6. Installation

6.1 Installing IDLWAVE		How to install the distribution
6.2 Installing Online Help		Where to get the additional files needed
6.3 Upgrading from the old `idl.el' file		Necessary configuration changes

6.1 Installing IDLWAVE

IDLWAVE is part of Emacs 21.1 and later. It is also an XEmacs package and can be installed from the XEmacs ftp site with the normal package management system on XEmacs 21. These pre-installed versions should work out-of-the-box. However, the files required for online help are not distributed with XEmacs/Emacs and have to be installed separately(6) (see section 6.2 Installing Online Help).

You can also download IDLWAVE and install it yourself from the maintainers webpage. Follow the instructions in the INSTALL file.

6.2 Installing Online Help

If you want to use the online help display, two additional files (an ASCII version of the IDL documentation and a topics/code file) must be installed. These files can also be downloaded from the maintainers webpage. You need to place the files somewhere on your system and tell IDLWAVE where they are with

(setq idlwave-help-directory "/path/to/help/files/")

6.3 Upgrading from the old `idl.el' file

If you have been using the old `idl.el' and `idl-shell.el' files and would like to use IDLWAVE, you need to update your customization in `.emacs'.

1. Change all variable and function prefixes from `idl-' to `idlwave-'.
2. Remove the now invalid autoload and auto-mode-alist forms pointing to the `idl.el' and `idl-shell.el' files. Install the new autoload forms.
3. If you have been using the hook function recommended in earlier versions to get a separate frame for the IDL shell, remove that command from your idlwave-shell-mode-hook. Instead, set the variable idlwave-shell-use-dedicated-frame with

   (setq idlwave-shell-use-dedicated-frame t)

4. The key sequence M-TAB no longer inserts a TAB character. Like in many other Emacs modes, M-TAB now does completion. Inserting a TAB has therefore been moved to C-TAB. On a character based terminal you can also use C-c SPC.