----- file created by makedoc on: Tue Apr  1 15:29:55 2008

----- Documentation for /scisoft/xop2.3/extensions/shadowvui/src/lib/read_gfile.pro -----
 NAME:
	READ_GFILE

 PURPOSE:
	This function returns an idl structure with the information 
	contained in a SHADOW gfile.

 CATEGORY:
	SHADOW

 CALLING SEQUENCE:
 
	Result = read_gfile(input)

 OPTIONAL INPUTS:
	input:	the file name to be loaded. If not present, it looks
		for the start.00 file sitting somewhere in !PATH.

 KEYWORD PARAMETERS:
	OE:	When set and when "input" is not present, then the program 
		looks for the start.0<OE> file  sitting somewhere in !PATH.
 OUTPUTS:
	An idl structure with tags corresponding to values in the gfile.

 SIDE EFFECTS:
	It may be a bit slow because it makes many text string manipulation.

 PROCEDURE:
	It uses make_str to create the structure. A lot of string manipulation 
	is needed before to prepare the input to make_str. It uses the 
	auxiliar function read_gfile_arrays in the case that the gfile 
	contains arrays (as for example in start.01).

 EXAMPLE:

		A = READ_GFILE('start.02')

 MODIFICATION HISTORY:
 	Written by:	Manuel Sanchez del Rio, srio@esrf.fr, 97/11/05

	01/05/14 bug fixed: NPOINT is not required now.
	17/05/14 bug fixed: refix NPOINT bug
	2006-04-07 srio@esrf.fr fix a bug when reading files with no
		string variables. Allows ";" as comment lines. Allows
		blank lines. 


