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How does IDL do ...
| How does IDL do ... [message #8882] |
Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00  |
ewilliams
Messages: 1
Registered: May 1997
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Junior Member |
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Hi all,
I am trying to put together a presentation for new IDL users that is a
good introduction to using it for astronomical applications. One of the
similar applications used in astro is IRAF. If anyone is familiar with IDL
and IRAF would you be able to give me a rundown comparing the two,
particularly when you might want to use one over the other. We have both
apps in our working environment and I don't want to displace either, but I
have never really used IRAF and I have a feeling that some things our
users do in IRAF can be done faster in IDL. I already know that programing
in IDL is much clearer.
I am also curious as to how IDL does matrix calculations. A simple example:
If you want to operate on an 2D array with FORTRAN you need to write
nested loops to work through the rows and columns and work with each
element.
In IDL you apply a function or WHERE statement to a whole array in one command.
I am wondering if IDL is still doing the nested loops anyway, and
therefore not really any faster at doing the job?
Sorry if this is confusing. I am trying to convince others that IDL just
does this kind of math faster. If anyone has an example that would be
great.
Finally, I am also trying to sell IDL to students as one good tool learn
not only for astronomy but to open up future job possibilities in other
fields. I have mentioned the following fields:
astronomy
geology
bio medical imaging
Are these correct? Can anyone pass on a few more?
Thanks very much for any input. As you can see I am trying to get support
in my department for using IDL on a much larger scale. In fact any selling
points anyone might pass on would be good. Especially in the performance
area.
--
Eric Williams
ewilliams@wesleyan.edu
See my website on my participation on the search for extrasolar planets: http://cannon.sfsu.edu/~williams/planetsearch/planetsearch.h tml
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