IDL limits

[mallors(at)crazyhorse.msfc.nasa.gov (Robert S. Mallozzi)]

Hi all,

I thought I read somewhere that IDL 5 removed all
parameter limits, but I can't find it anywhere in
the docs.  I see that there are still some limits
imposed:

  PROCEDURE DEFINITION : 63 parameters maximum.
  FUNCTION DEFINITION  : 63 parameters maximum.

These two limits also seem to be imposed on IDL kernel functions 
and procedures.  For example, CALL_EXTERNAL() is limited to 63 
parameters, including the shared image name and entry point name.

  COMMON BLOCKS   : 64 parameters maximum.

  LOCAL VARIABLES : Unlimited ? Compiles with 10,000.
  STRUCTURE TAGS  : Unlimited ? Compiles with 10,000.
  VARIABLE NAMES  : Unlimited ? I checked 257 characters, that's plenty :-)

  PROCEDURE NAMES : 128 characters, then truncated
  FUNCTION NAMES  : 128 characters, then truncated

I would say that most of these limits are reasonable,
but I ran across the PRO parameter limit when I was converting
some legacy fortran code over to IDL... 

{ x86 linux unix 5.1 Apr 13 1998}

-- 
Robert S. Mallozzi
http://cspar.uah.edu/~mallozzir/