upgrade to macOS Catalina: IDL refuses to start

[Harald von der Osten]

Today I upgraded from Mojave to Catalina. When I try to start IDL I receive the error message: To be able to open "idlde.darwin.x86_64" the old Java SE 6-Runtime-Version has to be installed. Screenshot of this error message:

What can I do? I don't want to downgrade JAVA...

Thanks a lot,

Harry

[Wayne Landsman]

I haven't upgraded to Catalina yet myself, but I do see that L3Harris has a help article on this:

ttps://www.harrisgeospatial.com/Support/Self-Help-Tools/Help-Articles/Help-Articles-Detail/ArtMID/10220/ArticleID/23780/Mac-OS-Catalina-1015-ENVIIDL-and-Legacy-Java-6-Dependencies

[Wayne Landsman]

And this does seem to be a serious problem so I'll quote in its entirety another help article

https://www.harrisgeospatial.com/Support/Self-Help-Tools/Help-Articles/Help-Articles-Detail/ArtMID/10220/ArticleID/23778/MacOS-platform-support-for-IDL

MacOS platform support for IDL

L3Harris remains committed to IDL on the Mac OS X platform with the pending release of Catalina. Through beta testing, we have identified an issue that requires a patch to IDL 8.7 in order to run on this new OS X release. The issue is caused by the existing 32-bit applications used in IDL (Applescripts and IDLSnapFileOpen), and they will be replaced with 64-bit versions. Other related concerns on this OS X release will also be addressed. This patch to IDL will be available very soon after the release of Catalina.

We are also nearing completion of a substantial effort to update our internal DevOps cycle that we use to build, test, and release the IDL and ENVI software so the process is faster and more reliable. As part of this effort, we plan to address other outstanding concerns for IDL Mac OS X such as a compatible Java version. This investment in our development process is important because L3Harris recognizes that IDL Mac has been a popular platform, especially for users of Mac laptops. Look for these changes to be delivered in the next release of IDL Mac OS X.

[Harald von der Osten]

Many thanks for the reference to the help article. The script described there helped, IDL is now running again. Again thousand thanks for that !!

[Ben C]

This issue is related to Apple blocking 32-bit applications in MacOS Catalina. The patch will fix the issue for IDL 8.7.0, 8.7.1, and 8.7.2. 

The patch will not be needed for IDL 8.7.3 which will include the fix by default. IDL 8.7.3 should release before the end of February 2020. 

Cheers,

Ben from L3Harris