Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
I've noticed that there are several differences in the 5.0 version of pickfile() This function is now referred to as "dialog_pickfile" in the documentation, though calling the function as "pickfile()" continues to work. Previously, the /FIX_FILTER keyword would prevent the filter from even being displayed. Now it is displayed in a grayed-out (but still readable) fashion. The 5.0 documentation states somewhat erroneously that: "the filter is not shown" when this keyword is set. The FILTER string now only allows a single filter condition. Before it appeared to use the underlying UNIX shell globbing mechanism (at least on the Solaris version) to filter the filenames, so a filter string set to '*.txt *.dat' would do what you expect and display files matching either criteria. Now it appears that only '*.txt' OR '*.dat' are valid filters, and there doesn't seem to be a way to combine multiple criteria. When dialog_pickfile is called with a filter than contains multiple criteria no files will match. This is particularly problematic if dialog_pickfile is called with a now invalid filter and the /FIX_FILTER keyword. The first difference is only cosmetic, but the latter does have an impact on how much of our code behaves. I've forwarded my observations to support@rsinc.com, I'll summarize any work-arounds I get. -- Mark Day Magnetic Resonance Science Center mday@mrsc.ucsf.edu University of California, San Francisco (415) 476-1068