These PROCEDUREs write a prompt to logFile and read a value. Specifically, each PROCEDURE writes promptString followed by promptString2 to logFile (there is no intervening space written between promptString and promptString2, as there is for errMsg). Then a line is read from cmdFile.

If the data type of the PROCEDURE is not STRING, leading and trailing blank space are removed from the line and the line is examined to determine whether it is a syntactically correct value for the data type returned by the PROCEDURE. If so, the STRING is converted to the data type and the value returned; if not, an error message is issued, a new prompt is written, and a new line read from cmdFile.

The STRING form ($sGet) has no error conditions; it always returns the line read from cmdFile with no modification.

The BITS and LONG BITS forms ($bGet and $lbGet) take an additional parameter ctrlBits. The valid bits in ctrlBits are binary, octal, and hex; in this case, the (LONG) BITS value read from cmdFile is expected to be of the specified radix unless the radix is overridden by a leading 'B, 'O, or 'H. If ctrlBits is not specified, the value is expected to be of the radix $preferredRadix (unless overridden).