Chapter 1
Introduction

 1.1 What is ICL?
 1.2 ICL Documentation
 1.3 ICL and FORTRAN
 1.4 History and Support

1.1 What is ICL?

The Interactive Command Language (ICL) is a language designed to provide a programmable user interface to an astronomical data reduction or data acquisition system. It is the primary user interface for the ADAM software environment and its use with ADAM is described in Part II.

ICL is in some ways similar to a high level programming language such as Fortran or Pascal, but it has some important differences.

1.2 ICL Documentation

This users’ guide provides an introduction to ICL for beginners, and should provide the information needed to get started with it. The various appendices give further details on many aspects of the language.

ICL also provides an on-line help system. Simply type HELP and a list of topics will be displayed (it works in exactly the same way as the DCL help system).

1.3 ICL and FORTRAN

The reader of this manual is assumed to be familiar with programming in FORTRAN, and the manual will compare ICL features with the corresponding features of FORTRAN where appropriate.

1.4 History and Support

ICL was written by Jeremy Bailey, working at the Anglo-Australian Observatory and subsequently at the Joint Astronomy Centre, Hilo. Responsibility for support has now passed to the ADAM Support Group, part of the Science and Engineering Research Council’s Starlink Project at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.