IDLWAVE 6.0 -- http://idlwave.org

Gradually catching up with IDL's version numbering, this new IDLWAVE
release features an improved HTML help system which eliminates the need
to download and maintain your own HTML help packages.  With IDL 6.2, RSI
has begun distributing online help directly as a directory full of HTML
files, in !DIR/help/online_help.  In addition, RSI has provided a fully
linked XML file which obviates the old PDF and HTML-scanned routine info
(!DIR/help/online_help/idl_catalog.xml, if you are interested).  This
means that IDLWAVE's help system is now fully de-coupled from any
individual distribution of IDL.  You'll get fast and accurate context
sensitive help for whatever version of IDL you have installed.  Nothing
additional to install, no more "off-by-one" help topics -- your context
help will always been in sync and ready to go.

With IDL 6.2, RSI also bundled a new HTML browser called IDL_ASSISTANT.
In addition to displaying the HTML help files, the tool provides fast
searching, bookmarking, etc.  IDLWAVE now uses the IDL Assistant
directly for displaying context-based help.  Alternatively, you can
continue to use any existing browser supported by Emacs, including
Emacs-local browsers like w3m.

Many other fixes and improvements are also available in IDLWAVE 6.0,
including much improved handling of the optional automatic space-padding
of operators >, <, >=, <=, ->, &, and &&, "safe" printing when examining
long arrays, an overlay color change to gray, to indicate IDL is busy
when stepping through code which is slow to execute, direct printing of
entered expressions in Electric Debug mode, "sensible" default indent
settings, and more.

Get your fix at:

   http://idlwave.org


Notes on the new HTML Help 
==========================

With the new help system, it's now more important than ever for IDLWAVE
to know where your IDL installation is.  So, either set the environment
variable IDL_DIR, customize the Emacs variable idlwave-system-directory,
or just run the IDLWAVE shell once (C-c C-s), and it will locate and
save the information it needs for future use (while you are there, give
the shell a try, you may like it).

MacOSX users: The "idl_assistant" script bundled with IDL 6.2 has a
small bug which prevents the assistant from running from IDLWAVE.  To
fix it, see http://www.rsinc.com/codebank/search.asp?FID=399.  This will
be fixed in IDL 6.3.

For picky users: The idl_catalog.xml file which IDLWAVE uses to learn
the structure of the new HTML help system has some small errors for
IDL6.2.  Though this doesn't affect usability (aside from the lack of
availability of context help for, e.g. SYSTIME), you can fix this by
replacing your idl_catalog.xml file with the one mentioned here:

http://www.rsinc.com/codebank/search.asp?FID=400

==========================================================================
IDLWAVE Tip of the Month:

You've heard of the many advantages of generating additional routine
information on your personal and downloaded library routines.  Many
popular libraries ship with ".idlwave_catalog" library catalog files
pre-installed, and IDLWAVE discovers these automatically, learning the
location, calling convention, keywords and other syntax information.
However, there is one important library which is not pre-indexed: IDL's
own, in !DIR/lib.  It is a very good idea to index this library
yourself.  System administrators can simply:

% cd /usr/local/rsi/idl/lib
% /path/to/idlwave_catalog RSI_LIB

where "idlwave_catalog" is the Perl-based cataloging tool distributed
with IDLWAVE.  Users without write access to their IDL installation can
scan a "user catalog".  Just access the menu IDLWAVE->Routine
Info->Select Catalog Directories, mark all the directories under your
IDL install directory, and scan.  When the system library is scanned,
routine info will look different for those system files distributed by
RSI:

Usage:    Result = HIST_2D( V1, V2)
Keywords: BIN1 BIN2 MAX1 MAX2 MIN1 MIN2
Source:   SystemLib   [-C--] /usr/local/rsi/idl_6.1/lib/hist_2d.pro

and you'll be able to quickly visit their source by right-clicking on
the file name above, or using C-c C-v in the text of your program, etc.
==========================================================================