Re: idl on laptop linux

[Liam Gumley <Liam.Gumley(at)ssec.wisc.edu>]

Gary Fu wrote:
> Any suggestion or recommendation on running idl pseudo color (8 bits,
> 1024x768 resolution) mode on a laptop linux system ?

First of all, make sure your Linux box is running an 8 bit desktop.

Then for consistent 8 bit mode on all Unix boxes, I use the following
startup file:

;---cut here
;- Set up 8 bit display and grab colors

device, pseudo=8, decomposed=0, retain=2
window, /free, /pixmap, colors=-5
plot, [0]
wdelete, !d.window
print, 'Color table size is ', !d.table_size

;- Set graphics and widget font sizes

device, set_character_size=[6, 9]
widget_control, default_font='7x13'

;- Ensure IDL 5.0 XMANAGER behavior is consistent with IDL 4.0

xmanager, catch=0
;---cut here

I save it as $HOME/idl_startup.pro, and set the IDL_STARTUP variable
thus:
setenv IDL_STARTUP $HOME/idl_startup.pro (C shell)
export IDL_STARTUP=$HOME/idl_startup.pro (Korn shell)

I do not use any IDL resources in my $HOME/.Xdefaults file.

Cheers,
Liam.

-- 
Liam E. Gumley
Space Science and Engineering Center, UW-Madison
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/~gumley