Graphical User Interface (GUI) Tools

IDL provides several ways to develop GUI applications. These tools include widget programming to develop different parts of a user interface, and iTools, IDL's built-in graphical tools.

Widget Programming

Use IDL's library of widget tools to create simple controls such as tables, buttons, menus, and sliders. Widget programming provides complete control over user interface design and functionality.

This example comes from the d_widgets.pro demo program in \examples\demo\demosrc of the IDL distribution.

For more on widget programming, see Creating a Widget Interface.

iTools

Use IDL's built-in iTools to quickly visualize data with minimal programming, or create your own custom iTool application. In IDL, several pre-built iTools are available for immediate interactive use. Each of these tools is designed around a specific data or visualization type, including:

iContour—Displays contour data

iImage—Displays image data

iMap—Displays map data, including projections

iPlot—Displays two- and three-dimensional plots (line, scatter, polar, and histogram style)

iSurface—Displays surface representations

iVector—Displays vector data

iVolume—Displays volume visualizations

The following is an example of the iContour tool from the IDL demo.

You can use the existing iTools to visualize data, or you can create your own iTools. For more on iTool programming, see Creating a Custom iTool Interface.