Running KAPPA

KAPPA runs from the C-shell and variants, and also from the interactive command language--ICL. Both run monolithic programmes for efficiency. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Of the latter, the shell forces you to escape certain characters, and ICL does not have a foreach to loop through a wildcarded list of NDFs. You may simply prefer the familiar shell to ICL, though UNIX commands, including editing, are accessible from ICL via a ! prefix. This is not the soapbox to expound the intrinsic merits of the two command languages, but where there are differences affecting KAPPA, they'll be indicated. The choice is yours.

To run KAPPA from the shell just enter the following command.

     % kappa

This executes a procedure setting up aliases for KAPPA's command names and to make help information available. Then you'll be able to mix KAPPA commands with the familiar shell ones.

If the kappa command is not recognised, you probably haven't enabled the Starlink software. In your .cshrc or .tcshrc file, you insert the line

     source /star/etc/cshrc

and in .login you include the equivalent line

     source /star/etc/login

At non-Starlink sites the /star path may be different.

To run KAPPA from ICL you have to start up the command language if you are not already using it. This requires just one extra command, namely

     % icl

You will see any messages produced by system and user procedures, followed by the ICL> prompt. Again there is a procedure for making the commands known to the command language, and not unexpectedly, it too is

     ICL> kappa

Then you are ready to go. Not too painful, was it? In either case you'll see message from KAPPA telling you which version is ready for use.

So what do you get for your trouble? The application specifications lists in alphabetical order all the commands and their functions, and there is a classified list of the same commands. Many examples are given in subsequent sections.