PARAMETER evaluate parameters passed to a procedure. An example will show
best how PARAMETER works. Suppose the following command was typed:
The parameter list portion of the command line is saved, i.e. '2 X
IMAGEFILE'. The procedure TEST.PRO is then called. TEST has in it the
command
BUFNUM and FACTOR are taken to be variable names and are associated with
the first two parameters from the parameter list. In effect it does the
command SET BUFNUM=2 FACTOR=X. Note that '2' and 'X' could have been any
arithmetic expression.
The STRING= keyword means that the third parameter is used as a literal
string and the string variable name FILENAME is given the string value
IMAGENAME, in effect doing the command:
If there are fewer parameters in the CALL than required in the PARAMETER command, the missing parameters are taken to be 0 or blank, as appropriate.
Note that there is only one area in VISTA for saving the list of passed parameters, so the PARAMETER command should be executed before calling another procedure.