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The Help Command

There is an online help command. Typing HELP <CR> or HELP HELP gives a list of the help menu, or HELP keyword gives help with that keyword. The help menu consists of any files in the directory specified by the entry help in the environment file, so for example HELP data types the file data in that directory. For all cases except HELP help, the file is filtered through a version of the Unix utility `more' which pages the file. When `more' offers you a `...' prompt, type ? to see your options. The same filter is used by e.g. LIST MACRO . If the command is HELP word, after HELP tries to print the file word, it looks to see if word is a macro, and if so prints its definition. If word is a variable, its value is then printed, and if word is also a vector HELP prints the dimension, followed by the help string associated with the vector vector_name (see section on vectors).

The APROPOS command is also useful when you need help. APROPOS string scans all the help files (if your operating system allows SM to do such things) and macro headers looking for the string. The string may actually be a pattern (see the description of APROPOS for details). If VERBOSE (@xref{VERBOSE}) is zero only the lines from the help files matching the pattern are printed; if it is larger you are given a couple of lines of context on each side.

It is worth remembering that the index to this manual has an entry under weird, wherein are listed all sorts of strange happenings, with explanations and suggestions for workarounds.

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