PAW(1)

📦 version 2025.09.18.4, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💅 PAW(1) — the Physics Analysis Workstation, bestie edition

okay so real talk, the manual name here is PAW(1) and it lives in the General Commands Manual section, and today we're gonna make it make sense. grab a snack 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

paw — literally just here to invoke the "Physics Analysis Workstation" package. that's the whole job. icon behavior.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

paw [-b macro_name] [-w workstation_type] [-n]

paw++ [-b macro_name] [-n]

like, yes, that's it, that's the whole vibe. two entry points, few flags, we love efficiency.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so PAW is an interactive utility for visualizing experimental data on a computer graphics display ✨. she's a whole visualizer.

you can run her in batch mode if you want — that's for very large and time consuming data analyses, the kind that take forever. but typically? the user decides on an analysis procedure interactively first, and then runs the batch job. like test-driving the fit before you commit, yk? 🚗💨

PAW combines a handful of CERN High Energy Physics Library systems — and those can also be used individually, in software that processes and displays data. the whole point of PAW is:

  • provide many common analysis and display procedures that would otherwise be duplicated needlessly by individual programmers 😭 (nobody should have to write that twice)
  • supply a flexible way to invoke these common procedures
  • and yet also allow user customization where necessary 💅

and Paw++? that's a Motif-based version of PAW. same soul, fancier face 🎀

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

so when paw starts, the macro pawlogon.kumac in the current directory gets executed. if that macro doesn't exist, the system tries to execute the macro .pawlogon.kumac in the home directory. cute lil fallback chain 💖

  • -n — the macro pawlogon is not executed. skipping the whole ritual. not today.
  • -b macro_name — the macro specified is executed in batch mode, and paw exits when the macro ends. she does her thing and dips immediately, no goodbye 🫡
  • -w workstation_type — PAW starts immediately without prompting for the workstation type. no small talk, straight to it.
    • if workstation_type = 0, paw starts without graphics. text only era.
    • when the X11 version of paw is used, a list of 10 valid workstation types is provided in the file higz_windows.dat. by default this file is in the current directory. if it's not there, the one in the home directory is used. if it's also not in the home directory, one is automatically created in the current directory ✨ (she'll make her own if she has to)
    • each line in this file describes the position and the size of the window. to access one of the described windows, it is enough to give the line number in reply to the prompt "Workstation type" — that's it, just shout the number, iykyk 🔥

👑 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 👑

  • HIGZPRINTER — specifies the command line executed when the command PICTURE/PRINT is invoked. she needs to know how to print, okay?
  • KUIPPAGER, PAGER — checked in this order to determine what pager program to use. if neither are set, 'sensible-pager' is used in Debian.
  • KUIPEDITOR, EDITOR — checked in this order to determine what editor to use. if neither are set, 'sensible-editor' is used in Debian.
  • KUIPPSVIEWER, PSVIEWER — checked in this order to determine the program to use for viewing PostScript. if neither are set, 'gv' is used.
  • $ENV() — literally any environment variable can be accessed in paw with the function $ENV(). any. all of them. she sees everything 👀
bestie note: the pair variables are checked in the order listed. first one wins. no cap.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

(C) Copyright CERN, Geneva 1995.

okay that's the whole page, hope it ate 💅✨

Physics Analysis Workstation 🧚 the source/version line is literally just the name of the package, and the date we're rolling with is 1995 (that copyright year, she's vintage and thriving). mwah, bye bestie 🫶🎀

📦 where this page comes from