Version 6.3.8 for Windows
 —  Using Natural Studio  —

Issuing Commands in the Command Line

Initially, the command line is not shown. For information on how to display it, see Command Line in the section Elements of the Natural Studio Window.

This document covers the following topics:


What Can be Entered in the Command Line?

You can execute the following directly from the Command drop-down list box which is part of the command line.

Top of page

Command Execution

Natural Studio saves each character string you enter in the command line for the current session. The drop-down list box contains your last entries (history).

Start of instruction setTo issue a command in the command line

  1. Type the command in the text box of the Command drop-down list box.

    Or:
    When the mouse pointer is positioned on the Command drop-down list box, you can also use the right mouse button to invoke a context menu. Using the commands from this context menu, you can, for example, paste a text string into the command line.

    Note:
    In addition to the standard Windows editing commands such as Cut and Paste, the context menu may also contain Windows commands for Unicode. See your Windows documentation for further information.

  2. Press ENTER to execute the command.

Start of instruction setTo issue a command using the command line history

  1. Open the Command drop-down list box and select an entry.

    Or:
    Enter the first character of a command that you have previously entered in the text box of the Command drop-down list box. The corresponding command automatically appears in the text box. When you have previously entered several commands which start with the same letter(s), the command that has been entered last appears in the text box.

  2. Press ENTER to execute the command once more.

Top of page

Asterisk Notation

Many Natural functions display lists of objects. Usually these lists contain all objects available (for example, all objects of a given type, all objects in a given library, etc.). If you do not wish all objects to be listed, but only a certain range of objects, you may specify that range by using asterisk notation.

By specifying a parameter value followed by an asterisk (*) you can get a list of only those objects whose names (or IDs or whatever the parameter is) begin with that value. This option to enter a value followed by an asterisk is referred to as asterisk notation.

Example 1

If you enter the system command SCRATCH without any parameters:

SCRATCH

you will get a list of all objects in the current library. You can then select the objects which are to be deleted.

Example 2

If you enter the system command SCRATCH as follows:

SCRATCH BOC*

you will get a list of only those objects in the current library whose names begin with "BOC". You can then select the objects which are to be deleted.

Top of page