Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
Achim Hein wrote: > > Matt Delaney wrote: >> >> What are the essemtial differences between RSI IDL and PV-WAVE? Are >> programs written in the respective languages compatible? >> -- >> > They are compatible if you change some commands and the usage of somme > commands - i.e. avg(average/WAVE) and total, the usage of shade_surf, > call_external... > But there is no problem to find and convert the different commands. This thread relates to a problem I have... Our site has a license for PV-Wave, but another site has written a rather extensive GUI-based tool in IDL that we would like to be able to use... Does anyone have an idea of how compatible the GUI code would be between these two products ? If the GUI methods turn out to be too different, then porting the code would be more expensive than buying an IDL license... -- _______________________________________________________ / | \ | Randy Zagar | E-Mail: zagar@udel.edu | | Sr. Scientific Programmer | Voice: (302) 831-1139 | | College of Marine Studies | FAX: (302) 831-6838 | | University of Delaware | | | Newark, DE 19716 | | \_______________________________________________________/
Randy Zagar <zagar@udel.edu> writes: > This thread relates to a problem I have... Our site has a license > for PV-Wave, but another site has written a rather extensive GUI-based > tool in IDL that we would like to be able to use... > > Does anyone have an idea of how compatible the GUI code would be > between these two products ? If the GUI methods turn out to be too > different, then porting the code would be more expensive than buying > an IDL license... In the old days, just after PVI purchased the IDL source code, the two programs were exactly the same. As a newly hired RSI employee, one of the joys of my life was stealing PV-Wave customers from my former employers. It was pretty easy. IDL was cheaper, PV-Wave code ran without modification in IDL (and visa versa, unfortunately), and I knew more of the technical details of IDL/PV-Wave than most of the PV-Wave salespeople. Those salespeople and I used to get together for lunch and swap lies about how much damage we were doing to each other! But that was over four years ago. These days it is very difficult to even recognize that the two programs are the same, unless you are writing very simple programs. Each company has added features that their customers want. And even though there is a lot of "keeping up with the Joneses" associated with software development, what gets added gets added in different ways. The GUI tools are a good example. They are completely UNcompatible to each other, although they perform the same function in both programs. Depending upon how well your GUI program was written (and most are not written very well, unfortunately), you will have quite a bit of work to do to covert one GUI program to another. I can't image that it would ever be more efficient than just purchasing an extra license. Cheers! David ----------------------------------------------------------- David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting 2642 Bradbury Court, Fort Collins, CO 80521 Phone: 970-221-0438 Fax: 970-221-4762 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com -----------------------------------------------------------