| SAVE/RESTORE of sysvars (was IDL and X and PS) [message #595] |
Wed, 16 September 1992 09:26 |
ali
Messages: 11
Registered: February 1991
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Junior Member |
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In article <15SEP199217204994@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov>, knight@ll.mit.edu (Fred Knight) writes:
> Thanks to Bill for sharing the setplot routine.
> Another way to store the system variables is to write them to a save file:
>
> save,/sys
>
> and then recall them later:
>
> restore
This will certainly work. It is, however, moderately fragile because
we (RSI) don't give any assurances that system variables won't change
in an upwardly compatible way between releases. If for example, we add
a new field to a system variable, your existing SAVE/RESTORE copy
of that variable will no longer be restorable. IDL issues an error,
skips the saved variable, and continues restoring anything else in the
SR file.
It's true that we change system variables very rarely. However,
it can be pretty disconcerting to discover that something you've
been using for some time suddenly breaks when a new IDL is installed
(especially if you've forgotten exactly what it did!).
With the clarity afforded by hindsight, allowing S/R on system variables
was probably a mistake on our part. In any event, I would suggest a
different approach, perhaps using a startup file to set system variable
preferences.
- Ali, RSI (ali@rsinc.com)
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