# $Id: idl_acrobat_plugin.config,v 1.5 2003/05/08 21:26:45 ali Exp $ # # Unix IDL uses the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to supply online help via # the ? executive command and the ONLINE_HELP procedure. On most platforms, # an Acrobat Reader plugin supplied by RSI is used to allow IDL to communicate # with the Acrobat Reader process. This file configures that plugin, and IDL's # use of it. # # You can tell which platforms IDL has plugin support for by looking # in the platform specific bin directories of your IDL distribution # for files named idl_acrobatX_plugin.api (where X is a number giving the # Acrobat Reader version). These files are IDL Acrobat plugins, and their # presence means that IDL supports the plugin on that platform for the # specific version of Acrobat Reader. If such a file is not present, # the plugin is not available on that platform. # # # # ARE YOU HAVING A PROBLEM WITH THE IDL ACROBAT PLUGIN? # # If so, please have a look at the file idl_acrobat_plugin.README, # found in the same directory as this file. It explains how the # plugin works, provides more details on the meaning of settings # in this file, and offers some troubleshooting advice. # This is the Unix command line name for the Acrobat Reader for most systems ACROREAD acroread # The DISABLE_PLUGIN line should be uncommented if you want to disable # the use of the IDL Acrobat Reader plugin entirely. The default behavior # is to use a plugin if the IDL distribution has one for the target # platform. If you disable the plugin, IDL can still start Acrobat Reader # to display documentation, but IDL will not be able to control it once it # starts --- it will simply act as an independent application. # ###DISABLE_PLUGIN # Before IDL starts Acrobat Reader, it will copy the IDL Acrobat Plugin # into the users ~/plug_ins directory so that Acrobat will find it when # it starts. The DISABLE_PLUGIN_HOMEINSTALL should be uncommented if you # want to prevent this from happening. The main reason for doing so is # if you copy the IDL plugin into your Acrobat installation, the home # directory installation is not necessary, and might even conflict. # Another reason is to help in trouble shooting plugin problems. ###DISABLE_PLUGIN_HOMEINSTALL # Different versions of Acrobat Reader require IDL plugins that match them. # For example, version 4 requires a v4 IDL plugin, and version 5 requires # a v5 IDL plugin. The plugins for different versions of Acrobat Reader # are very different, and are not cross compatible. Typically, errors will # be issued by Acrobat Reader if you try to use the wrong version, and # the plugin will not work. # # Acrobat Reader does not provide a foolproof way to determine the # version (such as a command line -version option). IDL uses a heuristic # approach to determine which plugin version to use. The heuristic is # to open the acroread file (which is a shell script) and parse the # version from its contents. This usually works, but can be fooled by # locally installed "wrapper" scripts that you might have in use on # your system. # # If the version heuristic fails, for whatever reason, IDL assumes the # default version specified here by PLUGIN_DEFAULT_VERSION. # # If you are getting the "IDL Acrobat plugin did not respond as expected" # error when IDL starts Acrobat Reader, and the value of # PLUGIN_DEFAULT_VERSION is different than the version of Acrobat Reader # you are using, odds are very good that IDL's hueristic is failing on # your system. Try changing PLUGIN_DEFAULT_VERSION to match your # Acrobat Reader. # # NOTE: Only the major version number is used here. For example, if you # have Acrobat Reader version 5.0.6, the correct value to use here is 5. PLUGIN_DEFAULT_VERSION 5 # As described for PLUGIN_DEFAULT_VERSION above, IDL uses a heuristic # to figure out which version of Acrobat Reader you have installed. # To disable the heuristic entirely, uncomment # DISABLE_PLUGIN_VERSION_HEURISTIC. If you disable the heuristic, IDL # installs the plugin version given by PLUGIN_VERSION without trying # to verify it first. You might do this if the value of # PLUGIN_DEFAULT_VERSION is correct for your system, and you want to # get rid of the warning message IDL displays when the heuristic # fails to get an answer. ###DISABLE_PLUGIN_VERSION_HEURISTIC # When IDL starts Acrobat Reader with the IDL plugin, it performs a # handshake operation with it to ensure that the plugin is operating. # To prevent hanging indefinitely in case of trouble, it only waits # this many seconds before giving up. This number needs to be big enough # that it does not abort a working plugin prematurely (on a slow system, # for instance). It needs to be small enough that failure is detected # without hanging for too long. TIMEOUT 30 # When Acrobat Reader starts with no specified topic, it loads # this file. The pdf extension is implicit, and !HELP_PATH is # used to determine the path. INITIAL_FILE_NOTOPIC onlguide # When Acrobat Reader starts with a specified topic, it loads # this file. The pdf extension is implicit, and !HELP_PATH is # used to determine the path. INITIAL_FILE_TOPIC refguide # When an attempt to move the current document to a PDF named destination # fails, the IDL plugin will load DEFAULT_ND_FILE, and position it to # the DEFAULT_ND named destination. If DEFAULT_ND_FILE is not specified, # then DEFAULT_ND is still used, but relative to the current document. #DEFAULT_BADND_FILE srchhelp #DEFAULT_BADND SEARCHTNF DEFAULT_BADND_FILE refguide DEFAULT_BADND COVER ######################################################################### # # The definitions above establish overall defaults suitable for # most platforms. Here, we alter those defaults for those platforms # that have other requirements. ######################################################################### IF darwin # Under Mac OS X, the open command figures out the application to run, # so there isn't an explicit acroread command. ACROREAD open # The IDL plugin is not supported under Mac OS X, so disable it. # The version heuristic doesn't work under OS X (there is no acroread # shell script to parse), so disabling it prevents IDL from issuing a # warning stating that it couldn't determine the version. Disabling the # plugin is not necessary (IDL will figure out that there isn't one), # but doing so prevents IDL from doing unnecessary work. DISABLE_PLUGIN DISABLE_PLUGIN_VERSION_HEURISTIC ENDIF IF AIX # The IDL plugin is not supported under AIX, so disable it. IDL will # run without errors if this is not done, but doing so prevents IDL # from doing unnecessary work. DISABLE_PLUGIN DISABLE_PLUGIN_VERSION_HEURISTIC ENDIF