FIT2D Terminal Output

Initially header text is output to the terminal. This contains the version number of the version of FIT2D being used, and may contain some information on new possibilities or warnings concerning changed functionality. In the case of problems it is useful to note the version number being used (See Section 25.3, Page ).

On start-up you are prompted for the size of the program arrays to be created to hold image data, and whether or not to create variance arrays. When these questions are answered FIT2D enters the main menu loop. This is recognisable by a prompt of the following type:

Main menu: ENTER COMMAND [INPUT DATA]:

The text   Main menu: tells you that you are in the main menu, as opposed to one of various possible sub-menus. The text ENTER COMMAND [******]: tells you that FIT2D is waiting for a menu command to be entered. The text within the square brackets is a suggested default command. On start-up the suggested default is the INPUT DATA command, but at later stages many other commands are suggested as defaults.

When one of the possible sub-menus is entered the command prompt is changed to reflect the sub-menu entered. e.g.

Calibration sub-menu: ENTER COMMAND [FIND PEAKS]:

is the prompt output when the CALIBRATION command is issued and the calibration sub-menu is entered.

Commands which require various numerical constants or text strings to be defined will output prompts similar to those output for the size of the program array dimensions. e.g. The CADD command needs to input the addition constant value:

ADDITION CONSTANT [1.00000]:

All such prompts are in capital letters. The [1.00000] is as for the menu command prompts a default return value. Further information on required inputs (obtained by entering a question mark (?)), is in mixed case. e.g.

Enter real value to add to active data region
ADDITION CONSTANT [1.00000]:

In addition to the normal prompt text, other program output may appear spontaneously during the execution of certain commands. These messages fall into three general categories and are all started with text to indicate the category:

INFO: These are information messages, such as progress reports for operations which may take a long time, or quantities and results calculated by FIT2D.

WARNING: These are generally warning messages which the user should take note of, but which hopefully do not require exiting FIT2D. Such a warning may be issued when a file was not found.

ERROR: These are generally important error messages which may mean further processing is impossible. Such a message is issued when virtual memory allocation fails.

The exact difference between an information, warning, or serious error, message is impossible to define. Thus these are only general categories. Sometimes a WARNING: message can be treated as information, and processing can carry on without a change of strategy. Similarly, an ERROR: message can sometimes be treated as only a warning by an experienced user. e.g. If virtual memory allocation fails it may be possible to reduce the requirements and try again.