Creating a Simple Program

In this section, we'll create a simple "Hello World" program consisting of two .pro files:

Start the IDLDE.

Start the IDL Editor by selecting File ® New or clicking the New File button on the toolbar.

Type the following in the IDL Editor window:

PRO hello_main 
   name = '' 
   READ, name, PROMPT='Enter Name: ' 
   str = HELLO_WHO(name) 
   PRINT, str 
END

To save the file, select File ® Save or click Save button on the toolbar. Save the file with the name hello_main.pro in the main IDL directory (which the Save As dialog should already show).

Open a new Editor window by selecting File ® New, and enter the following code:

FUNCTION hello_who, who 
   RETURN, 'Hello ' + who 
END

Save the file as hello_who.pro in the main IDL directory.

We now have a simple program consisting of a user-defined procedure, which calls a user-defined function.