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Getting Started with IDL: The Power of IDL |
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The chapters included in this manual provide a "hands-on" way to learn basic IDL concepts and techniques. Getting Started with IDL demonstrates a number of common IDL applications: reading and writing data, 2-D plotting, signal processing, surface and contour plotting, image processing, volume visualization, mapping, plotting irregularly-gridded data, animation, programming in IDL, manipulating data, IDL Toolkits, and use of IDL's GUIBuilder. Each section introduces basic IDL concepts and highlights some of the commonly used IDL commands.
You don't have to read all of the descriptive passages that accompany each chapter. Simply enter the IDL commands shown in courier type at the IDL Command Line (the "IDL>" prompt) and observe the results. Unless otherwise noted, each line shown is a complete IDL command (press RETURN after typing each command). If you want more information about a specific command, you can read the explanations.
Each chapter functions similarly to a tutorial and is a demonstration of a particular IDL feature. It is recommended that you walk through each short, interactive chapter to preserve continuity, since many commands rely upon previous commands. Each chapter assumes the most basic level of IDL experience.
| Note The examples and graphics in this manual have been captured using the Windows platform. Where needed, explanations have been provided for use of the examples on UNIX or Macintosh platforms. |
| Note The dollar sign ($) at the end of the first line is the IDL continuation character. It allows you to enter long IDL commands as multiple lines. |
| Note To simplify obtaining useful results from the examples in this manual, create a bitmap buffer for your graphic windows and use a maximum of 256 colors by entering the following command at the IDL command prompt: DEVICE, RETAIN=2, DECOMPOSED=0 |
IDL Online Help (March 06, 2007)