Input Lists and Recall Files
Prespecifying inputs
If a task requests a keyword repeatedly, the user can pre-specify inputs in
two ways. The first method is separating the inputs with semicolons,
e.g.
POS= 10 20; 15 25; 30 30
Note that a trailing semicolon
designates an empty input for which a default is to be taken.
The second method consists of specifying a file as input to the keyword.
This must be a text file with a name like ``name.rcl''.
The .rcl part must not not be specified on the
command line.
Every line in this file is a separate input. Lines must not be longer than 500
characters.
Either the whole file or a part of it can be specified:
<name use the whole file;
<name n:m use line numbers n to m;
<name :n use line numbers 1 to n;
<name n: use line numbers n to the end of the file;
<name n use only line number n.
Here the n:m range specifier should not be confused with
a list of numbers as described in the section about number input.
It is possible to specify a recall file in a semicolon-separated list, but
within a recall file semicolons cannot be used. Recall files cannot be used
recursively, i.e. a recall file can not contain a reference to an other
recall file.
Task behaviour
When the task has ``consumed'' all pre-specified input on a keyword, the next
request for that keyword will cause the user to be prompted in the normal way.
Inputs given on repeatedly requested keywords are stored in a
semicolon-separated list, so if a task is re-run with the previous set of
parameters, all inputs are available again.
If unprompted input is given on a keyword of which all pre-specified input has
not been consumed yet, the new input will supersede the complete
previous set of inputs.