Tour mode

If you want to see a script run slowly, pausing at each line, enter ``<<script'' rather than ``<script''. We call this ``tour'' mode, because a long time ago the on-line documentation for Macaulay consisted mainly of three meager tours which one ran in this fashion. It is a good way to study someone else's script, or to debug your own script. What Macaulay does in this mode is act like a player piano: it types each line of input taken from the script, and then waits for you to type <return> (``enter'' in MPW) before going on.

If you want to interrupt a script which is running in tour mode, you can. Type an ampersand & before ending the line for Macaulay, and Macaulay will create a new input voice AFTER executing the line that you just ended. In this new input voice, Macaulay takes its input from the keyboard; when you end it by a dollar sign $, Macaulay returns to the script in tour mode.

If you want to complete the script, but turn back off the tour mode, type an exclamation ! to end a line. Macaulay will then continue to read the script, without pausing for you. If instead you want to end the script early, type a dollar sign $. This works to end the voice, as always.

Tour mode is hereditary; if a script which you are playing in tour mode calls another script, that script will also be run in tour mode. If this isn't your intention, you can type ! to speed through this inner script. When it finishes, you will be back in the previous script, still in tour mode.

The interactions between scripts in tour mode may seem complicated at first, but all follow from the above rules. You should experiment around, thinking of &, $, and ! as your clutch, brakes, and gas pedals, and you will get the hang of it.