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3.1 Running the Software

To run the software:

  • With the precompiled IDL Virtual Machine (VM)
    • Go to the install directory/diffprep_main
    • Type prepvm
      Note: If you are running the software on Mac, please type ./prepvm at the terminal. This will ensure you are running the software from your home directory, where all the settings file to run the software are stored.
    • Click on the IDL splash screen to start the software
  • With IDL Full licensed version
    • Go to the install directory/diffprep_main
    • Type "idl" in the command prompt. This assumes that the path to the executable "idl" exists in your "PATH" environment variable. Otherwise, give the full path to "idl".
    • On the IDL command prompt type one of the two commands:
      For command line:
      IDL> diffprep, 'FULL PATH TO DATA DESCRIPTION FILE'
      OR for GUI version:
      IDL> diffprep_gui
  • With locally installed IDL virtual machine (VM)
    Note: a few users have reported problems running the software in this manner. We have not yet identified the issue. Please use the precompiled version of the IDL VM (see above) if you run into problems.
    • Start the IDL VM from your local install of IDL
    • select diffprep_gui.sav

The main software is a user friendly GUI "diffprep_gui.sav" where you can use a GUI to create the data description file and run the software. This can be used with the IDL VM, the precompiled VM or with the full IDL license.

The command line version of the software is called "diffprep.sav". This procedure takes one parameter&emdash;a string containing the full path of an ".xml" file that contains the descriptions of the data that needs to be processed, called the data description file. This file needs to be created manually for use in the command line version, and will be described in the following sections. The command line version of the software is only available when using the full IDL license.