| A Simple IDL Manifesto [message #63747] |
Mon, 17 November 2008 09:50 |
David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001
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Senior Member |
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Folks,
On my way to work this morning, after I my German
lesson gelearnt, I started thinking about simple
things ITTVIS could do to improve the IDL experience
for old and new users of IDL alike. My criteria for
my list is that it had to be something a junior ITTVIS
software engineer could accomplish in a lazy afternoon,
while knocking back a couple of cold Brewskis.
Here is the list:
1. Make the COLOR keyword default to 1 for the PostScript
device. The last time I wanted two-color PostScript output
was in 1964, and if I want it now I can draw in black
and white colors.
2. Make the BITS_PER_PIXEL keyword for the PostScript
device default to 8. Setting it to 4 probably made
sense in the 18th century (I'm speaking metaphorically
in computer time, of course), but it makes absolutely no
sense today.
3. Get rid of the TRUE keyword on the TV command. If you
don't know how to tell if an image is a 2D or a true-color
image, I'm certain Liam can enlighten you.
4. Add a POSITION keyword to the TV command so you don't
have to spend an afternoon figuring out who to overlay an
image with some information.
5. Oh, the hell with it, ditch the TV command and incorporate
TVIMAGE or IMGDISP in it's place. (Personally, I would vote for
IMGDISP.) That way you could have axes and everything else, too.
6. Make square-bracket array subscripting the default. Craig
will get used to it, believe me.
7. Make the NAN keyword default to 1 everywhere. Why not!?
8. I realize it is difficult to tell when you are staring at
a piece of paper just ejected from the printer, but make the
LANDscape PostScript output LANDscape and not SEAscape. You can
tell, all the time, when you view the PS output in GhostView.
9. Make UNXI computers default to TRUECOLOR visuals instead of
DIRECTCOLOR. Oh, wait... this is already done. Hurray! Scratch
this one from the list.
Cheers,
David
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming (www.dfanning.com)
Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
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