Mastering IDEAScript: The Definitive Guide, with Website

Chapter 2

Creating Your First IDEAScript Application

An IDEAScript application is a group of one or more macros that perform a specific task, such as a particular kind of analysis on a database. The application can contain dialog boxes and other user interface features that make it possible to interact with the user and create a more flexible result. You can even compile your IDEAScript application to execute it at the command line without ever opening IDEA.

Many people experience a mental block when they attempt to perform some tasks. For example, most people have a hard time starting to write something when faced with a blank page. Writing an application can be the same way. Many people look at the blank editor screen and simply don't know what to do next. Just as book authors use a number of tricks to avoid the blank page, you can use some tricks to avoid the blank editor screen. This chapter helps you get started by showing you how to create simple applications. Often, you can start with a simple application and keep adding to it until the resulting application does everything you need.

Before you can create a macro, however, you need to know how to perform tasks such as opening the editors and interacting with them in a meaningful way. In fact, you will learn that IDEA actually provides two different editors and you need to decide which editor to use for your application. IDEA also lets you create an executable program—one that you can start from within Windows without starting ...