I have updates to both idl.el and idl-shell.el.  You can find these
via anonymous FTP at eos.crseo.ucsb.edu in directory /pub/idl.

I have not been able to put the files at fermi.jhuapl.edu yet. fermi
appears to be down.

User visible changes to idl.el are very small.  All of the automatic
expanding, padding, action, capitalization features are turned off by
default.

idl-shell.el should be more robust when working with breakpoints and
finding syntax errors.  By request, I added idl-shell-run-region which
writes the current region to a temporary file (terminating it with and
"end" if necessary) and then issues a ".run" for the file.  It is on
the key "C-c C-d C-e" (i.e., `evaluate')and in the menu.

I have found idl-shell.el to be very useful.  I always run IDL inside
emacs for interactive work unless I want to run a batch IDL job.  I
use the "C-c C-d C-c" command very frequently as I interate on code
(the corresponding command is idl-shell-save-and-compile which saves
the file and then issues a ".run" for it).

However, I suspect that idl-shell.el still has lots of bugs.  I still
feel that it is in a developmental stage.  So let me know what
problems you find with idl-shell.el and what I can do to improve it.

Send bug reports and comments to me.

Chris Chase
--
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Bldg 24-E188
The Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University
Laurel, MD 20723-6099
(301)953-6000 x8529
chris.chase@jhuapl.edu