ASCII Parameter Format

The parameter file is very simple. Each parameter gets one line of the form
	keyword = value / comment
where "/ comment" is optional, and each line is terminated with a linefeed. The final line of the file is simply END. Character strings get no special treatment. The comment / is differentiated from any /'s which may occur legitimately in character strings by the fact that character strings are surrounded by quotes. Quotes, which may be single or double as long as they're matched, are only needed if /'s are in the strings, but they may be used to delimit any character string. While the order of the elements of the line is important, the parsing subroutines will omit leading and trailing spaces and tabs from each element, so they may be positioned for clarity.

The following parameter string fragment contains information skymap uses to center maps on positions from a catalog. It will be used in later in a shell program example.

	CSTAR=1		/ Source number for centering (0=none)
	SFNAME='BSC'	/ Catalog file name for center
	STITLE='Bright Star Catalog'	/ Title for map center catalog
	SFBIN=T		/ Binary catalog (Y or N)
	SFDIR='/u1/Stars'	/ Catalog directory pathname
	SCHAR=3		/ Character for marking map center (-1=none)
	SSIZ=30		/ Size of constant-size character
	SGAP=0 		/ Gap if cross or half-cross
	SFNUM=Y		/ Label map center with catalog number (Y or N)
	SADDPROP=N	/ Add proper motion (Y or N)
	SJ2000=F	/ Catalog coordinates in J2000 (Y) or B1950 (N)
	SFOBJ=F		/ Print object name from ASCII catalog (Y or N)
	SFDATE=F	/ Set PDSTART from ASCII catalog (Y or N)
	END