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Step #2           Configuring IDL Preferences

In order to use the SSW software, these changes require that you always start an IDL session by double clicking on the sswidl icon found on your desktop.  First, however,  you must configure your IDL preferences.

1.    Start IDL by using the "Start" menu at the lower left corner of your screen.
2.    In IDL, from the "File" pull down menu select "Preferences...".
3.    Open the "Startup" tab and write down the contents of the "Startup file:" entry.
4.    Delete the "Startup file:" entry.  Do not delete the "IDL Main directory:" entry.
5.    Click "Apply" and "OK" then exit from IDL.

(Optional) If you want to customize your own IDL startup configuration:

6.    Create a separate folder somewhere outside of the ssw directory (e.g. c:\idl_ssw).
7.    Open the Notepad text editor and use it to create and customize a new IDL startup file.
8.    Save the file (e.g. idl_startup.pro) in the folder you created in step #6.  Exit Notepad.
9.    On your desktop, locate the sswidl icon.  Right click on it and choose "Properties".
10.  In the "sswidl Properties" panel that appears, select the "Shortcut" tab.  Click "Find Target...".
11.  Open the file named "sswidl" (or "sswidl.pl") for editing in Notepad. You will see the following text:

       rem A personal startup can be defined by editing the following statement
       rem set SSW_PERSONAL_STARTUP=c:\idl_ssw\idl_startup.pro           (The path and file names are arbitrary.)

12.  Remove the
rem statement from the second line and modify the path and/or the idl startup file name appropriately.
13.  Save the changes and exit Notepad.


Windows 98 users may experience an "Out of environment space" error when launching SSW using the sswidl desktop icon.
To prevent this problem Windows 98 users should follow these additional steps:

14. On your desktop, right click on the sswidl icon and choose "Properties".
15. Click the "Memory" tab at the top of the "Shortcut" panel.
16. Change the "Initial Environment" setting to 2560.
17. Click "Apply" then click "OK".
Reminder:  Always start an SSW IDL session by double clicking on the sswidl icon located on your desktop.
 

Continue to Step #3                    Return

 

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This site last updated November 10, 2008.