Environment > Getting Started > Starting IDL

Starting IDL

The easiest way to start IDL is by launching the IDL Workbench, which is an Eclipse-based graphical user interface.

You can also run IDL in command-line mode, which uses a text-only interface and sends output to your terminal screen or shell window.

IDL is available in both 32- and 64-bit versions for Windows and a 64-bit version for Macintosh, Solaris, and Linux. You can execute the 64-bit version only if your system supports 64-bit operations, but you can run the 32-bit Windows version on a 64-bit Windows system. See Command-line Options for IDL Startup for details.

The following table lists the various ways to launch IDL:

		Mode
Operating System	32-/64-bit Executable	Workbench	Command-line
Windows	32-bit	On 32-bit platforms: Start > IDL x.x > IDL On 64-bit platforms: Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL (32-bit)	On 32-bit platforms: Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL Command Line On 64-bit platforms: Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL Command Line (32-bit)
	64-bit	Start > IDL x.x > IDL	Start > IDL x.x > Tools > IDL Command Line
Macintosh	64-bit	Double-click on the `idl` icon in your IDL installation folder or Enter `idlde` at the X11 Terminal window shell prompt	Click on the `idl` icon in your IDL installation folder or Enter `idl` at the X11 Terminal window shell prompt
Solaris and Linux	64-bit	Enter `idlde` at the shell prompt	Enter `idl` at the shell prompt
		Note: To launch IDL from the shell prompt, you must first explicitly open a terminal window and set up each IDL user's environment.

Quitting IDL

To quit IDL, type EXIT at the IDL command prompt.

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