You should be familiar with the windowing system on your computer.

You communicate with CASPER through the mouse and the keyboard. According to the commands you issue to CASPER, it will at times create and destroy additional windows with other labels or titles. Sometimes these windows are informational, sometimes they prompt the user for information. Some windows remain running while you perform a number of operations with CASPER. Some windows require input before you can do anything else with CASPER. Some will disappear automatically, some allow you to remove them at your discretion. Occasionally a window may be iconized so that it is replaced by a small icon on your X windows screen. If CASPER informs you that a window is running and you cannot find it, look for an iconized version of the window and also make sure that it has not been pushed behind other windows on your screen. Normally, however, CASPER will expand the iconized window or bring it to the front automatically when the relevant menu item is selected. You should always close CASPER windows by using the "CANCEL" or "CLOSE" buttons, or "QUIT" from the CASPER menu, and not with the X-windows controls.

CASPER is primarily mouse driven. It assumes a three-button mouse, although most operations are accomplished with the left mouse button. MB1 refers to the left mouse button, MB2 to the middle mouse button, and MB3 to the right mouse button. Most operations use MB1. In this manual, if a mouse button is not specified, use MB1.

Click will be used to mean press and release a mouse button with the pointer on a specific item.

Drag means press and hold a mouse button then move the pointer to a new location before releasing the mouse button.

Double click means click twice with a minimum amount of time between the two clicks.

Press mean press and hold the mouse button without moving the mouse pointer.

Select means press on a menu button and move the pointer to the desired option and then release the mouse button.

You need to ensure that you have sourced both the setup files: This is usually done by adding the appropriate command lines to your .cshrc file.

To start CASPER, you just use the CASPER command at your prompt e.g. 

csh> CASPER
This will start up IDL, load in the pre-compiled version of CASPER, and then open up a window to allow you to select the tour file you are going to use for this session. Remember, the first time you run CASPER on your computer, or the first time after upgrading, you must enter:

csh> CASPER_COMPILE

Alternatively, if you have previously prepared a batch file for running CASPER in batch mode, you will want to issue the command: 

csh> CASPERB
and then supply the name of the batch file when prompted to do so.