<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>WFDB Applications Guide: Introduction</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<BR> <P>
<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="dbag.htm">WFDB Applications Guide</A>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Introduction</H1>

<P>
Most of this guide consists of UNIX <I>man</I> pages that describe the
applications included in the WFDB (Waveform Database) Software
Package.  If you are unfamiliar with the format of UNIX <I>man</I>
pages, it may be helpful to refer to the introduction of a UNIX
reference manual for orientation.  The descriptions are intentionally
terse; this is a reference manual and not a tutorial introduction to
the software described within.  In those cases for which relevant
tutorial material exists elsewhere, references appear in the <I>SEE
ALSO</I> sections of each <I>man</I> page.

<P>
The organization follows the traditional arrangement of the UNIX Reference
Manual:  section 1 contains programs, section 3 contains libraries, and
section 5 contains file formats.  In the UNIX Reference Manual, sections
2 and 4 are reserved for system calls and device interfaces respectively;
these sections do not exist in this guide.

<P>
If you have not used any of these programs before, you should be sure that
your environment is set up properly so that WFDB applications can find their
input files.  See <A HREF="setwfd-1.htm">setwfdb(1)</A> for information about
doing this;  a more detailed discussion may be found in the first chapter of
the <A HREF="../dbpg/dbpg.htm"><I>WFDB Programmer's Guide</I></A>, in
the section about the database path.

<P>
Certain types of command arguments are used by many of the applications
described in this guide.  These include:
<DL>
<DT><I>record</I>
<DD>Where this appears, substitute the name of a WFDB record.  MIT-BIH
Arrhythmia Database record names are 3-digit numbers, AHA Database
record names are 4-digit numbers, and European ST-T Database record
names begin with lowercase `<TT>e</TT>', followed by a 4-digit number.
Record names may contain letters, digits, and underscores.  Case is
significant in record names that contain letters, even in environments
such as MS-Windows for which case translation is normally performed by the
operating system on file names; thus `<TT>e0104</TT>' is the name of a record
found in the European ST-T Database, whereas `<TT>E0104</TT>' is not.
A record name is <STRONG>not</STRONG> a file name.  See the
<A HREF="../dbpg/dbpg.htm"><I>WFDB Programmer's Guide</I></A> for
further details on record names.

<DT><I>annotator</I>
<DD>Where this appears, substitute an annotator name.  The annotator name
`<TT>atr</TT>' is used to name the set of <I>reference annotations</I>
supplied by the database developers.  Annotator names may contain letters,
digits, and underscores, as for record names.

<DT><I>time</I>
<DD>Where this appears, substitute a string in <I>standard time format</I>.
<I>Time</I> arguments generally specify elapsed times from the beginning
of the record (for exceptions to this rule, see the section on the
<TT>strtim</TT> function in the <A HREF="../dbpg/dbpg.htm">
<I>WFDB Programmer's Guide</I></A>).  Examples of standard time format:
<TABLE>
<tr><td>2:14.875</td><td>2 minutes + 14.875 seconds</td></tr>
<tr><td>143</td><td>143 seconds (2 minutes + 23 seconds)</td></tr>
<tr><td>4:02:01</td><td>4 hours + 2 minutes + 1 second</td></tr>
<tr><td>4:2:1</td><td>same as above</td></tr>
<tr><td>s12345</td><td>12345 sample intervals</td></tr>
<tr><td>e</td><td>time of the end of the record</td></tr>
</TABLE>

<DT><I>signal</I>
<DD>Where this appears, substitute a signal number.  Signal numbers
are integers; the first signal in each record is signal 0.  In printed
documentation for the databases, signals always appear with signal 0
at the top, signal 1 beneath, etc.  Where the notation
`<I>signal-list</I>' (or `<I>signal ...</I>') appears in this guide,
you may specify more than one signal in any desired order; separate
the signal numbers using spaces.
</DL>

<P>
Under UNIX, if the WFDB Software Package has been installed on your
system, you can also access the information contained in this guide
using <TT>man</TT> and related programs.  In some cases you may need
to add <TT>/usr/local/man</TT> to your <TT>MANPATH</TT> environment variable,
in order to make these pages accessible to <TT>man</TT>.

<BR> <HR>
<P>
Your comments on this guide, and on the software that it documents, are
welcome.  Please send them to:
<P><I><ADDRESS>
<A HREF="mailto:george@mit.edu">George B. Moody (<tt>george@mit.edu</tt>)</A></ADDRESS></I><BR>
16 October 2001
</BODY>
</HTML>
