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SAY

        [SIC\]SAY  ["Text"]  ['Expression']   ['Variable']   [/FORMAT   ...]
    [/NOADVANCE]

    Display strings or character variable or implicitly formatted arithmetic
    (or logical) expressions in the shortest  possible  format,  unless  the
    /FORMAT option is used.

    Simple text:
        Simple text can be displayed by passing double-quoted strings to the
        command, e.g.
            SIC> say "Hello, world!"
            Hello, world!
        An unquoted argument will also be displayed "as is", like  a  simple
        string.

    Variable:
        The  contents of a scalar variable can be displayed by evaluating it
        with single-quotes, e.g.
            SIC> say 'pi'
            3.1415926535898
        Single quotes tell Sic to evaluate the variable and build  a  repre-
        sentating string showing its contents. Then this string is passed to
        SAY for display. Though Sic does its best to format the result,  you
        can  customize  the  format with the option /FORMAT. Array variables
        can not be displayed all at once using  single  quotes  (but  scalar
        subsets  can  be evaluated e.g. SAY 'A[1]'), use SAY /FORMAT to dis-
        play arrays.

    Expression:
        Expressions can be evaluated using single quotes, e.g.
            SIC> say '2*pi'
            6.2831853071796
        Like for variables, Sic evaluates the result and builds a  represen-
        tative  string passed to SAY for display. Here also, the result must
        be scalar.

    Multiple arguments:
        SAY can display as many strings as there are arguments to  the  com-
        mand.  Remember  that in Sic, arguments are separated by one or more
        spaces. Each argument can be of any kind explained above. For  exam-
        ple:
          SIC> say "PI ="   'pi'
          PI = 3.1415926535898
        Note  that  the number spaces separating the input arguments are not
        significant. In return, SAY will implicitely separate each string by
        one blank.

    Concatenated arguments:
        Arguments can be concatenated by gluing any of the 3 basic kinds to-
        gether. For example:
            SIC> say "("'pi'")"
            (3.1415926535898)
        Note that there is no space between the components.  In  this  case,
        Sic  does  its  best to evaluate each component and produce a single
        temporary string concatenating all the  individual  representations.
        Then this formatted string is passed to the command SAY for display.
        Note that SAY sees only one argument (no blank = no separator => one
        argument).
        This syntax is not specific to SAY: it is a Sic feature which can be
        used in other commands. Be careful you have no control on the format
        choosen by Sic at concatenation time: /FORMAT is useless as it would
        affect only the single temporary string seen by SAY after formatting
        by Sic.

    Output:
        By  default, SAY writes its output text on the terminal. However, it
        can be redirected to a file thanks to  the  command  SIC\SIC  OUTPUT
        (see HELP for details)..

    GUI mode:
        In GUI mode (see command GUI\PANEL), SAY writes the text in the cur-
        rent window. SAY without parameters inserts a separator.


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Gildas manager 2024-04-19