| Re: right clicking in an IDL plot with a Mac [message #75751 is a reply to message #75661] |
Thu, 07 April 2011 20:25   |
Matt Haffner
Messages: 34
Registered: October 2000
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Member |
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On Apr 7, 2:21 pm, Barbara <med...@susqu.edu> wrote:
> I am working on plotting a continuum on a spectrum using norm.pro.
> The program calls for right clicking to show you are done clicking
> points on your continuum. However, I am using a Mac and while the
> normal way to right click with a Mac is to hold down control while you
> click, that doesn't work on the IDL plot.
>
> When I googled this issue, (literally right clicking for a mac in IDL)
> the only somewhat helpful hint was to use
> defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_click_through -bool true
>
> However, their explanation is lost on me... if anyone knows how to fix
> this issue and can make it blonde-simple (that's right, I'm blaming my
> hair here) I'd appreciate it!
Some of the details below may depend a bit on the version of IDL and
OS X you are using. Hopefully this is general enough--if not let us
know some version numbers.
On a Mac, the traditional IDL graphics window is displayed in a
separate application called X11 or XQuartz (the name of the newest
incarnation). You should see this application pop up on your dock
whenever you launch IDL or send your first graphics command. Click on
its icon in the dock to bring it to the foreground (the app name in
the menubar should change to X11).
Now choose its Preferences... menu item in the standard place under
the "X11" application menu. One of the pref tabs should be "Input" and
on that pane, there should be an option to "Emulate three button
mouse". After you check this, you can use option-click for a middle
click and command-click for a right click. Also make sure on the
"Windows" tab that the "Click through Inactive Windows" is set. These
changes should be saved, so you don't need to do this every time X11
is launched by IDL.
Note that if you have a real 2 or 3 button mouse, you won't normally
need to check that first option for a physical right click on the
mouse. The mouse should just work. However, you may need to change
that "click through" setting for IDL graphics windows to "see" *any*
of your clicks (left or right). The "defaults write..." command you
found is identical to checking this second preference and is something
you would paste into a Terminal command line, as Robin mentioned. Old
versions of X11 on OS X didn't have this preference in the GUI panel.
If you're going to be using IDL a lot, I strongly recommend installing
the latest version of XQuartz ( http://xquartz.macosforge.org/ ),
which continues to fix bugs beyond the version that Apple supplies
with the OS. There are separate downloads for 10.5 and 10.6, so make
sure you grab the correct one to start. It will inform you of updates
through the application after that.
mh
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