comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive - RDF feed
type: channel
description: Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
items: Re: IDL/PVWAVE History

Re: IDL/PVWAVE History
type: item
description: Thanks to everyone who sent me info in IDL/PV~WAVE history. No more thanks! I've recieved about 10 requests for this info. So I thought I'd post what seems to be the best of the answers I recieved. It seems to be posted in response to an earlier, similar question regarding IDL/PV~WAVE history. John Black. ============================================================ ==================== thomsen@spf.trw.com (Mark R. Thomsen) writes > David M. Legler writes > I assume the heritage of these packages goes back to a common ancestor > somewhere. What was it and how long ago did it exist ? > > I was told by a guy on the NCAR Graphics team that IDL, NCAR Graphics, > and PV Wave share the same original architect/author. He said the name > but I forgot it. When I was getting an excellent demonstration of IDL > I mentioned this and the demo driver said he knows the originator and > the story is true. > > Who is this masked man? I think IDL was the name of the original package. > > Mark R. Thomsen I think I'd better clear this up before any new urban legends are created. IDL: IDL is a product of Research Systems, Inc., founded in 1977 by David Stern. The origins of IDL were developed at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado. David was one of the people involved in efforts to make computers easier to use for the physicists at the Lab. The first program in the evolutionary chain to IDL was named Rufus (named after Dave's dog). Rufus was a very simple vector oriented calculator that ran on the PDP-12. It accepted 2 letter codes that specified (1) An arithmetic operation (2) The input registers to serve as operands, and (3) the destination register. The next version was the Mars Mariner Spectrum Editor (MMED) which was a version of Rufus that ran on the PDP-8. The next program in this line was named SOL, and it also ran on the PDP-8. Unlike its predecessors, SOL was a real computer language with a real syntax (no more 2 letter codes). …
creator: black
date: 1992-08-14T12:35:20-00:00