WIP has set up most of the default attributes so that the user should not have to ``worry'' about them until they want to alter them to enhance their plot. There may be a time, however, when a user will want to customize characteristics a certain way. For example, suppose a user typically works with a tektronix device . The hard coded device type is the /xwindow . To override this default device, the user could start WIP with the command
.wipinit in the user's home directory
will cause WIP to always act as if the hard coded initial device was a
tektronix terminal.
An another example, suppose a user typically displays images with the x-axis representing Right Ascension and the y-axis Declination. Then, this user might like to have a call to box without any arguments to correctly label the x-axis in hours, minutes, and seconds and the y-axis in degrees, minutes, and seconds. By default, WIP defines xbox as the string ``BCNST'' and ybox as ``BCNSTV'' (see Table 8.5 for an explanation of these characters). One alternative might be that the user would specify the string variables xbox and ybox
.wipinit file as:
In addition to setting these variables, a user may also
want to
automatically load files containing
macro
definitions
or set other user variables
to certain values whenever WIP is
started.
A user should use caution when using
the set command in their .wipinit file:
calculations made with variables established by the device
(e.g. X1, VY1, FILL, etc.) are undefined at this
point and, hence, so are results based on their values.
For this reason, the command set should generally be used
cautiously in the user's .wipinit file except for string variables and
the most rudimentary of calculations.
As an example of how to define macros automatically, suppose a user has a file named mymacro.wip that contains a macro definition that is used often. Placing the line
.wipinit file will automatically load the
macro definitions from the named file every time WIP is started.
Remember everything in the named file but macro definitions
will be ignored by the macro command.
Table A.1: Acceptable commands in the .wipinit File
Table A.1 lists the commands and string variables
that may be specified in your .wipinit file.
Note that the user variable maxarray can only be set in
the .wipinit file.
This is because once these arrays are initialized, they can not have
their maximum size changed.
In addition, comments may be placed anywhere in
the .wipinit file as long as they begin with the comment character
(#).
For a further explanation of how to define macros, see
Chapter 7.
The command set
and user variables
are discussed more fully in Chapter 8.
A typical .wipinit file might contain the following lines: