Command formats

Command formats are designed to simplify notation for the most popular formats.  To achieve this, several parameter name identification mechanism are implemented,  

Parameter by name

Parameter is identified explicitly by name on command line:

name=value

Example:

 barcode left=3.4, bottom=0.5, value=”123456”

Parameter by position

Parameter is identified implicitly by the position of the parameter on the command line.

Example:

The unnamed text ”123456” as the last parameter of barcode command is a value.
Left and top offsets are first and second values

 text 0.4, 0.5, ”123456”

Parameter by value

Parameter is identified defined implicitly by matching the value to the expected type.  The typical use is to set enumerated vales.  In command formats such usage is identified by the absence of a parameter name (e.g. unit command) or a command name in [] (e.g. output command, onexists parameter)

Example:

Enumerated parameter in the output command.  

 output append, “output.pdf”

Parameter group by position and/or value

A parameter group consists of several parameters (sub-parameters) separated by a colon character  ‘:’.  They parameters of the group are identified as described in Parameter position and Parameter value identification, however, the identification is applied not to command line, but to the value of a single parameter.

Example:

Font parameter group in text command

 text left=3.4, bottom=0.5, font=”Helvetica:bold:10”, ”123456”

Font face (Helvetica)is always the first parameter in the group

Font size (10)is a numeric value

Font style (bold)matches on of valid font style values