cmdline_tools

Tools for command line use of IDL

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Overview

The cmdline_tools package is a library of routines to make using the IDL command line more convenient.

There are several routines that are convenient in normal interactive use of IDL. For example, pwd is similar to the UNIX command of the same name for printing the name of the current working directory:

IDL> pwd /Users/mgalloy/projects/cmdline_tools
The ls command is also useful in normal interactive use for printing a listing of files:
IDL> ls COPYING mg_build_cmdline_tools_docs.pro INSTALL mg_build_cmdline_tools_userdocs.pro Makefile overview.txt api-docs/ src/ api-userdocs/ unittests/ docs/
The more command pages though the contents of a file:
IDL> more, 'COPYING' cmdline_tools is released under a BSD-type license. Copyright (c) 2009, Michael Galloy <mgalloy@idldev.com> All rights reserved. ...
The man command shows the syntax for calling and header docs for a routine:
IDL> man, 'ls' Filename: /Users/mgalloy/projects/cmdline_tools/src/ls.pro ls, pattern, ALL=all, LONG=long Substitute for UNIX `ls` command. Automatically uses `-hF` options. ...
There are also routines that handle command line issues like setting/querying preferences. The MG_SET_PATH routine sets the !path, or !dlm_path if the DLM keyword is set, using PREF_SET. MG_SET_PATH handles expanding path specifications using EXPAND_PATH and also allows particular elements of the directory specification array to be commented out using a ;.

The MG_FILE_WHICH routine is a wrapper for FILE_WHICH, but adds an ALL boolean keyword that reports all files found instead of just the first one:

IDL> print, mg_file_which('mgcoarraylist__define.pro', /all) /Users/mgalloy/projects/dist_tools/src/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro /Users/mgalloy/projects/idllib/src/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro /Users/mgalloy/projects/idldoc/src/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro /Users/mgalloy/projects/idldoc/src/dist_tools/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro /Users/mgalloy/projects/idldoc/src/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro /Users/mgalloy/projects/idldoc/src/dist_tools/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro /Users/mgalloy/projects/mgunit/src/dist_tools/collection/mgcoarraylist__define.pro
The MG_PRINT_PATH routine prints a path, defaulting to !path, formatted for the output log:
IDL> mg_print_path, !dlm_path /Users/mgalloy/projects/gpulib/IDL /usr/local/lib /Users/mgalloy/projects/vis/src/flow /Users/mgalloy/projects/vis/src/lineplots /Users/mgalloy/projects/idllib/src/analysis /Users/mgalloy/projects/idllib/src/cula /Users/mgalloy/projects/idllib/src/gsl /Users/mgalloy/projects/idllib/src/introspection /Users/mgalloy/projects/idllib/src/net /Users/mgalloy/projects/cmdline_tools/src /Users/mgalloy/projects/dist_tools/src /Applications/itt/idl/idl80/bin/bin.darwin.x86_64
Using the command line for debugging can be tedious, but the MG_BREAKPOINT routine helps by finding routines in your !path instead of having to manually specify a path to the routine:
IDL> mg_breakpoint, 'man', 487
This will find the file containing the MAN routine and set a breakpoint on line 487.

Querying the terminal for its properties and printing to the terminal is another category of routines in this library. MG_TERMLINES, MG_TERMCOLUMNS, and MG_TERMISTTY provide characteristics of the current terminal window. For example, when I use IDL from a command line terminal, the output looks like:

IDL> print, mg_termistty() 1 IDL> print, mg_termcolumns(), mg_termlines() 101 39
From the IDL Workbench, it is something like:
IDL> print, mg_termistty() 0 IDL> print, mg_termcolumns(), mg_termlines() 102 12
If MG_TERMISTTY() is true, then MG_ANSICODE can produce output in bold and a few different colors by placing some special characters understood by terminals before and after the text:
IDL> print, byte('Red') 82 101 100 IDL> print, byte(mg_ansicode('Red', /red)) 27 91 51 49 109 82 101 100 27 91 48 109
The MG_PRINT routine is a handy wrapper to make printing to the output log using C style format codes:
IDL> mg_print, 37., 'Boulder', format='It is %0.1f degrees in %s.' It is 37.0 degrees in Boulder.

Author information

Author:

Michael Galloy

Copyright:

BSD licensed

Project statistics

Directories: 1
.pro files: 14
.sav files: 0
Routines: 26
Lines: 1,494