Gri: Purpose of Synonyms

Chapters: 1: Introduction 2: Simple example 3: Invocation 4: Finer Control 5: X-Y Plots 6: Contour Plots 7: Image Plots 8: Examples 9: Gri Commands 10: Programming 11: Environment 12: Emacs Mode 13: History 14: Installation 15: Gri Bugs 16: Test Suite 17: Gri in Press 18: Acknowledgments 19: License Indices: Concepts Commands Variables | ### 10.11.1: Purpose of newcommands Gri can be extended easily. Primitive commands (e.g. ``set x name`') can be supplemented with so-called "new commands." New commands are a little like subroutines other programming languages. For example, you might find that you often draw filled curves with a particular graylevel (say 0.5), and then return the graylevel to the previous value. This requires you to do the following each time:
    new .old_graylevel.
    .old_graylevel. = ..graylevel..
    set graylevel 0.5
    draw curve filled to 0 y
    set graylevel .old_graylevel.
    delete .old_graylevel.
This gets a bit tedious, and it would obviously be nicer to just say something like
    Draw my kinda curve
To make this shortcut, you'd tell Gri about the existence of a new command called ``Draw my kinda curve`', and tell it that the new command can be accomplished by the longer code fragment written above. Once you've learned how to make new commands, you are likely to use them a lot. The following explains how you add new commands. For advice on programming style, etc., (see Resource File).