Command Line Options

You can alter some IDL behaviors by supplying command-line switches along with the command used to invoke IDL. IDL's options are described in detail in Command Line Options for IDL Startup in the IDL Online help, but the following are among the most useful.

-batch

Syntax: idlde -batch filename

Specifies that filename should be executed in non-interactive "batch" mode. Note that filename should specify the full path to the batch file.

-e

Syntax: idlde -e IDL_statement

Specifies a single IDL statement to be executed. Once the statement has executed, IDL waits for any widget applications to exit, and then IDL itself exits. Only the last -e switch on the command line is honored.

Note
If the IDL statement includes spaces, it must be enclosed in quote marks.

-nl

Syntax: idlde -nl locale

Selects a different locale (language). Locale is a two-letter abbreviation, such as en (English), fr (French), it (Italian), or ja (Japanese).

Eclipse and the IDL Workbench are both internationalized, but do not share the same language list. If a language is chosen that both platforms do not support, there will be translation mismatches in the UI (Eclipse portions of the UI will be documented in one language, and IDL Workbench portions documented in another).