| Re: IDL and PV-WAVE? [message #5532] |
Mon, 15 January 1996 00:00 |
pjclinch
Messages: 27
Registered: May 1993
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Junior Member |
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Over here, at least educationally, the two cost the same (or at least
*did*, when we bought Wave). If one was more than the other, I'd buy the
cheaper one. During evaluation we were impressed with both products and
support and backup for both as well. In the end we plumped for the
(then) new PV~Wave Advantage version, as the extra maths and stats clout
from that looked attractive (we've put it to good use too).
Wave 6.0 (waiting for our upgrade in the post) has a rather better front
end for beginners or the "if it isn't a GUI I can't use it" brigade. Not
sure how IDL's doing in that respect at present.
Peter Sharer (sharer@argus.arc.nasa.gov) wrote:
: You might also investigate Visualization Data Explorer from IBM. It is a
: very different tool from either Wave or IDL. We are now evaluating it.
I think that's more along the lines of AVS, which you may wish to look
at. Same goes for SGI's Iris Explorer, which I think is multi-platform now.
We now have AVS, which is better for some things (like building GUI
applications for specific jobs), and worse for others (reading in a stack
of data you don't know much about and tinkering with it). *Different*,
rather than better, and complementary rather than a replacement.
Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Dundee University & Teaching Hospitals
Tel 44 1382 660111 extension 3637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk http://www.dundee.ac.uk/MedPhys/
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| Re: IDL and PV-WAVE? [message #5545 is a reply to message #5532] |
Fri, 12 January 1996 00:00  |
Peter Sharer
Messages: 3
Registered: October 1995
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Junior Member |
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I have recently gone through a similar exercise of determining the
differences between the two packages. Our group has been using IDL for
several years and have been quite happy with it, but we were looking for
a point-and-click data analysis application to complement IDL. PV-Wave
has its roots in IDL. In fact, if you check the FAQ you will learn that
PV-Wave began with a one-time snapshot of the IDL source code in 1990,
for which Visual Numerics paid several million dollars. So, for several
years there was very little difference and even now most of the syntax
is almost identical. They do differ in their widget programming
philosophies, IDL uses a proprietary system (some say easier to
program), while PV-Wave is a Motif based system (more standard). An
additional difference, one that is attractive to us, is that Visual
Numerics has added a point-and-click analysis module.
I visited with both companies at the American Geophysical Union meeting
just before the holidays. I was impressed with the PV-Wave data analysis
tools which are lacking in IDL, so I went down the aisle to the folks at
RSI. They recognize that IDL falls short on this capability, and say
that the next version, due sometime in '96 (they made no commitment to
the release date), will include it.
For us this is a tough decision as we want the added capability of
PV-Wave and don't really want to wait an indeterminate time for the next
IDL release, but most of what we would buy with PV-Wave would not be
added value. So we must decide if it is the best value for our
investment. If you are not attached to either product, Wave might be a
solid choice, though you should evaluate company stability, user
support, training opportunities, etc. I can only vouch for RSI. They
have been excellent on all accounts.
You might also investigate Visualization Data Explorer from IBM. It is a
very different tool from either Wave or IDL. We are now evaluating it.
Peter Sharer
sharer@argus.arc.nasa.gov
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| Re: IDL and PV-WAVE? [message #5558 is a reply to message #5545] |
Thu, 11 January 1996 00:00 |
Dale Bailey
Messages: 6
Registered: January 1996
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Junior Member |
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I am working in a medical scientific environment (using PET scanning) and
in general tomographic imaging and we previously used PV-Wave. We switched
to IDL about 2 years ago because the manufacturer of our PET scanners
selected IDL as their applications development platform. My PV-Wave
programs all ran without a hitch under IDL (except I had to write a
trivial routine (AVG) to average an array). I am told that Wave has tailored
itself more to the business market while IDL has gone more into the
scientific visualization market, but I haven't seen Wave for 2 years or
so now. We deal with 3D and 4D datasets from medical imaging devices and
are very happy with IDL.
Dale Bailey
MRC Cyclotron Unit
Hammersmith Hospital
London. UK.
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