.TH STEP 1CARL
.SH NAME
step \- step function generator for cmusic
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B step
.B \-LN 
x0 y0 x1 y1 ... xN yN
.sp
where 
.I N 
is e.g. 1024 for a 1024-point output function.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B step
creates a simple step function from the arguments given.
.PP
The 
.I -L 
value specifies the number of points on the function.
Successive 
.I [x,y] 
pairs specify that the function is to adopt value 
.I y 
at
point 
.I x 
and repeat it for subsequent 
.I x'es
until a new 
.I x 
point is reached.
The function is terminated by the value of xN equaling the value
given with
.I -L.
.PP
Example line in a 
.I cmusic
score:
.RS .5i
gen 0 step f1 0 0 1 10 5 256 .3 384 0 1023;
.RE
.PP
Example usage from a shell:
.RS .5i
% gen -L32 0 1/2 3 5 13 .33 25 1
.RE
in the case where the last point specified is less than the last point in
the function, the last value specified is copied across the remaining
points.  In the case where the points specified are greater than
the last point of the function, they are ignored.
.PP
If standard output is a terminal, ascii values of results are printed,
if a file or pipe, floatsams (floating point binary samples) are written.
.SH SEE ALSO
gen0(1carl),
gen1(1carl), ...
gen6(1carl),
chubby(1carl), cspline(1carl), and
cmusic(1carl).
