Exploring SNOMAN Functionality

Even the most cursory glance at the list of SNOMAN commands reveals that the set is very limited! As has been explained above:-

• Virtually all the functionality of SNOMAN is controlled by titles files.

• The SET BANK command is the preferred way for the user to modify these.

The use of symbolic commands make these SET bank commands much easier to use and also defines the parts of banks that can be manipulated: in general you should be very sure you know what you are doing before going back to a `raw' SET BANK command! Thus it is that the symbol table highlights virtually all the features that the user will want to control. Consequently the decision was taken to make the symbol table serve a dual role: both to provide symbols to SNOMAN and as a help file for the user. If you look in:-

Companion/Commands and Command Files/The SNOMAN Symbol Table

you are in fact looking at the same symbol table that SNOMAN uses. Use the index at the top to select the topic you are interested in. Each topic starts with a set of links to the banks referred to within the topic. You should look through the topic to see what commands are available and, if you need further information, see which bank is involved and use the link to jump to it. For example, suppose you look at the topic MC Generation. In this section you see the command $mc_poisson_flag that interests you. You see that it involves a SET BANK to MCPI so, from the links at start of the topic, you jump to MCPI to learn more about it.

An alternative scheme is to look at RUN_PICK_AND_MIX.CMD which also lists virtually all the available symbolic commands. To learn more about any command you see in this file:-

1. Run SNOMAN.

2. Type in the command you are interested in e.g.:-

   $mc_event_rate 1. $per_day

3. SNOMAN will translate the command:-

   SET BANK MCMA 1 WORD 14 TO 1. 1

4. Now, using the Companion, look up the meaning of the words that are being set (in this case MCMA 1 words 14 and 15).