| Re: Message From RSI VP of Engineering [message #27409 is a reply to message #27307] |
Sat, 20 October 2001 19:56   |
Paul Woodford
Messages: 43 Registered: June 2000
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In article <9qiq2d$qjg$1@news.doit.wisc.edu>,
"Liam Gumley" <Liam.Gumley@ssec.wisc.edu> wrote:
> Any comment from the community on whether this suggestion would meet
> the needs of Mac OS X users? (That is, an OS X version of IDL that
> uses X-Windows for direct/object graphics and user interface).
I haven't yet decided.
> Granted, you don't get the fancy Aqua user interface, but do IDL
> programmers really care, as long IDL is running on their Mac?
Yes. Or at least I do.
> For cross-platform development purposes, I would think a more
> UNIX-like version for the Mac would be a good thing.
No, it wouldn't. For cross-platform development purposes, RSI needs to
support the native interface of each system. In my opinion, they have
done a fairly good job of making sure widgets look alright on all the
platforms. IDLDE is another story. The Linux IDLDE has some annoying
bugs and is kind of clunky. I appreciate the power of idlwave, but I
greatly dislike emacs - the finger gymnastics, ugly GUI, etc.
The Macintosh IDLDE was obviously written by someone who cared about the
interface and understood Mac users. That's one of the reasons why RSI's
decision is so disappointing. The most persuasive reason for accepting
an ugly hybrid is to keep the camel's nose in the tent.
I'm holding onto my maintenance dollars for now.
Paul
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