Re: I for Interactive Programming? (was: widget_control and group_leader)

[Ray Sterner SRO <sterner(at)tesla.jhuapl.edu>]

Jaco van Gorkom wrote:
> 
> Richard G. French wrote:
> >         ... I used to approach IDL as though
> > the I in Interactive meant 'interactive programming' - I'd start
> > a journal file, fiddle with the observations and analysis and display,
> > edit the journal file, and call it a program. I still take this approach
> > for rush projects, but taking the few minutes to annotate the code
> > and reorganize it so that it can be used again is now a high priority
> > for me.
> >         Although I have written some widget programs over the years,
> > I still find myself quite often using IDL in this seat-of-the-pants
> > mode when I start a new project. I'd be curious to know how many
> > other readers of this news group use IDL primarily in this way.
> > Dick French
> 
> Hi Dick,
> 
> Count me in, I do this all the time. Usually forgetting to start a
> journal
> in time and thus cutting and pasting from the log window. I find that it
> often leads to faster and more 'creative' data analysis, although it is
> sometimes hard to really take those minutes at the end of the day for
> reorganizing and annotating the code.
> 
>   Jaco
> 
>  ------------------------------
> Jaco van Gorkom            gorkom@rijnh.nl
> FOM-Instituut voor Plasmafysica Rijnhuizen

  I work that way a lot too, and never remember to turn on journal.  So
I wrote a routine
  called grab_commands.pro that I can call at any point to grab all the
commands I've
  used and put them in a file, like turning journal on and getting all
the previous
  commands.  It grabs commands from the recall buffer, which by default
only keeps a few
  commands.  In my IDL startup file I set !EDIT_INPUT=1000 which should
cover most cases.

  It's been awhile since I've updated my public IDL library, but for now
I've put this
  routine at http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/temp/grab_commands.pro
  It should work for any version that has the IDL recall_commands
routine (not sure when that
  came in, maybe IDL 5?).  Once you get it just do grab_commands,/help
for all the deatils.

-- 

  Ray Sterner                     ray.sterner@jhuapl.edu 
  The Johns Hopkins University    North latitude 39.16 degrees.
  Applied Physics Laboratory      West longitude 76.90 degrees.
  Laurel, MD 20723-6099