Hover Help

Hover Help refers to a pop-up window that appears in the IDL Editor when you hold your mouse over parts of an open file. Hover Help allows you to quickly get information about markers or to see IDL routines (procedures, functions, and object methods). The examples in this section are from the U.S. Census demonstration program (d_uscensus.pro) in the \examples\demo\demosrc\ directory of the IDL distribution.

Hover Help works in the following ways:

Syntax

Hover your cursor over an IDL routine, and a pop-up window displays the syntax or code, as shown below:

ed_hoverhelp01.gif

Complete Routine

Hover the cursor over the plus sign (+) next to a collapsed or "folded" program, and the entire program displays in the pop-up window:

ed_hoverhelp02.gif

Marker

Hover your cursor over a marker such as a bookmark or task, and the marker content displays in the pop-up window:

ed_hoverhelp03.gif

Code Templates

Use code templates to accelerate code development by selecting a template that contains a block of code and then supplying the required values.

To insert a code template, press Ctrl+Space, select the template from the Content Assist window, and press Enter.

Some templates "wrap" the selected lines in the template code. For example, suppose you have selected the following line in an editor window: 

PRINT, var

Press Ctrl+Space and select IF - insert an if/the/else block from the Content Assist window. The editor now contains: 

if (expression) then begin 
    print, var 
  endif else begin 
  endelse

In the code, expression represents a value that you must supply.

See Templates for additional information.

Parentheses Matching

In the Editor you can place the cursor to the right of a parenthesis or bracket, and the Editor highlights the matching symbol. This is especially helpful in long lines of code.

The example below shows the cursor at the beginning of the bracketed line and the highlighted closing bracket.

ed_parenthesismatch.jpg

Note
Parentheses matching also works in the IDL command line.

Search

You can easily find a string within a file using the Find and Replace feature, or within a project or workspace using the Search feature.

Search Within a File

Use the Find and Replace utility to find what you're looking for in hundreds or thousands of lines of code. Access this feature from the Workbench Edit menu. The screen capture shows the options available in the Find/Replace dialog.

ed_findreplace.gif

Note
The Find and Replace function works only within files, rather than across projects.

Search Within a Workspace

Search multiple files using the Search dialog (Search → Search... or Ctrl+H). This feature allows you to search for text strings within multiple files contained in your workspace directory, displaying results in the Search view.

Tip
See "Search" for additional information.