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. See Command-line Options for IDL Startup for details.
To launch IDL:
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Operating
System
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Executable |
Workbench |
Command Line |
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Windows
|
64-bit |
Start > IDL x.x
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Start > IDL x.x IDL Command Line
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32-bit |
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A shortcut to start IDL Command Line (32-bit) is located in C:\Program Files\Harris\IDLxx, where xx is the software version.
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Mac
|
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
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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 from the command line, type EXIT.