Re: Temporary variables still checked out

[Peter Mason <menakkis(at)my-deja.com>]

philaldis@geocities.com wrote:
<...> Every time I run it, if I hit the okay button,
> I get the message from IDL 'Temporary variables still checked out', or
> at least it's virtually like that, after the program exits.
<...>
> I don't know what's going on, but is it something to do with the
> structures and passing by value etc.

Phil, you're essentially doing your assignment to a temporary variable
when you do something like (structure.member)=val instead of
structure.member=val.   The brackets tell IDL to evaluate their
contents, and this incurs the creation of a temporary variable.   The
assignment is lost when the temp variable is destroyed, and you get that
inscrutable "programmer's revenge" error message in lieu of a warning
that something hasn't worked out quite as you might have expected.

> ((*(info.ptr)).optIndex)[i,*] = 0
=> Instead of this, try (*info.ptr).optIndex[i,*]=0;  etc.

Things DO get a bit unsettling when (structures of) pointers to
structures are involved, but a bit of command line action will
normally clarify IDL's workings with brackets soon enough.   (Basically,
you must restrict your bracketing to just the pointer component(s).)
There was quite a bit of discussion about all this
some time back (at least a year) on the NG.   As I recall, Stein Vidar
pretty much sussed out how it all works - it may be worth your while
searching a news archive for this thread.


Peter Mason


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