In addition to documentation for new and enhanced IDL features, the following enhancements to the IDL documentation set are included in the 6.1 release:
A new IDL widget-based index displays a searchable index of IDL's PDF help system on UNIX platforms that support the IDL-Acrobat plug-in. The utility is launched automatically when using either IDL's "?" facility or the ONLINE_HELP procedure.
| Note |
RSI's choice of Adobe Acrobat Reader as the IDL online help viewer on the Macintosh platform was based on the belief that Acrobat Reader would support the technologies (available on other UNIX platforms) necessary to create a full-featured help system. This assumption turns out not to have been correct.
As a result, RSI is actively searching for online help technology to replace our use of Adobe Acrobat, both on the Macintosh and on other UNIX platforms. We realize that the lack of a full-featured online help system on the Macintosh is a significant inconvenience for our users, we hope to be able to provide a robust replacement for the Acrobat help system in the very near future.
The new SUPPRESS_PLUGIN_ERRORS keyword to the ONLINE_HELP routine allows you to prevent warnings from being issued when the IDL-Acrobat plug-in is not available. See ONLINE_HELP for additional information.
The new iMap tool allows you to easily display georeferenced image and contour data along with polyline, polygon and point data imported from ESRI Shapefiles. Several predefined shapefiles are provided, including continents, countries, rivers, lakes, states & provinces, and cities. The iMap tool allows you to quickly display visualizations by defining the data to be warped to the desired map projection, and manipulate visualizations by customizing map projection parameters. For more information, see Working with Maps.
The iTools now provide a macro mechanism, which allows you to record and replay a sequence of interactive operations. You can record a series of actions in one iTool or several iTools, save the series as a macro, and then apply it to a new set of data to save you from having to repeat the actions manually. A new chapter in the iTool User's Guide guides you through the iTool macro capabilities and helps you get started using macros. For more information, see Working with Macros.
The iTools now provide a style mechanism, which gives you a convenient way to store and apply a set of properties to selected items in an iTool. A new chapter in the iTool User's Guide describes the style capabilities and helps you get started using styles. For more information on styles, see Working with Styles.
In addition to the above-mentioned additions to the iTool User's Guide, the "Importing and Exporting Data" chapter has been significantly revised and expanded to reflect changes to the iTools Data Manager. See Importing and Exporting Data and Visualizations for details.
The iTool Developer's Guide manual has been expanded to include how-to material for the following topics:
IDL now allows access to an XML document via its document object model (DOM), using a set of object classes. A new chapter in Building IDL Applications guides you through the DOM capability and helps you get started using the DOM object classes. For more information, see Using the XML DOM Object Classes.
IDL's new XML-based language catalog feature allows you to create a localized interface with text strings displayed in a language you select, using string translations you provide. For more information, see Using Language Catalogs.
To enhance the visibility of the importance of developing a consistent naming scheme for your library of routines, a new chapter provides information on naming conflicts and guidelines for library authors including how to convert existing libraries. See Library Authoring for details.
The new IDLffDicomEx object expands IDL's DICOM capabilities, allowing you to read and write public and private attributes (including sequences and nested sequences) and compressed data in DICOM files. This new Medical Imaging in IDL manual provides complete reference information as well as details on supported platforms. The IDLffDicomEx object, available as an optional, add-on module to IDL, requires an additional-cost license.