Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
sun-equipment (guagentm@purdue.edu) writes: > I'm just starting to use IDL and am looking at using IDL and VB (Visual > Basic) together. I was wondering if anyone has had any expereinces > using them together, such as problems or good things. What I am hoping > to do is create the user interface for my program in VB have all the > user interaction be processed by VB and send the needed commands to IDL > and then have IDL display them. Why? Because you know VB and you don't know IDL? A waste of time doing it like this, IMHO. :-) Cheers, David P.S. Let's just say IDL was designed as a stand-alone application and it still works best that way. You have to have a VERY compelling reason to mix two pieces of software like this, especially when one of them is designed by Microsoft. -- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/ Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155
David Fanning wrote in message ... > sun-equipment (guagentm@purdue.edu) writes: > >> I'm just starting to use IDL and am looking at using IDL and VB (Visual >> Basic) together. I was wondering if anyone has had any expereinces >> using them together, such as problems or good things. What I am hoping >> to do is create the user interface for my program in VB have all the >> user interaction be processed by VB and send the needed commands to IDL >> and then have IDL display them. > > Why? Because you know VB and you don't know IDL? A > waste of time doing it like this, IMHO. :-) > > P.S. Let's just say IDL was designed as a stand-alone application > and it still works best that way. You have to have a VERY > compelling reason to mix two pieces of software like this, > especially when one of them is designed by Microsoft. We do this and it works here. Here are two compelling reasons: - We want to talk to an software package provided by a CCD camera manufacturer. That software package uses Microsoft's COM interface, i.e. it exports an object model. The COM interface can be called trivially from Visual Basic, but not at all from IDL. - It is MUCH easier to write widget interfaces in Visual Basic than in IDL. Really, David! - IDL is used to process the spectra we collect and display the results. It does this in windows on the Visual Basic screen. Mark Rivers University of Chicago