About the IDL Workbench

IDL includes a graphical front-end called the IDL Workbench that provides sophisticated code management, development, and debugging tools. The Workbench is created using the Eclipse framework — an extensible cross-platform environment 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 your data.

For additional information on working with IDL and the IDL Workbench, refer to the Using IDL manual, located in the IDL Online Help.

Starting the IDL Workbench

Note
For information on installing and licensing IDL, see the IDL installation instructions for your platform.

To start the IDL Workbench, follow the instructions according to your Operating System:

Operating System
IDL Workbench Instructions

Windows

Select Start → IDL <version> → IDL Workbench

Solaris/Linux

At the shell prompt, enter idlde

MacOS X

In your IDL installation folder, double-click on the IDL Workbench icon

OR

At the X11 Terminal window shell prompt, enter idlde