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Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version [message #31631]

Mon, 29 July 2002 20:30

Paul Hick
Messages: 9
Registered: November 1999

Junior Member

William Thompson wrote:

> Paul Hick <pphick@ucsd.edu> writes:
>
>
>> This kind of problem must have come up in this group before, but here it
>> is anyways.
>>
>
>> If I call the IDL systime function with the utc keyword:
>> print, systime(/utc)
>>
>
>> on IDL versions older than 5.4 I get the expected 'keyword not
>> supported' error message, since, well, it's not supported, right? The
>> error message pops up when the function containing the systime call is
>> compiled, so testing e.g. !version.release before executing the systime
>> call doesn't work.
>>
>
>> The only solution I have come up with so far is to put the systime call
>> inside a call_function call:
>> print, call_function( 'systime', /utc)
>> This will compile (I will still need to test for !version.release before
>> actually executing the statement of course).
>>
>
>> This to me looks like a somewhat illegitimate use of call_function. Not
>> that I mind bending the rules a bit, but are there any other (better)
>> techniques of dealing with keywords that don't work in all IDL versions.
>>
>
>
> Why do you call this "illegitimate"? To me this seems like just the sort of
> thing that call_function() was designed for. I've always done it this way in
> the past. In fact, I've usually used execute() in the past, but
> call_function() is more elegant.
>
> Bill Thompson
>

My main use for call_function has been as the IDL version of the Fortran
'external' mechanism: passing function names as arguments to
procedures that would then call the function using call_function. That's
a lot more powerful than the current keyword problem. But of course you
are right: whatever works ....

Paul

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[Message index]

		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: Paul Hick on Mon, 29 July 2002 20:30
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: David Fanning on Mon, 29 July 2002 20:21
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: Paul Hick on Mon, 29 July 2002 19:41
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: JD Smith on Mon, 29 July 2002 13:17
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: David Fanning on Mon, 29 July 2002 13:35
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: David Fanning on Mon, 29 July 2002 08:34
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: Craig Markwardt on Mon, 29 July 2002 08:14
		Re: Unsupported keyword on older IDL version By: thompson on Mon, 29 July 2002 07:40

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