PIPS functionalities are available thru a set of Shell scripts based on a C program, pips. A workspace must first be initialized by the Init command which creates a directory containing the set of Fortran files to analyze and transform. Different views of each module can be obtained with the Display command. If a default computation rule is not satisfactory, if can be changed with the Select command. Code transformations are performed with the Perform command. Finally, the workspace directory and its content can be removed with Delete.

If a workspace with the same name already exists it is open without re-initialization by Init.

The Shell scripts share a common context. A current workspace and module are memorized as early as possible to simplify the interface and to minimize the typing effort..

Four-letter abbreviations for analyses and transformations (via the so-called resources) can be used.

See the PIPS user manual (in French) for more information.

Note: a line interface and a X-Window interface are also available. The Shell interface is the less user-friendly interface but it also is the safest one because memory corruptions cannot be propagated from on query to the next one, since each of them is an independent Shell process. The line interface is a nice trade-off between the security of the Shell interface and the user-friendliness of the window interface.