The Macro Language

The Icam Macro language is used for the customization of control emulators, as well as for the customization of Icam Post post-processors and Virtual Machine models. When a control emulator is running in tandem with a Virtual Machine model, the control emulator macro environment is shared with the model macro environment. Care must be taken to avoid conflicts in variable usage between macros of these different components. CERUN does not run within the same environment as GENER, so conflicts between control emulator and post-processor macros are not an issue.

Macros allow the control emulator to manipulate the blocks of the input MCD to alter how they are processed. Macros can construct new MCD blocks for processing, or suppress or modify individual codes and data registers on a block. Macro features also exist to reposition the input MCD file block pointer and to read and write to external files (and much more).