These programs deal with command line parameters and convenient time keeping.
Files ending with .l are manual pages for the corresponding .c files. 
The .h files should be installed with your normal "#include" files.
Note, move the .l files to another directory before using make.

They are provided "as is" but have been used for 3 years with few problems.
There is one line that must be changed for version 7, see getargs.c.
They are based on the concept that command line args should be convenient
to use.  There is no good reason that all args must be handled in "main",
in fact the standard method precludes library routines that can
use command args easily (e.g. plot libraries).

In our usual usage all programs start:

	#include <param.h>
	main()
	{
	...

Then they use the parameter routines to get at the args.
For instance if a double value "a", a flag "-v", and
a start time "first" are to be used the code might look
like:

	int verbose = is_flag("-v");
	TIME first = timeparam("start",ymdtime(1983,11,4,0,0,0));
	double a = parameter("a",0.0);

	if (verbose)
		{
		printf("Start time is ");
		printt(first);
		printf("\n");
		}


Obviously the parameter routines can be used in normal code
as well as in initializations.

The standard time routines are designed for ease of handling date
information for real data (e.g. as produced by a telescope or
spacecraft, not program text that most of the unix community
thinks of as data.)  The standard time units are seconds and are
counted from 0 hour U.T. 1 Jan. 1601.  They are stored as doubles.
The routines provide convenient conversions to and from
most formats one finds in daily life, e.g.
	year month day
	month/day/year
	Bartels rotation and day in rotation
	Carrington longitude of the central meridian of the sun
	etc.
Some of the unfamiliar types could be ignored.

We can be reached at:
	Dr. Philip H. Scherrer
	Center for Space Science and Astrophysics
	Stanford University, ERL
	Stanford, CA 94305

	or Todd Hoeksema at the same address.

At present we can also be reached at:
	...!lbl-csam!solar!phil
	...!lbl-csam!solar!todd

