Launching IDL

Launching IDL means starting the IDL Development Environment application (no command-line mode is available under Windows). The IDL Development Environment is described in detail in The IDL Development Environment. To start IDL, double-click on the IDL icon or select IDL from the Start menu.

On UNIX platforms

In command-line mode, IDL uses a text-only interface and sends output to your terminal screen or shell window. (Graphics are displayed in IDL graphics windows.) To start IDL in command-line mode, enter idl at the shell prompt.

In graphical mode, IDL displays the IDL Development Environment, an X-windows application that allows you to select options from menus, work with a built-in editor, and more. The IDL Development Environment is described in detail in The IDL Development Environment. To start IDL in graphical mode, enter idlde at the shell prompt.

On the Macintosh MacOS X platform

Start OroborOSX by double clicking the OroborOSX icon. OroborOSX launches XDarwin and displays a UNIX X-windows command line in a MacOS X window.

Launching the iTools

The IDL Intelligent Tools (iTools) are a set of interactive utilities that combine data analysis and visualization with the task of producing presentation quality graphics. The iTools are based on the IDL Object Graphics system. IDL provides five pre-built iTools for immediate interactive use. Each of these five tools is designed around a specific data or visualization type, these are:

iPlot - for two and three dimensional plots (line, scatter, polar, and histogram style)

iSurface - for surface representations

iContour - for contour maps

iImage - for image displays

iVolume - for volume visualizations

To lauch each iTool, simply type the name of the iTool listed previously at the Command Line of the IDL Development Editor. For more information on using the iTools, see the iTool User's Guide.

The iTools are built upon a new object-oriented framework, or set of object classes, that serve as the building blocks for the interface and functionality of the Intelligent Tools. IDL programmers can easily use this framework to create custom iTools. For more information on creating custom iTools, see the iTool Developer's Guide.

Startup Options

You can specify options to the command that starts IDL. On UNIX platforms, simply append the option flag after the idl or idlde command at the shell prompt. On Windows platforms, modify the Target field of the properties dialog for the IDL icon to include the option flag. See Command Line Options for IDL Startup for a listing of the available startup options.

Troubleshooting

When IDL is ready to accept a command, it displays the IDL> prompt. If IDL does not start, take the following action depending upon the operating system you are running:

Windows: Be sure that the path listed in the Properties dialog for the IDL icon accurately reflects the location of the IDL executable file idlde.exe.

UNIX: Be sure that your PATH environment variable includes the directory that contains IDL.