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The Standalone skill Program

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The standalone skill application offers an interactive environment for users to execute SKILL functions.

This application supports only the SKILL functions documented in the current reference. It does not include Cadence Virtuoso application components or support related application-specific SKILL functions.

Syntax

The syntax for running skill is as follows:

skill [<options>] [<IL file(s)…>]

options	One or more of these options can be used, separated by spaces. -c: read SKILL functions from a string. -e: abort when a file with an error is encountered. -f: ignore the .ilinit file. -i: switch to interactive mode, instead of exiting, after a specified IL file is loaded.
IL file(s)	When skill is invoked with one or more IL files, the files are loaded in the order in which they are specified and the application exits after loading the last file. When skill is invoked without any IL file, an interactive prompt is displayed at which the use can enter SKILL functions.

When no options or IL files are specified, the skill program is started in interactive mode where an input prompt is displayed for the user to type in commands or operations.

Examples

Runs skill in interactive mode from the shell prompt. If the user types in 4*10, the value returned is 40. The exit command closes the program and returns the user to the shell prompt:
sh> skill
> 4*10
40
> exit
sh>

Runs skill by reading SKILL functions from a string:
skill -c "144 / 12"
=> 12

Runs skill in interactive mode after the specified IL file is loaded:
skill -i new.il

Runs skill in interactive mode with a prompt at which the use can enter SKILL functions:
skill -I new.il

Runs skill by reading SKILL functions from the specified IL files in the order in which they are specified:
skill new.il new1.il

Use skill as a Script

The skill application can also be used as a script similar to sh or Perl.

The first line of the script must have a command to invoke the 'skill' application. Arguments used in the script are treated as strings, as in the case of other scripting languages. The script must include the exit() call to terminate the script. If it is not included, skill treats the arguments as IL files and will attempt to load them.

A sample script follows:

#! /cdsHier/tools/dfII/bin/skill
printf("Hello world\n")
when( argc() == 2
    printf("Arguments: %s %s\n",argv(1) argv(2))
    printf("Types: %s %s\n",type(argv(1)),type(argv(2)))
)
exit(0)

Before running the script, ensure that the script file has permissions set as follows:

chmod + x 

Related Topics

Scheme/SKILL++ Equivalents Tables

Identifiers Used to Denote Data Types

Data type identifiers are used to indicate the type of value required by an API argument. These data types are denoted by a single letter that is prefixed to the argument label and is separated from the argument by an underscore; for example, t is the data type in t_viewName. Data types and underscores are used only as identifiers; they must not be typed when specifying the argument in a function.

Prefix	Internal Name	Data Type
a	array	array
A	amsobject	AMS object
b	ddUserType	DDPI object
B	ddCatUserType	DDPI category object
C	opfcontext	OPF context
d	dbobject	Cadence database object (CDBA)
e	envobj	environment
f	flonum	floating-point number
F	opffile	OPF file ID
g	general	any data type
G	gdmSpecIlUserType	generic design management (GDM) spec object
h	hdbobject	hierarchical database configuration object
I	dbgenobject	CDB generator object
K	mapiobject	MAPI object
l	list	linked list
L	tc	Technology file time stamp
m	nmpIlUserType	nmpIl user type
M	cdsEvalObject	cdsEvalObject
n	number	integer or floating-point number
o	userType	user-defined type (other)
p	port	I/O port
pkx	package	package
q	gdmspecListIlUserType	gdm spec list
r	defstruct	defstruct
R	rodObj	relative object design (ROD) object
s	symbol	symbol
S	stringSymbol	symbol or character string
t	string	character string (text)
T	txobject	transient object
u	function	function object, either the name of a function (symbol) or a lambda function body (list)
U	funobj	function object
v	hdbpath	hdbpath
w	wtype	window type
sw	swtype	subtype session window
dw	dwtype	subtype dockable window
x	integer	integer number
y	binary	binary function
&	pointer	pointer type

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