Editor Overview
The Editor is the IDL Workbench area where you create, view, and edit code. Within the Editor, you'll find tools that help you format, comment, test, and debug code. The Editor provides tools that help you create code faster and more efficiently than you could in a simple text editor.
Some of the features of the IDL Editor that are discussed in this chapter are:
- Writing Code—The Editor provides tools such as content assist, key bindings, and commenting code to help you speed up code development.
- Formatting Code—Tools such as syntax coloring and other formatting options help you quickly format the code for readability.
- Viewing and Finding Code—Features such as code folding, open declaration, and hover help allow you to quickly scan your code. Finding what you need is easy with the find and replace and parentheses matching tools.
- Organizing Code—The bookmark and task markers help you easily annotate and organize your code.
- Testing and Debugging Code—The debugging features of the IDL Workbench include setting breakpoints in the Editor.
- Code Versioning—The Editor allows you to compare the current version of a file with previous versions to restore any necessary revisions.
Note
Many of the examples in this chapter use demo programs that come with your IDL installation, found in the \examples\demo\demosrc of the IDL distribution. Feel free to open and view these programs, but do not save any changes you make, as you and other users may use these programs for demonstration and training purposes.
