be the name of a data base file.
only information for that file is printed along with an
optional file zdbase:dbname.hlp.
Procedures Used
DB_INFO(),DB_ITEM_INFO(),FIND_WITH_DEF(), TEXTOPEN, TEXTCLOSE, UNIQ()
IDL VERSION:
V5.3 or later (uses vectorized FDECOMP)
History
Version 2 D. Lindler Nov 1987 (new db format)
Faster printing of title desc. W. Landsman May 1989
Keyword textout added, J. Isensee, July, 1990
Modified to work on Unix, D. Neill, ACC, Feb 1991.
William Thompson, GSFC/CDS (ARC), 1 June 1994
Added support for external (IEEE) representation.
William Thompson, GSFC, 3 November 1994
Modified to allow ZDBASE to be a path string.
Remove duplicate database names Wayne Landsman December 1994
8/17/95 jkf/acc - force lowercase filenames for .hlp files.
Added /SORT keyword J. Sandoval/W. Landsman October 1998
V5.3 version use vectorized FDECOMP W. Landsman February 2001
Recognize 64 bit, unsigned integer datatypes W. Landsman September 2001
Fix display of number of bytes with /SORT W. Landsman February 2002
Assume since V5.2 W. Landsman February 2002
Assume since V5.5 W. Landsman