Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
Folks, I've been thinking about IDL projects quite a lot the past couple of days, because I'm trying to write an article that can explain this to someone like me. Obviously, I am having a great deal of difficulty. :-( Here is my latest idea. See what you think of it. First, forget about "projects". (Well, you can't forget about them entirely, since IDL 7 is going to force you to use them.) Of course, I'm talking to the Windows crowd here, but I think the same thing applies to most users. Instead, think about "work". You probably already have your IDL *.pro files organized in some kind of "work" structure. For example, I have a "david" directory, and inside of that I have folders named "coyote", "activecontour", "catalyst", "test", etc. My normal way of working is to work in the "david" directory when I am just fooling around, but if I have a specific task or, heaven forbid, "project", I make a separate folder to contain those programs. What I wanted to do in IDL 7 was duplicate this way of working, but if I create a "david" project, then I can no longer create "coyote" and "catalyst" projects, because these live in the "david" folder, and projects (as far as I can tell) cannot be nested like this. So here is what I've created, that is sort of working for me. I've renamed the Default project "Sandbox" and I let that go into the IDLWorkshop folder. This is now where I do my fooling around. I've renamed my "david" folder "idlwork" and with the exception of moving all the *.pro files out of there and over into my "sandbox" directory, I've left the directory structure alone. So, when I fire the IDL Workspace up, I am looking at the project Sandbox. Now, if someone sends me an e-mail saying that FSC_COLOR is a piece of crap, and here is how you can fix it, I simply create a *new* project named "Coyote" and I create if from the "coyote" directory in "idlwork". I can make changes to coyote programs there. When I am finished with it, I can just delete the Coyote project (taking care, God knows, NOT to delete the contents of the directory!) and I am back to my Sandbox. I can do this with any "project" I care to work with. This has several advantages. It keeps my Project Explorer from overflowing with projects I'm not the least bit interested in at the moment. It means the Workshop doesn't "Analyze Code" for an hour and a half every morning. And it sort of makes sense to me. Of course, if I forget to delete the project before I exit the IDL Workspace, it just starts up again the next morning with the same configuration I left it in. And, naturally, I do ALL the path manipulation manually because I don't trust ANY software that thinks its smarter than I am. This means my programs can find coyote, and catalyst, and other procedures when they need them, even if they are NOT in the project currently. Does this seem like a workable configuration to anyone? Cheers, David -- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting, Inc. Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/ Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
On Dec 7, 8:28 am, David Fanning <n...@dfanning.com> wrote: > I like the Fast View functionality, but I have one quibble. > Could the view please remember the last page size, so that > when I call it up again, it is the same size it was the last > time I accessed it? Especially with On-Line Help, it always > comes up in a narrow, skinny window, that I have to resize to > see anything. The Workshop seems to remember the rest of my > mistakes, so it is probably trivial to make it remember something > I really want. :-) How about this David: instead of using Fast View for help, I put Dyanamic Help over on the right side of the Workbench, then Minimize it. When I bring it back up by clicking on the Help icon, not the Restore icon, it expands to a readable size. Of course, this works for other views, too - minimize instead of fast view. It does add a little more clutter around the edges, though.
On Dec 7, 9:22 am, Vince Hradil <hrad...@yahoo.com> wrote: > On Dec 7, 8:28 am, David Fanning <n...@dfanning.com> wrote: > >> I like the Fast View functionality, but I have one quibble. >> Could the view please remember the last page size, so that >> when I call it up again, it is the same size it was the last >> time I accessed it? Especially with On-Line Help, it always >> comes up in a narrow, skinny window, that I have to resize to >> see anything. The Workshop seems to remember the rest of my >> mistakes, so it is probably trivial to make it remember something >> I really want. :-) > > How about this David: instead of using Fast View for help, I put > Dyanamic Help over on the right side of the Workbench, then Minimize > it. When I bring it back up by clicking on the Help icon, not the > Restore icon, it expands to a readable size. Of course, this works > for other views, too - minimize instead of fast view. It does add a > little more clutter around the edges, though. Oh, and you can also change the orientation to horizontal if that suits you.
Vince Hradil writes: > How about this David: instead of using Fast View for help, I put > Dyanamic Help over on the right side of the Workbench, then Minimize > it. When I bring it back up by clicking on the Help icon, not the > Restore icon, it expands to a readable size. Of course, this works > for other views, too - minimize instead of fast view. It does add a > little more clutter around the edges, though. Yes, that works pretty good, too. I just lose another half inch of real estate. (Thanks goodness I have plenty here!) How come these minimized windows don't *always* go down to the status bar, where we have so much wasted space just *waiting* to be used for something of value? Cheers, David -- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting, Inc. Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/ Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
"David Fanning" <news@dfanning.com> wrote in message news:MPG.21c3066046a4602398a155@news.frii.com... ... > So, this is on Windows XP, 4 MByte RAM. (giggles) ... > Someone else mentioned problems with finding WIDGET_CONTROL. > I am happy to say when I typed this into the index of either > the Help or the Dynamic Help I was taken immediately to what > I expected. I cannot account for the reports yesterday. Those reports were for _searching_ for WIDGET_CONTROL, not for looking it up in the index. When one searches for WIDGET_CONTROL, it shows up as the 101st item in the search list. The first item was help on obsolete keywords. Cheers, bob
On Dec 7, 9:30 am, David Fanning <n...@dfanning.com> wrote: > Vince Hradil writes: >> How about this David: instead of using Fast View for help, I put >> Dyanamic Help over on the right side of the Workbench, then Minimize >> it. When I bring it back up by clicking on the Help icon, not the >> Restore icon, it expands to a readable size. Of course, this works >> for other views, too - minimize instead of fast view. It does add a >> little more clutter around the edges, though. > > Yes, that works pretty good, too. I just lose another half > inch of real estate. (Thanks goodness I have plenty here!) > How come these minimized windows don't *always* go down > to the status bar, where we have so much wasted space just > *waiting* to be used for something of value? > > Cheers, > > David > -- > David Fanning, Ph.D. > Fanning Software Consulting, Inc. > Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming:http://www.dfanning.com/ > Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.") Depends on where they are I think. If they are on the right, they minimize to the right, if they are on the bottom...
On Dec 7, 8:30 am, David Fanning <n...@dfanning.com> wrote: > Yes, that works pretty good, too. I just lose another half > inch of real estate. (Thanks goodness I have plenty here!) > How come these minimized windows don't *always* go down > to the status bar, where we have so much wasted space just > *waiting* to be used for something of value? Just drag it down there to the status bar. It will remember that that is were you like it next time (even after restarting). Mike -- www.michaelgalloy.com Tech-X Corporation Software Developer II
Mike writes: > Just drag it down there to the status bar. It will remember that that > is were you like it next time (even after restarting). Ah... Lot's to learn here. :-) Cheers, David -- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting, Inc. Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/ Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
R.G. Stockwell writes: > Those reports were for _searching_ for WIDGET_CONTROL, > not for looking it up in the index. When one searches for > WIDGET_CONTROL, it shows up as the 101st item in the > search list. Ah, I see what you mean. But, still, I don't mind this search. It seems to be quite thorough and perhaps even better than the one in IDL 6.4. I do wish the Help application would start in the Index, though. That's what I want to use 99% of the time. Cheers, David -- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting, Inc. Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/ Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")