| IDLWAVE 5.0 Released! -- idlwave.org [message #35178] |
Tue, 13 May 2003 10:57 |
JD Smith
Messages: 850
Registered: December 1999
|
Senior Member |
|
|
IDLWAVE 5.0 -- http://idlwave.org
Announcing a major new release of IDLWAVE. Fed up with endlessly
scouring for help topics in the new RSI PDF manuals? Tired of the
finger gymnastics and button hunting when debugging and stepping
through code? Wish you could scan files for their routine info
system-wide, or avoid scanning altogether? Easily swayed by
rapid-fire question-based marketing techniques? Then this release is
for you.
====> New features: <====
- A new high-quality HTML-based help system, displayed in your
favorite browser (or using an Emacs-local browser). It's converted
directly from RSI's IDL manuals with all links preserved, and makes
use of the same fast context-based lookup you already know and love,
including right-clicking on completion items and routine info
entries. You can use all of your favorite browser features
(history, bookmarking, etc.). Windows users can even by-pass the
browser and directly access the MS HTMLHelp system included with
IDL.
- Introducing a new routine information catalog system: Library
Catalogs. Directory-specific, portable and automatically discovered
and loaded anywhere on the IDL search path, library catalogs are
stored in special ".idlwave_catalog" files, and many popular
libraries already ship with them. Use the provided cataloging tool
to scan your own directories, tagging routines with a unique library
name. Scan code libraries available system-wide once for all to
use, or use a nightly cron job to re-scan rapidly changing code, and
keep all routine information up to date. See
http://idlwave.org/idlwave.html#CATALOGS. Library maintainers: you
can scan your libraries now using the cataloging tool bundled with
IDLWAVE, or available separately at
http://idlwave.org/download/idlwave_catalog.
- The best thing to happen to debugging since conditional breakpoints:
Electric Debug Mode, a new interface to IDLWAVE's debugging commands
inspired by the Emacs Lisp E-debug mode. Whenever a breakpoint is
hit (or, optionally, a run-time error is encountered), the
appropriate buffers are put in Electric Debug Mode. This mode
provides lightning fast stepping, shortcut-driven expression
examination, breakpoint operations, and more, all using single
keystrokes. Look for "*Debugging*" in the mode line, and read more
about it at http://idlwave.org/idlwave.html#EDEBUG.
- Help is now available on system variable tags within the new HTML
help system.
- Breakpoint glyphs (where available) are now different for both
conditional and "after" breakpoints, and are displayed in a separate
margin, to preserve indentation.
- Two new commands for moving among breakpoint positions in a buffer
are available on C-c C-d [ and C-c C-d [.
- New command for setting a breakpoint at the beginning of the
enclosing routine (C-c C-d C-j).
- Completion commands can be given two prefix arguments (e.g. C-u C-u
M-Tab) to prompt for a regular expression to limit the search.
Great for finding routines when you only recall part of the name.
- Continuations following a routine or function call, but before any
arguments, now make the reasonable assumption that you continued to
get yourself more space, and default back to the basic indent.
- Filename completion for external shell commands (e.g. '$ ls').
====> Bug fixes: <=====
- History recall in the Shell for multi-line statements now avoids
accumulating clutter.
- Breakpoint scanning works for breakpoints with both AFTER and
CONDITION set.
- Fixed rarely seen incorrect sorting order for shadowed routines with
valid filenames.
As always, find all of this and more at:
http://idlwave.org
Thanks to Bob Portmann, Dick Jackson, and most of all Carsten Dominik
for help assembling and testing this release.
Happy Coding!
JD
============================================================ ==============
IDLWAVE Tip of the Month:
Eager to try the new HTML help system but don't like the idea of a
separate browser window cluttering your desktop? Try "w3m" -- a fast,
full-featured browser which can be run inside an Emacs window. You'll
need to download and install the browser itself (http://www.w3m.org)
and the Emacs mode files (http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/). Then, simply
stick:
(autoload 'w3m-browse-url "w3m" "Interface for w3m on Emacs." t)
(setq idlwave-help-browser-function 'w3m-browse-url)
;; Close my help window when w3m closes.
(defadvice w3m-close-window (after idlwave-close activate)
(if (boundp 'idlwave-help-frame)
(idlwave-help-quit)))
in your .emacs file, after making sure the mode files can be found on
your load-path; for this you might need something like:
(setq load-path (append
`("/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp"
"/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/w3m")
load-path))
at the beginning of your .emacs. Don't forget to download and install
the IDLv5.6 HTML help files from http://idlwave.org, if you haven't
already.
Note that you can use "M" at any time inside of w3m to load up the
page in an external browser.
============================================================ ==============
|
|
|
|
comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Members
Search
Help
Login
Home
