NAME

       yorick - interpreted language for numerical analysis and postprocessing

SYNOPSIS

       yorick [ -i file1.i [ -i file2.i [ ... ]]]
       yorick -batch file.i

DESCRIPTION

       Yorick is an interpreted language like Basic or Lisp, but far faster.  It features:

       *  A  C-like  language,  but  without  declarative  statements.   Operations between arrays produce array
          results, which is one reason for Yorick's high speed.

       *  An X window system interactive graphics package.  Concentrates on x-y plots and filling and contouring
          quadrilateral  meshes.   Also handles cell arrays.  Graphics can be output to binary CGM or PostScript
          files as well.  A separate CGM browser, gist(1), is included.

       *  A binary file package which can read or write floating point formats which are foreign to the  machine
          where Yorick is running.  Thus, you can share binary files freely on a heterogeneous network.

       *  A  library  of  functions  written  in  the Yorick language.  These include Bessel, gamma, and related
          functions, multiple key sorting, spline, rational function, and least squares fitting, and routines to
          read and write netCDF files.

       *  Provisions  for  embedding compiled subroutines and functions within a Yorick interpreter.  A compiled
          package which solves matrices and performs FFTs is supplied.

       You cannot learn to program in Yorick  by  reading  this  man  page.   Instead,  start  Yorick  (with  no
       arguments) and type:
        help
       This  will  tell  you  the name of the Yorick site directory at your site.  The site directory contains a
       doc/ subdirectory; read the README file there to find out about  more  documentation.   The  Yorick  user
       manual  is in project GNU's TeXinfo format, which can be either printed or read online as hypertext using
       the info command in GNU Emacs.  Also available are a set of six quick reference sheets  (as  PostScript),
       and  alphabetized  collections of all of Yorick's online help comments (accessible via the help command).
       Finally, the i/ subdirectory of the Yorick site directory is a library of functions which are written  in
       the Yorick language, which are also helpful as examples of how to write Yorick programs.

       To demonstrate Yorick, start Yorick and type the following two lines:
        #include "demo1.i"
        demo1
       After the little movie runs on your X window system display, try:
        help, demo1
       Follow  the SEE ALSO references in this help message by issuing additional help commands.  Also, the help
       command will print the full pathname of the demo1.i file.  Read this file to see how the  demo1  function
       works.  You can repeat this procedure with demo2.i, demo3.i, and demo4.i:
        demo1 - movies of sound and shock waves
        demo2 - movies of a drumhead oscillating
        demo3 - movie of a chaotic pendulum
        demo4 - visualization of the flow field around an airfoil
       You  can  run  a  crude  tutorial  introducing all of the Yorick graphics commands by starting Yorick and
       typing:
        #include "testg.i"
        grtest
       You can get a description of the various files in the interpreted library by  typing  (as  a  command  to
       Yorick):
        library

   Options
       -i file.i           includes  the  Yorick source file file.i as Yorick starts.  This is equivalent to the
                           #include directive after Yorick has started.

       -batch file.i       includes the Yorick source file file.i as Yorick  starts.   Your  customization  file
                           custom.i,  if  any,  is  not  read, and Yorick is placed in batch mode.  Use the help
                           command on the batch function (help, batch) to find out more about  batch  mode.   In
                           batch  mode,  all errors are fatal; normally, Yorick will halt execution and wait for
                           more input after an error.

AUTHOR

       David H. Munro, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

FILES

       Y_SITE refers to the Yorick site directory; use the help command to find  its  name  at  your  site  (the
       variable Y_SITE also contains the name of the site directory):

       Y_SITE/doc/*             documentation,   including   the   quick  reference  sheets,  user  manual,  and
                                alphabetized collections of all the online help messages.

       Y_SITE/i/*.i             a library of interpreted Yorick functions.  Here are  Bessel,  gamma,  and  beta
                                functions,  multiple  key  sorting, curve fitting functions, and more.  The file
                                readme.i has a more complete description.

       Y_SITE/g/*               graphics style sheets, palettes, and PostScript template

       Y_SITE/i0/*.i            include files Yorick needs to read whenever it starts.  Several of these contain
                                the  definitions  of  functions  which  you  may  need to read in order to fully
                                understand their operation, or as examples of Yorick programs.

BUGS

       If x is a scalar int, long, or double,
        x(1)= scalar-expression
       will fail.  You normally wouldn't do the assignment like this (you would just redefine x).  Usually,  you
       can  work  around  this  bug  using  the  merge function; do "help, merge" and read Y_SITE/i/bessel.i for
       examples of the merge function.

       Expressions like openb("file_containing_x").x do  not  work,  even  though  they  are  syntactically  and
       logically  correct.   It turns out the file closes before the data can be read.  This one may be fixable,
       but it's not easy.

       The nice= and restrict= keywords to the limits function don't seem to work properly.

       Clipping of filled mesh plots (the plf command) is not always correct.

       Text -- particularly curve markers -- is clipped by not drawing it; the absence of partial characters  at
       the edge of a plot puzzles most people.

       Recursive  debug  mode  (debugging an error which occurred while you were debugging) doesn't work.  Also,
       Yorick can't always get into and out of its debug mode properly.  Occasionally,  it  will  get  the  line
       number where an error occurred wrong, especially if the error was in the condition or increment clause of
       a for loop.

       On pseudocolor displays, a color image may require you to move  the  mouse  into  yorick's  X  window  to
       display  properly,  if  you  use  the private=1 option of the window command.  Unless your window manager
       allows you to set colormap focus independently of keyboard focus, this can be annoying.

SEE ALSO

       gist(1)