IDL Workbench Questions and Answers

What is the IDL Workbench?

The IDL Workbench is a graphical front-end to IDL that provides sophisticated code management, development, and debugging tools. The Workbench is created using the Eclipse framework — a cross-platform environment that allows you to work with IDL using the same tools on Windows, Macintosh, Solaris, and Linux platforms.

The IDL Workbench replaces the older IDL Development Environment on all platforms.

Why the Switch?

Prior to version 7.0, IDL's development environment for UNIX, Linux, and Macintosh platforms was an X/Motif application that was difficult to use and which had limited functionality. The development environment on Windows platforms was a Windows-native application, but it lacked some of the development and debugging features that users of development environments for other languages have come to expect.

The Eclipse framework provides IDL with robust development tools in an extensible interface that appears as a native application on all platforms. The IDL Workbench looks and behaves like a Windows application on Windows machines, like a Macintosh application on Macintosh machines, and like a Linux or Solaris application on those systems.

Note that the Eclipse features that make up the IDL Workbench are just a front-end: IDL's powerful computational engine is still used to analyze and display of your data.

Can I Still Use IDL From the Command Line?

Yes. If you're more comfortable using IDL's command-line interface on a Macintosh, Linux, or Solaris system, you'll find the same text-based interface. And, beginning with IDL 7.1, you can use the command-line interface on Microsoft Windows systems as well. (See Launching IDL for details.) If you're using IDL interactively, however, we encourage you to experiment with the IDL Workbench interface; we think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Where is My Favorite Feature?

In the transition from the pre-version 7.0 development environments to the IDL Workbench, we have tried to replicate or enhance the features you've come to expect from IDL. In some cases, however, we have deprecated existing functionality. Specifically:

The IDL Development Environment macro capability is no longer available. In some limited cases, code templates may provide a substitute.

The IDL GUI Builder is no longer included. The GUI Builder was a Windows-only feature that did not interoperate with the IDL Workbench.

The pre-version 7.0 IDL Projects mechanism has been replaced by a new IDL Workbench project mechanism based on Eclipse features. See the Working with Projects tutorial for additional information.

The ability to export an IDL distribution using the project mechanism is no longer available. The new MAKE_RT routine provides similar functionality from the IDL command line.

Why Does the Value of !PATH Seem to Change?

By default, the IDL Workbench manages the value of !PATH so that files in your project directories are found. The consequences of this automatic management may be unexpected, especially if you also modify the value of !PATH manually. See IDL Path Management for a detailed explanation.

What is Eclipse and What is its Relation to IDL?

Here's a quote from the Eclipse web site at http://eclipse.org:

Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle.

As an open source endeavor, Eclipse attracts developers from companies around the world who contribute to and improve the code base. Open source development projects have numerous benefits for those who use them — some of the benefits we expect to gain for IDL are:

A modern development environment that offers the same functionality on all of IDL's supported platforms

Improved code debugging functionality

A solid framework for future improvements to IDL's user interface

The opportunity for closer integration with other programming languages in future releases

Our adoption of an open source framework to develop the IDL Workbench involves a certain lessening of our control over the exact shape of IDL's user interface. While we have tailored the Eclipse workbench interface to suit IDL's needs, we have also made changes designed to allow IDL to conform to Eclipse paradigms and workflows. This may cause some discomfort for our existing customers, but we hope and believe that the benefits (both now and in the future) will outweigh any temporary frustrations engendered by our adoption of the Eclipse platform.

What is the Workbench Update?

The Workbench Update is an Eclipse feature that allows you to download and install updates to the IDL Workbench — and to parts of IDL itself — using a convenient wizard interface. The update mechanism allows you to install revised versions of existing features, or install entirely new features that are not part of the base IDL Workbench installation.

See Installing new features with the update manager for details.

Can I Install Other Eclipse Plugins or Features?

The Eclipse framework defines an application as a collection of plugins to the base Eclipse platform. Each plugin is a collection of resources — source code, object code, documentation content, or almost any other type of file — that define what the plugin does and how it does it. A feature, in turn, is a collection of plugins.

The Eclipse architecture makes it easy to add new features to an existing application by placing plugin and feature files in the workbench distribution.

Third-Party Plugins

There are hundreds of other Eclipse features and plugins available, many of which are open source. These include plugins for access to code management systems like CVS, Subversion, or Perforce. Because the IDL Workbench includes the Eclipse platform, any other Eclipse-based feature that requires the platform should be able to work within the IDL Workbench environment.

To download and install one of these optional plugins, select Help → Software Updates → Find and Install.... The wizard will guide you through the steps. When you get to the wizard page "Update sites to visit," press the "New Remote Site" button and enter the URL of an update site. Update sites that you might want to visit include:

ITT Visual Information Solutions (update URL is provided by default). This site includes the CVS Eclipse Plugin and some additional user-contributed plugins that contain IDL code (see Can I Install Plugins that Contain IDL Code? below).

Subversion (Visit http://subclipse.tigris.org to find the update URL). The Subclipse project.

Perforce (http://www.perforce.com/downloads/http/p4-wsad/install). The Perforce plugin.

Can I Install Plugins that Contain IDL Code?

In addition to installing new Eclipse plugins (see Can I Install Other Eclipse Plugins or Features? above), you can also install plugins that contain IDL code and shared libraries (DLLs). By default, the directory that contains the IDL Workbench plugins (the idlde/plugins subdirectory of the IDL installation directory) is included in IDL's search path for IDL source code (.pro) and DLM files. This means that once you have installed a new plug-in, any IDL code contained therein will be available as soon as you restart IDL.

Several plugins containing IDL code are available from the ITT Visual Information Solutions update site. To download and install one of these optional plugins, select Help → Software Updates → Find and Install.... The wizard will guide you through the steps. After choosing the ITT Visual Information Solutions update site, you will find IDL plugins that allow you to read file formats such as Excel and GRIB, along with other functionality.