Manuals >User's Guide >Creating and Running Macros
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Macro Features

As demonstrated in the example, basic macro syntax is quite simple, yet reasonably powerful. This section gives more detail about macro features.

In macros you can write statements that use IC-CAP's Parameter Extraction Language (PEL). The PEL syntax is based on Rocky Mountain Basic or HP BASIC. You can run operating system commands and send data to external files. Macros can store IC-CAP data to data bases.

IC-CAP uses a single interpreter for both the Program function and macros. As a result, these have nearly identical features, except that a macro does not store a data set when it finishes.

Note


For details on PEL statements, refer to Chapter 9, "Parameter Extraction Language," in the Reference manual.

Program Statements

Several IF statements and a WHILE statement allow looping and conditional execution for a statement or a block of statements.

The LINPUT and PRINT statements permit 2-way communication with an operator and permit sending output to files and instruments.

Built-in Functions

Functions and operators for numerical computation and for handling strings are available. You can compute using single numbers or whole data sets, without additional programming effort. The functions and operators use the same names (such as, LOG SQRT VAL$ and SYSTEM$) as HP BASIC or RMB. The SYSTEM$ function is one of two functions available for invoking HP-UX shell commands. For information refer to "Built-in Functions" in the Reference manual.

Calling the Function List Library

Within macros, you can invoke the functions used by transforms without creating transforms. On the other hand, you can also perform an existing transform, if that is more convenient (see the next section, Calling Menu Functions). The example macro at the end of this chapter demonstrates a call to the RMSerror function.

Calling Menu Functions

A special command, iccap_func, provides a simple but powerful means for controlling the IC-CAP system in an automated fashion (see Controlling the IC-CAP System). The example at the end of this chapter demonstrates the use of iccap_func to perform simulation and extraction.

Note


The iccap_func statement replaces the menu_func statement used in earlier releases. Macros using the menu_func statement will still work, but when creating new macros, we recommend using the iccap_func statement. However, note that not all UI functionality is accessible with iccap_func.

Autostart Capabilities

You can request the execution of a particular macro on startup. For details, refer to Autostart Macros.

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