An AST program normally has the following structure:
* Include the interface to the AST library.
INCLUDE 'AST_PAR'
* Declare an integer status variable.
INTEGER STATUS
<maybe other declarations>
* Initialise the status to zero.
STATUS = 0
<maybe some Fortran statements>
* Enclose the parts which use AST between AST_BEGIN and AST_END calls.
CALL AST_BEGIN( STATUS )
<Fortran statements which use AST>
CALL AST_END( STATUS )
<maybe more Fortran statements>
END
The use of AST_BEGIN and AST_END is optional, but has the effect of
tidying up after you have finished using AST, so is normally
recommended. For more details of this, see . For
details of how to access the AST_PAR include file, see
and the description of the
``ast_dev'' command in
.
AST A Library for Handling World Coordinate Systems in Astronomy