Specifying Windows Network Paths

Microsoft Windows systems use two conventions for specifying the path to a network resource:

UNC Paths: UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) paths specify the network name of a computer, followed by the name of a directory (and potentially any number of subdirectories) that have been shared on the network. For example, suppose that a directory named Data that resides on a computer named DataServer has been shared, and that the Data directory contains a subdirectory named mars_orbiter. The UNC path to a JPEG file named 01Apr2009.jpg in the mars_orbiter directory would be:

\\DataServer\Data\mars_orbiter\01Apr2009.jpg

Mapped Drives: Mapped drives are a convention whereby the path to a network resource is assigned to a drive letter by the system. For example, suppose that the path to the shared Data directory from the above example has been mapped to the Windows drive letter 'M'. The path to the same JPEG file using the mapped drive would be:

M:\mars_orbiter\01Apr2009.jpg

While IDL can resolve both path formats, it is more efficient to use the UNC path to a network resource when specifying directories to add to the the !PATH system variable. Directories specified using UNC paths will be located and searched for .pro and .sav files much more quickly than paths using mapped drives.