Two new updates to IDL 7.0 are now available:

* Scientific Data Formats update
* IDL Workbench update


Scientific Data Formats Update

The Scientific Data Formats update to IDL 7.0 includes support for
The following file formats:

* CDF 3.2
* HDF 5 1.6.7
* HDF 4 2r3

Click on the link below to download the IDL 7.0.3 Scientific Data
Formats update and view installation instructions.


IDL Workbench Update

The update to the IDL 7.0 Workbench is available on the ITT VIS
workbench update site. This IDL 7.0.3 Workbench update adds several
new features and corrects several problems in the 7.0 Workbench release.
Highlights of the 7.0.3 Workbench update include:

* Enhancements to the Workbench automatic path management
mechanism. The Workbench no longer modifies the IDL_PATH
preference and is more selective about changes to the
!PATH system variable.

* Integration with IDLdoc. The Workbench now understands the .pro
code comment tags used by Michael Galloy's IDLdoc package, and
uses the tags to provide extended Hover Help and Content Assist
information.

* Enhancements to IDL's online help. The help system now uses a
modified full-text search algorithm that ranks topic "hits" in
a more useful way, so that reference topics appear at or near
the top of the search results.

* Several smaller enhancements including the ability to execute
IDL statements that are selected in an editor window, set code
formatting preferences, and use "code folding" features on IDL
comment blocks.

For a complete description of the changes in the IDL 7.0.3 Workbench
update, see the "New Features in IDL Workbench 7.0.3" topic in IDL's
online help system.

To install the IDL 7.0.3 Workbench update, do the following:

1. Log in as an administrator (or root), or ensure that you have write
permission to the IDL 7.0 install directory on your machine.

2. Start the IDL Workbench and select
"Software Updates->Find and Install..."
from the Help menu.

3. Once the Install/Update Wizard appears (it may take a few moments),
select "Search for new features to install", and click "Next".

4. When the Update Sites to Visit dialog appears, check “ITT Visual
Information Solutions.” Ensure that “The Eclipse Project Updates”
is *not* checked. Click Finish.

5. Click the plus symbols to the left of "ITT Visual Information Solutions",
and "IDL Workbench Updates" to display the list of available
updates. The available updates are:

* IDL Development Tools 7.0.3
Select this update to install the changes to the IDL Workbench.

* IDL Workbench Documentation 7.0.3
Select this update to install the documentation changes. Note
that because of the changes to IDL's help system in this update,
*all* of the IDL documentation is replaced. The total size of
the documentation download is approximately 50 Mbytes. Despite
the size of the download, we strongly recommend installing the
documentation update.

* IDL Workbench Language Pack 7.0.3
Select this update to install new translations of the English
strings used in the Workbench graphical user interface. Install
this update if you use the IDL Workbench in a language other
than English.

* Eclipse CVS Client
This plugin makes CVS features provided by the Eclipse platform
available in the IDL Workbench. This update may not appear in
the list if you have previously installed the CVS feature.

6. Click "Next", accept the license, then "Next", then "Finish".

7. When the Feature Verification dialog appears, click "Install All".

8. Restart the IDL Workbench.

Verify the installation:
To verify that the install was successful, select "About IDL
Workbench" from the Help menu. The top of the text portion of
the dialog should show "7.0.3". Note that because this is a
Workbench-only update, IDL's !VERSION system variable will still
report IDL version 7.0.

Note:
If disk space is an issue, you can delete the older versions
of the documentation content from your IDL installation. After
you have verified that the IDL Workbench 7.0.3 updates have
been installed, do the following:

1) Shut down IDL.

2) Change to the idlde/plugins subdirectory of your IDL 7.0
installation and delete the following files:

com.rsi.idl.doc.analyst.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.base.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.core.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.dicom.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.dm.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.ext.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.platform_7.0.0.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.tutorials.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.wb.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.wn.jar
com.rsi.idl.doc.wv.jar

Do *NOT* delete any files whose names match the pattern
com.rsi.idl.doc.*_7.0.3.jar.

Deleting the older files will save approximately 50 Mbytes of disk
space.

Bill Okubo
IDL Product Manager