Starting IDL
The easiest way to start IDL is by launching the IDL Workbench, which is an Eclipse-based graphical user interface.
You can also run IDL in command-line mode, which uses a text-only interface and sends output to your terminal screen or shell window.
IDL is available in both 32- and 64-bit versions for Windows and a 64-bit version for Macintosh and Linux. You can run the 64-bit version only if your system supports 64-bit operations, but you can run the 32-bit Windows version on a 64-bit Windows system. See Command-line Options for IDL Startup for details.
The following table lists the various ways to launch IDL:
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|
|
Mode |
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Operating
System |
32-/64-bit
Executable
|
Workbench |
Command-line |
|
Windows
|
32-bit |
On 32-bit platforms:
Start > IDL x.x > IDL
On 64-bit platforms:
Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL (32-bit)
|
On 32-bit platforms:
Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL Command Line
On 64-bit platforms:
Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL Command Line (32-bit)
|
|
|
64-bit
|
Start > IDL x.x > IDL
|
Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL Command Line
|
|
Macintosh
|
64-bit |
Double-click on the idl icon in your IDL installation folder
or
Enter idlde at the X11 Terminal window shell prompt
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Click on the idl icon in your IDL installation folder
or
Enter idl at the X11 Terminal window shell prompt
|
|
Linux
|
64-bit |
Enter idlde at the shell prompt
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Enter idl at the shell prompt
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|
|
|
To launch IDL from the shell prompt, you must first explicitly open a terminal window and set up each IDL user's environment.
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Quitting IDL
To quit IDL, type EXIT at the IDL command prompt.