What's new in IDL 5.5?

Please note that there are some changes with idl 5.5. In particular, there is a change in array handling which does affect some codes at JET.

Previous versions of IDL contain an error that caused it to convert single element array tags within structures into scalars when referenced:

IDL> a = { tag:[1] }
IDL> help, a.tag
INT = 1


This has been corrected in IDL 5.5 and now returns a single element array as expected:

IDL> a = { tag:[1] }
IDL> help, a.tag
INT = Array[1]


Existing programs that depend on the old behavior will need to be modified to include a subscript (e.g. b=a.tag[0] instead of b=a.tag).

For full details of the latest features of IDL, please contact dmsd-support@jet.efda.org for a copy of What's new in IDL 5.5.