However, if you invoke meep with no arguments, you are dropped into an interactive mode in which you can type commands and see their results immediately. Which reads foo.ctl and executes it, saving the output to the file foo.out.
The Meep program is normally invoked by running something like the following at the Unix command line: unix% meep foo.ctl >& foo.out
This manual is primarily focused on documenting these features.Īt this point, please take a moment to leaf through the libctl tutorial to get a feel for the basic style of the interface, before we get to the Meep-specific stuff below.
Thus, there are three sources of possible commands and syntax for a script file: The script file is actually implemented on top of the libctl library, a set of utilities that are in turn built on top of the Scheme language. You will appreciate the flexibility that a scripting language gives you: e.g., you can input things in any order, without regard for whitespace, insert comments where you please, omit things when reasonable defaults are available, etc. This means that it can be everything from a simple sequence of commands setting the geometry, etcetera, to a full-fledged program with user input, loops, and anything else that you might need.ĭon't worry, though - simple things are simple and you don't need to be an experienced programmer. Rather than a flat, inflexible file format, however, the script file is actually written in a scripting language. The script file specifies the geometry, the current sources, the outputs computed, and everything else specific to your calculation. The use of Meep revolves around the script (or control) file, abbreviated "ctl" and typically called something like foo.ctl.