Re: IDL Bug? (Re: include files in IDL programs)

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Doug Reynolds (dsreyn@ll.mit.edu) writes:

> Agreed.  However, since the Unix world allows file names to mix upper and
> lower case, I believe this should be documented.  The information on pp. 52-53
> of the IDL 5.4 "Using IDL" manual makes no mention of case restrictions,
> which implicitly suggests that anything goes.

I looked up "automatic compilation" in the on-line help.
Here is what I find:

*********************************************************************
Automatic Execution

IDL automatically compiles and executes a user-written function or procedure 
when it is first referenced if:

1.	The source code of the function is in the current working directory or 
in a directory in the IDL search path defined by the system variable !PATH.
2.	The name of the file containing the function is the same as the 
function name suffixed by .pro or .sav. Under UNIX, the suffix should be in 
lowercase letters.

Note - IDL is case-insensitive. However, for some operating systems, IDL only 
checks for the lowercase filename based on the name of the procedure or 
function. We recommend that all filenames be named with lowercase.
******************************************************************************

> >It does this *specifically* so these programs will run on UNIX machines.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean here.  In the case I presented, the effect it
> has is that the routine does *not* run.

I mean that in a case-sensitive OS, IDL would have no hope
of finding filenames unless some convention were used. The
convention it uses (the most sensible, it seems to me) is
that filenames are in lowercase characters.

Cheers,

David

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
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