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Re: GDL? [message #43089 is a reply to message #43080]

Mon, 21 March 2005 16:06

Ken Mankoff
Messages: 158
Registered: February 2000

Senior Member

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, Y.T. wrote:
> My employ in the space sciences appears to come to an end soon and
> with it access to IDL - the single most comfortable tool tool I've
> ever used on a computer (for 12 years and counting).
Unless you happen to be a student. IDL recently (a few years ago
now?) started supporting an $99 USD student edition.

> So I've been looking around and stumbled over "GDL - the Gnu Data
> Language". It looks like a worthy goal and if it were only 80%
> compatible with IDL, I'd be more than happy.
>
> So here's the question: has anybody actually used GDL?

I used it. I don't use it often, but I keep it installed and
up-to-date (via fink (unstable cvs), so it isn't 100% up-to-date) on
my OS X boxes. It works fine for me for line plotting and simple
math.

> Someone who has used IDL in the past and can give a decent
> overview over the pros and cons?
It does not support the MAP_* routines which is the main reason I
don't use it much. I haven't done any speed trials in it.

> I see the latest GDL version is 4 or 5 months old
No, I think it is *much* more actively developed than that. Maybe a
few weeks old?

> does that mean nobody is working on it or that it is stable?
The dev team is small AFAIK. It is stable in that I haven't had any
crashes with the little bit of usage I have given it. Recent posts
by the developer implies it is more stable than IDL. Well, maybe not
more stable, but it gracefully handles a few places where IDL
segfaults.

> What are the major incompatibilities (if any)?
The large chunk (> 20%) of IDL that is not implemented yet.

I hope someday it will support Aqua. Maybe when Marc implements the
GUI code he will use wxWidgets? That would be great.

But I think the best way to answer your question is to download and
run it. If you cannot for some reason, and would like to send me a
test procedure, I'll run it for you.

-k.

--
http://spacebit.dyndns.org/

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[Message index]

		Re: GDL? By: Chris Lee on Thu, 24 March 2005 00:45
		Re: GDL? By: Ken Mankoff on Wed, 23 March 2005 06:17
		Re: GDL? By: wmconnolley on Wed, 23 March 2005 02:25
		Re: GDL? By: Chris Lee on Tue, 22 March 2005 05:50
		Re: GDL? By: wmconnolley on Tue, 22 March 2005 02:21
		Re: GDL? By: Ken Mankoff on Mon, 21 March 2005 16:06
		Re: GDL? By: Benjamin Hornberger on Mon, 21 March 2005 15:15
		Re: GDL? By: Michael Wallace on Mon, 21 March 2005 14:35
		Re: GDL? By: wmconnolley on Thu, 24 March 2005 08:47

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