| IDL and WAVE: # and types of users? [message #16731] |
Sat, 21 August 1999 00:00  |
Mitchell R Grunes
Messages: 3
Registered: December 1997
|
Junior Member |
|
|
I wish to estimate how many users there are for IDL and PV-WAVE.
Anyone have any idea? In terms of who has more, and in
actual #'s? Also: am I right that IDL users mostly fall
into the remote sensing community, while PV-WAVE users are
mostly financial business? Or is that nonsense?
(I know I am a bit tired of trying to make my software work
with both.)
My own best guess is that each has only a few thousand at the
very most. But that would make it hard for them to make
a living--unless they make most of their income from software
subscriptions, technical help, training and consulting.
|
|
|
|
| Re: IDL and WAVE: # and types of users? [message #16839 is a reply to message #16731] |
Tue, 24 August 1999 00:00  |
mdwillia
Messages: 2
Registered: August 1999
|
Junior Member |
|
|
Mitch Grunes <grunesm@sprynet.com> writes:
> I wish to estimate how many users there are for IDL and PV-WAVE.
> Anyone have any idea? In terms of who has more, and in
> actual #'s? Also: am I right that IDL users mostly fall
> into the remote sensing community, while PV-WAVE users are
> mostly financial business? Or is that nonsense?
You are on the right track. IDL is much more prevalent in
the academic/remote sensing/astronomy communities than is
PV-WAVE, at least according to my perception of the types
of people that post here, where most of the topics are
related to IDL.
In having followed the WAVE mailing list, it would seem
that WAVE is more prevalent in the aerospace/manufacturing/
test engineering environments than is IDL, at least as
indicated by the types that post to the mailing list.
Don't know how accurate those perceptions may be;
the sample populace of both groups isn't necessarily
indicative of the user communities at large.
--MDG
CU
|
|
|
|
| Re: IDL and WAVE: # and types of users? [message #16869 is a reply to message #16731] |
Sun, 22 August 1999 00:00 |
kluegel
Messages: 11
Registered: February 1999
|
Junior Member |
|
|
In article <MPG.1229d06edc4672939898af@news.frii.com>,
davidf@dfanning.com (David Fanning) wrote:
> If you are thinking about writing a book, or trying
> to make a living as a consultant, and you really want
> to ask, Is it possible to do this given the IDL/PV-Wave
> market size? Then I would say, yes, if you are clever,
> do quality work, have a burning desire to work night
> and day, can learn the marketing/sales/accounting/public
> relations skills it requires to be successful, and
> have some money saved up (or an employed significant
> other) so you can eat while you are getting things
> going. After a year or two of happy clients, it's a
> cinch. :-)
As David writes this from his notebook in the Bahamas... :)
-- Tom
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
|
|
|
|
| Re: IDL and WAVE: # and types of users? [message #16873 is a reply to message #16731] |
Sun, 22 August 1999 00:00 |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Joseph B. Gurman (gurman@gsfc.nasa.gov) writes:
> I would estimate the number of
> IDL users at some tens of thousands.
>
> Of course, "users" is a broad term, including the cluesless using code
> developed by others.
I agree. In my own mind, I think 25,000 - 30,000 IDL users.
Nearly as many PV-Wave users, probably. But an appallingly
high percentage are probably what Joe (not me) called the
"clueless". :-)
Even the non-clueless are using an amazingly small
percentage of IDL functionality.
If you are thinking about writing a book, or trying
to make a living as a consultant, and you really want
to ask, Is it possible to do this given the IDL/PV-Wave
market size? Then I would say, yes, if you are clever,
do quality work, have a burning desire to work night
and day, can learn the marketing/sales/accounting/public
relations skills it requires to be successful, and
have some money saved up (or an employed significant
other) so you can eat while you are getting things
going. After a year or two of happy clients, it's a
cinch. :-)
Cheers,
David
--
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
|
|
|
|
| Re: IDL and WAVE: # and types of users? [message #16875 is a reply to message #16731] |
Sun, 22 August 1999 00:00 |
gurman
Messages: 82
Registered: August 1992
|
Member |
|
|
In article <37BEB8A6.BC92B5D1@sprynet.com>, Mitch Grunes
<grunesm@sprynet.com> wrote:
I have no way of estimating what you really want, other than to note
that we have IDL icenses numbered > 18000. (Does anyone know if these are
always given out serially? Each new license we've gotten has been higher
numbered than the previous one, and when we buy multiple licenses at a
time, they are consecutively numbered.) Admittedly, some licenses have
probably lapsed, but quite a few others out there are for servers with
multiple seats. If I had to hazard a guess, I would estimate the number of
IDL users at some tens of thousands.
Of course, "users" is a broad term, including the cluesless using code
developed by others.
My $0.02,
Joe Gurman
> I wish to estimate how many users there are for IDL and PV-WAVE.
>
> Anyone have any idea? In terms of who has more, and in
> actual #'s? Also: am I right that IDL users mostly fall
> into the remote sensing community, while PV-WAVE users are
> mostly financial business? Or is that nonsense?
>
> (I know I am a bit tired of trying to make my software work
> with both.)
>
> My own best guess is that each has only a few thousand at the
> very most. But that would make it hard for them to make
> a living--unless they make most of their income from software
> subscriptions, technical help, training and consulting.
--
Joseph B. Gurman / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Solar Physics Branch /
Greenbelt MD 20771 / work: gurman@gsfc.nasa.gov /other: gurman@ari.net
Government employees are still not allowed to hold opinions while at work,
so any opinions expressed herein must be someone else's.
|
|
|
|
comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive
Members
Search
Help
Login
Home
