In the presentation of EPICURE command examples in this guide, we adopt the convention that command names and other keywords are printed in uppercase bold, while variable names are printed in lower case. When using the programs it is not necessary to type commands or other keywords in uppercase because EPICURE does not distinguish between uppercase and lower case. Usually only the first four characters are needed for the programs to recognize commands or subcommands; however, variable names and functions must be completely specified.
Commands begin with a command name and end with the command delimiter @. Although the command delimiter can be used with any command, it is required only when the command has a variable number of arguments (for example, the FIT or SUM command) and may be omitted for commands with a fixed number of arguments (for example, the LOG or MODEL command). The command delimiter is not a part of the command name. The semicolon (;) is used as a statement separator in transformations and as a list delimiter in some commands (such as the MISS command). Commands may extend across several lines, and several commands may be given on one line.