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IDL Interface Guide: Setting IDL Preferences |
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Preferences are internal values that control various aspects of the environment that IDL presents to its users. Preferences supply initial values for many system variables and control the layout of the IDL development environment (IDLDE) and a variety of other aspects of IDL's behavior. Preferences can be specified from a variety of sources. They persist between IDL sessions, meaning that once you get them set in a way that satisfies your needs, you can forget them, and IDL will behave in the way you have specified every time you run it.
You can specify values for many of the IDL preferences through the IDLDE's Preferences dialog. For more information, see Customizing IDL.
Some preferences are not visible in the Preferences dialog. To customize them, use the IDL PREF_* routines, environment variables, or user preference files to specify preference/value pairs. You can also use these mechanisms to modify preference values visible in the Preferences dialog. For more information, see IDL Preferences.
The value of a preference can come from a variety of sources. There is a hierarchy to these sources, and IDL will use the value from the source with the highest priority.
Preferences specified at the command line when launching IDL have the highest priority, followed by preferences specified in environment variables. If a preference takes its value from either of these sources, you will not be able to change the preference's value during the course of the IDL session, and the value will be desensitized in the Preferences dialog.
See Understanding Preference Sources for additional information about the hierarchy of preference sources.
IDL Online Help (March 06, 2007)