| Re: Modern IDL Comments [message #78000] |
Mon, 10 October 2011 13:58 |
Michael Galloy
Messages: 1114
Registered: April 2006
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Senior Member |
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On 10/10/11 2:29 PM, David Fanning wrote:
> A lot of people ask me, "What in the world do you do on
> that long flight to Australia!?" I normally give the same lame
> answer, "I watch 3-4 really, really dumb movies while trying
> to get some sleep."
>
> But, this time I did something more productive. I read
> Mike Galloy's very interesting and helpful book, Modern
> IDL, cover to cover. What a pleasure!
>
> Mike advises users already familiar with IDL to skip
> the first six chapers if they like. I'm glad I didn't!
> I almost learned more there than in the rest of the
> chapters. Mike and I have had very different experiences
> with IDL, have used it in different ways, and I found
> it refreshing and interesting to read Mike's lucid
> explainations of this different approach. I found myself
> making notes almost every time I turned the page.
>
> The book covers a lot of ground, and I found myself
> often aware of problems and dangers that he must
> by necessity skip or gloss over if he planned to write
> a book that could be held in the hand (not to mention
> carried in a flight bag). But, still, there was an
> impressive amount of explanatory material that made
> difficult subjects at least seem approachable. His
> explanation of iTools, for example, made them almost
> seem comprehensible, although he provided little
> detail(correctly, in my opinion!) in this section.
> And surely his three pages of text and an index entry for
> the BLAS_AXPY function in IDL will be found in no
> other IDL book published anywhere in the world! ;-)
>
> This book is obviously not aimed at the noivce IDL
> user, but for those of us who have been around the block
> a few times, it will open the eyes to new possibilities
> and a fresh way of thinking. Very well done, and a
> valuable contribution of the growing IDL literature.
Thanks for the kind words!
Mike
--
Michael Galloy
www.michaelgalloy.com
Modern IDL, A Guide to Learning IDL: http://modernidl.idldev.com
Research Mathematician
Tech-X Corporation
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