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This chapter is organised as follows:
-  In the first two sections we describe how to start MIDAS and how
       the host operating system and MIDAS coexist.
 
 -  Section 3 explains the different data structures used in MIDAS and how
       to access them in a MIDAS session.
 -   Section 4 describes the syntax of the MIDAS commands, as well as 
       the editing and recalling of commands and  also the on-line HELP 
       facility in MIDAS.
 -   In section 5 you will find some details about how the MIDAS commands
       are executed.
 -   Then follows the largest and most detailed section (section 6),
       which gives 
       in-depth information about the MIDAS command language ( MCL).
 
       With  MCL you can write high level MIDAS ``programs'' which
       are called MIDAS procedures to distinguish them from programs 
       written in a language like FORTRAN-77 or C.
 
       The topics include:
-  the  MCL commands 
       
 -  passing parameters in MIDAS procedures
       
 -  symbol substitution
       
 -  loops and conditional branching
       
 -  special functions
 
 -  Section 7 introduces the MIDAS contexts.
 -  Section 8 explains how to run application programs written
      in FORTRAN or C inside MIDAS. It also shows how to debug
      these programs as well as MIDAS procedures.
 -  All the commands related to MIDAS
      catalogs are listed in section 9, together with an example of how to use
      catalogs in MIDAS procedures.
 -  The MIDAS login procedure and MIDAS user levels are the topics
      of the last two sections.
 
The MIDAS directory tree structure is not covered in this chapter. 
For those interested, please refer to the  MIDAS Environment document .
 
 
Pascal Ballester 
Fri Mar 24 17:17:52 MET 1995