command, function, module name or help topic
Give help on a command, function or module
EXAMPLE
-------

0>help sin
sin(angle_in_radians)
  Trig sine(x)
  An elemental function returning a float scalar.
Args:
     float_value
 
Help listing for sin completed
0>

In the above case no extra explanation of the trigonometric sin()
function was provided and the help entry fits easily on the usual
24-line terminal screen - see under PAGE CONTROL below to see what
happens when many pages of text are delivered.

PARAMETERS
----------
If the help command is invoked with no argument then the list of
modules in the program is presented. A module names a collection of
related commands, functions, variables and help topics. To see a list
of the commands, functions and help topics available in a given module
invoke the help command with the module name as its argument. Each
contained function and command name will be printed, along with a
1-line description of its use.

To get help on a specific command or function or to list a given help
topic, invoke the help command with the name of that function as its
argument. In this case, as in the example above, first the declaration
of the function and its arguments is given. Then, if a help file
exists for the function, that help file is printed.

To review the contents of one of the help topics listed in the help of
one of the modules, invoke the help command with the name of that help
topic as its argument.

PAGE CONTROL
------------
At the end of each page of text displayed by the help command, you
will be presented with the following two lines:

Press return to continue, Q [or command] to quit, or P to page.
#

The program will then wait for you to enter text at the # prompt.

To see the next page of help information simply press the RETURN key
without entering any text.

To invoke an external pager type the letter p or P, followed by the
return key. If when you started difmap, your PAGER environment
variable contained a valid command to be used as a pager, that command
will then be invoked to display the whole text of the help
information. If the PAGER environment variable was not set, and a
default exists for your system (eg. more) then that command will be
invoked in its place.

To abort from the help session without seeing the rest of the help
text, type the letter q or Q, followed by the RETURN key, and you will
be returned to the normal command level.

Alternatively you may abort the help session by entering any normal
command or list of commands. If you do this the help session will be
aborted and what you typed will be parsed immediately and executed
(before any remaining commands on the command line from which you
invoked the help command).

For instance if you typed:

0>help help;print "Hello"

and then aborted the help session by typing the command:

print "Testing 1 2 3"

at the # prompt, you would see the following:

Help listing for help completed
Testing 1 2 3 
Hello 

Note that the  print "Testing 1 2 3"  command was executed before the
print "Hello" command.

WRITING HELP FILES
------------------
Help files are structured as follows. If the help file is for a
command or function, then the first line contains a comma-separated
list of argument names. Otherwise, the first line should be left
blank. The second line is a one line description of the command or
help topic. This is the line displayed when the list of topics is
shown with 'help module_name', and is also searched by the 'apropos'
command. The content and format of the remaining lines is not
important.

The index of help topics shown with the 'help module_name' command is
kept in a file named with the module name postfixed with an '.idx'
extension. In order that this remain up to date, when you add or
remove a help file, or modify the 1-line intro of an existing help
file, you should invoke the 'makeindex' command to recreate the
appropriate index file.

RELATED COMMANDS
----------------
apropos    -  List all commands and functions whose names or 1-line
              descriptions contain a given string.
varlist    -  List all declared user-variables along with their
              declarations. 
makeindex  -  Update one or more help topic index file.