Command Line, Console, and Command History Views

The Command Line, Console, and History views are three good friends to know when first starting to use the IDL Workbench.

The Command Line View

The Command Line view exists to display the IDL command line, which is used to perform ad hoc analyses, compile and launch applications, and create $MAIN$ (main-level) programs. While writing new IDL programs is fun and often necessary, the extensive IDL library of functions and analytical programs accessible from the command line can handle a surprising range of problems and analyses.

The Console View

The Console view displays output from both the IDL command line and compiled IDL programs. This output includes:

Commands entered at the IDL command line

IDL command output and errors

IDL program output

Compilation information and errors

The text in the Console view is color-coded by syntax. For example, IDL commands can be displayed in green, with the standard output displayed in black.

When compiling an IDL program, compilation errors are color-coded, and the view provides hypertext links to errors in the source file.

The Command History View

The Command History view displays a list of commands entered at the command line.

You can sort the Command History view by command name or date by clicking the appropriate column header.

The Command History toolbar contains additional functionality that allows you to:

Filter the list by command name

Break the list into time periods such as Today, Last Week, and Older

Toggle the tree view on or off

Clear the command history

You can copy an old command (or a string of old commands) and paste or drag them to the command line. You can also double-click a single command to execute it immediately.

The value controlling the number of lines stored in the Command History view is set on the main IDL preferences page. To change this value:

From the IDL Workbench main menu, select Window → Preferences.

Select the Preferences → IDL page.

Enter a new value in the History size (lines) box.

Click Apply.