IDL Pricing [message #27480] |
Thu, 25 October 2001 01:46  |
Please_Spam
Messages: 2 Registered: October 2001
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Junior Member |
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Dear NG,
I am using IDL/Wave since 1993 for vizualisation purposes in the field
of space imaging and atmospheric science.
Since then the pricing (including schools and universities) increased
drastically. We are spending now more then 10.000 Euro for about 20
licenses (the reseller told us that this is not the normal price but a
special bargain- what a joke).
I am seriously thinking about leaving the IDL/Wave track and go for
something cheaper or free software. Of course I would like to move to
something that has some affinity to IDL but this does not necessarily
must be the case (a colleague told me that something like scilab, a
free matlab derivative might be helpful). On the other hand I read
about gdl (a free IDL developed at sourcefourge), which is announced
to be compatibel to IDL, but on sourcefourge they don't seem to make
progress since 2000- This sounds not too promising...
At least one thing is clear to me and my colleagues, we don't want to
support such (monopolist) pricing policy by still buying IDL, PV-Wave
and related products as long as we can avoid it. And much more
important: we cannot afford it any more!
I would like to ask the NG what is your opinion about the pricing?
Have you made the same experience? And, if so, what are your proposals
to prevent from being trapped in this way? Or do we only have the
wrong reseller ;-)
Are there any free IDL derivative?
Best wishes
Marco
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Re: IDL Pricing [message #27558 is a reply to message #27480] |
Fri, 26 October 2001 11:06   |
Liam E. Gumley
Messages: 378 Registered: January 2000
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Senior Member |
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Guillaume Dargaud wrote:
[stuff deleted]
> Anyway, the other thing I don't like in IDL are graphics. Try to do a
> surface plots in less than... 40 lines. In most graphic packages it takes
> one line !
Here's an example from "Practical IDL Programming" (p. 271). For
demonstration purposes, let's create a 2D sinc function defined over the
range -10 to 10 in x and y:
v = findgen(41) * 0.5 - 10.0
x = rebin(v, 41, 41, /sample)
y = rebin(reform(v, 1, 41), 41, 41, /sample)
r = sqrt(x^2 + y^2) + 1.0e-6
z = sin(r) / r
To plot the data as a mesh surface:
surface, z, x, y
To plot the data as a shaded surface:
shade_surf, z, x, y
Therefore IDL is perfectly capable of plotting a surface in one line.
Cheers,
Liam.
Practical IDL Programming
http://www.gumley.com/
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Re: IDL Pricing [message #27717 is a reply to message #27558] |
Fri, 02 November 2001 02:00  |
Heike Koch-Beuttenmue
Messages: 6 Registered: October 1999
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Junior Member |
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"Liam E. Gumley" wrote:
>
> Guillaume Dargaud wrote:
> [stuff deleted]
>> Anyway, the other thing I don't like in IDL are graphics. Try to do a
>> surface plots in less than... 40 lines. In most graphic packages it takes
>> one line !
>
> Here's an example from "Practical IDL Programming" (p. 271). For
> demonstration purposes, let's create a 2D sinc function defined over the
> range -10 to 10 in x and y:
>
> v = findgen(41) * 0.5 - 10.0
> x = rebin(v, 41, 41, /sample)
> y = rebin(reform(v, 1, 41), 41, 41, /sample)
> r = sqrt(x^2 + y^2) + 1.0e-6
> z = sin(r) / r
>
> To plot the data as a mesh surface:
>
> surface, z, x, y
>
> To plot the data as a shaded surface:
>
> shade_surf, z, x, y
>
> Therefore IDL is perfectly capable of plotting a surface in one line.
>
> Cheers,
> Liam.
> Practical IDL Programming
> http://www.gumley.com/
I think , Software like Maple,..., is doing it much easier, for example:
plot3d(sin((x^2+y^2))/(x^2+y^2)),x=-10..10,y=-10..10);
But I would like to know something else:
Can anybody tel me , where I can find comparisons between PV-WAVE and
IDL especially the newest versions and may-be between those ane Matlab?
I think all three are very expansive.
Mit freundlichen Gr��en
Heike Koch-Beuttenm�ller
=======================================================
Dr. Heike Koch-Beuttenm�ller
Universit�t Ulm
Universit�tsrechenzentrum
Albert-Einstein-Allee 11
D-89081 Ulm
Germany
e-mail: Heike.Koch-Beuttenmueller@rz.uni-ulm.de
Telefon: 0731 5022465
=======================================================
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