| Re: iTools/interactive Analysis > [message #48219] |
Thu, 06 April 2006 06:55  |
Phony Account
Messages: 14
Registered: May 2005
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Junior Member |
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I love iTools.
I use them to capture post-processed data from simulations and generate
presentation quality plots. I like the fact that I can open up the
saved file, and all the data is there, and I can tweak the look of the
plot.
What is missing are two things:
Capability to add notes to an iTool. I don't mean text that shows on
the screen, but internal notes. I would use that facility to remind
myself how I got the data, and stuff like that.
The second thing that is missing is actually a tall task: ideally, an
iTool would capture the whole data analysis session from start to
finish. Let me explain:
I work in a corporate environment, and everybody around me uses Excel
for data analyisis. Now, spreadsheets may not match to such highly
performing packages such as IDL and Matlab, _but_ in an excel
spreadsheet file, you have the data, the operations on the data, and
the plots. (btw, the plots are a pain to work with and look awful, at
least as compared to iTools). So, once you save your spreadsheet, you
can open it months later, and everything will be there.
There is plenty bad with data analysis in spreadsheets:
- It is hard to see the flow of the data analysis - at a glance it is
hard to see what depends on what.
- You see all the data whether you need to or not - I see spreadsheets
with columns and columns of data.
One can work around those problems, but the format of the spreadsheet
interface drives you to poor "aesthetic" practice.
Several times in the past I have considered writing an spread-sheet
type data-analyzer in IDL. All the data-processing facilities would
have to be encapsulated in objects with a uniform interface. But
unfortunately, I just never get fired or laid of, so I never have the
time to pursue that project.
On the other hand, if you thought iTools were slow, this one would be
much, much slower :-)
On the other other hand, at the company where I work (Tokyo Electron
Limited) we are striving to provide semiconductor manufacturers with
tools to make THz chips.
Mirko
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