| An IDL hero moves on. Best wishes, Chris! [message #94816] |
Wed, 25 October 2017 09:13  |
Dick Jackson
Messages: 347
Registered: August 1998
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Senior Member |
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Gentle readers,
A couple of weeks ago, through the magic of social networking, I learned that Chris Torrence has moved on from Harris, where he was IDL Project Team Lead, to a position as Software Development Manager at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. As I haven't yet seen any notice of this in this group, I thought I'd mention it.
For those who haven't had the pleasure of working with Chris, he has been a huge help to many of us over his years with RSI/Kodak/Exelis/Harris (I have had occasional contact with him since 2004!). His considerate, fair-minded nature has been a crucial part of the experience the IDL community has enjoyed. Chris' careful shepherding of many language improvements has been immensely helpful to all of us. (curious readers may see his accomplishments at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctorrence/)
Thank you warmly for all of this, Chris, and all best wishes for your future endeavours!
Cheers,
-Dick
Dick Jackson Software Consulting Inc.
Victoria, BC, Canada --- http://www.d-jackson.com
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| Re: An IDL hero moves on. Best wishes, Chris! [message #94819 is a reply to message #94816] |
Wed, 25 October 2017 16:27  |
wlandsman
Messages: 743
Registered: June 2000
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Senior Member |
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Yes, I wish Chris well. He has always been very helpful with the IDL users here, most recently with addressing the IDL 8.6 licensing restrictions.
And hope that there will be someone at Harris Geospatial who can try to fill his shoes... Wayne
On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 12:13:13 PM UTC-4, Dick Jackson wrote:
> Gentle readers,
>
> A couple of weeks ago, through the magic of social networking, I learned that Chris Torrence has moved on from Harris, where he was IDL Project Team Lead, to a position as Software Development Manager at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. As I haven't yet seen any notice of this in this group, I thought I'd mention it.
>
> For those who haven't had the pleasure of working with Chris, he has been a huge help to many of us over his years with RSI/Kodak/Exelis/Harris (I have had occasional contact with him since 2004!). His considerate, fair-minded nature has been a crucial part of the experience the IDL community has enjoyed. Chris' careful shepherding of many language improvements has been immensely helpful to all of us. (curious readers may see his accomplishments at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctorrence/)
>
> Thank you warmly for all of this, Chris, and all best wishes for your future endeavours!
>
> Cheers,
> -Dick
>
> Dick Jackson Software Consulting Inc.
> Victoria, BC, Canada --- http://www.d-jackson.com
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| Re: An IDL hero moves on. Best wishes, Chris! [message #94831 is a reply to message #94817] |
Mon, 30 October 2017 10:55 |
astroboy.20000
Messages: 39
Registered: August 2012
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Member |
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On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 7:49:09 AM UTC-4, Nikola Vitas wrote:
> Should we draw any conclusions about the future of IDL? Even in solar physics, that was traditionally IDL-oriented, there is an increasing trend of moving to python. I guess that in the near future some institutes, especially the smaller ones, may give up on paying the IDL licenses.
>
> All the best to Chris!
I think Harris is completely clueless about IDL. For IDL to survive I think it will have to be spun off as its own company. I think Harris sees that the big money is to be made is with envi (although i think it's a iffy to even claim it knows what ENVI is) and probably no one in management even knows that there's language called IDL that scientists use.
At my university students could get IDL for $100, a student version that worked OK for simple stuff was free. No more. I work at harris. My computer has matlab installed on it.
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| Re: An IDL hero moves on. Best wishes, Chris! [message #94832 is a reply to message #94831] |
Mon, 30 October 2017 10:57 |
astroboy.20000
Messages: 39
Registered: August 2012
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Member |
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On Monday, October 30, 2017 at 1:55:48 PM UTC-4, Ann Nonymous wrote:
> On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 7:49:09 AM UTC-4, Nikola Vitas wrote:
>> Should we draw any conclusions about the future of IDL? Even in solar physics, that was traditionally IDL-oriented, there is an increasing trend of moving to python. I guess that in the near future some institutes, especially the smaller ones, may give up on paying the IDL licenses.
>>
>> All the best to Chris!
>
> I think Harris is completely clueless about IDL. For IDL to survive I think it will have to be spun off as its own company. I think Harris sees that the big money is to be made is with envi (although i think it's a iffy to even claim it knows what ENVI is) and probably no one in management even knows that there's language called IDL that scientists use.
>
> At my university students could get IDL for $100, a student version that worked OK for simple stuff was free. No more. I work at harris. My computer has matlab installed on it.
In fact, to get IDL installed I had to make a 'special request' to IT because IDL was 'non-standard' software. What a hoot.
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| Re: An IDL hero moves on. Best wishes, Chris! [message #94845 is a reply to message #94817] |
Sun, 05 November 2017 07:32 |
chris_torrence@NOSPAM
Messages: 528
Registered: March 2007
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Senior Member |
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Hi everyone,
Thanks so much for the kind wishes! It has been a pleasure working with the IDL community over the years, and even though there have been some bumps in the road over functionality and licensing, it was nice to know that there was a group of people that cared passionately about IDL and scientific programming.
It was a difficult decision to leave RSI/Harris, but after 17 years and lots of features and bug fixes, it was time for me to move on and try something new. CU's Snow & Ice Data Center seems like a great fit - I'm managing their software development team - they're doing lots of coding in Python, JavaScript, and Ruby. There's still quite a bit of IDL running around (courtesy of our very own David Fanning!) so I won't get too rusty.
Even though I won't be fixing any more function graphics bugs (!), I hope everyone continues to enjoy and use IDL far into the future!
Cheers,
Chris
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| Re: An IDL hero moves on. Best wishes, Chris! [message #94848 is a reply to message #94845] |
Mon, 06 November 2017 01:29 |
Helder
Messages: 10
Registered: October 2017
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Junior Member |
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Dear Chris,
all the best. It was nice having someone on Harris side friendly communicating to the users on this platform. All your contributions were highly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Helder
On Sunday, 5 November 2017 16:32:45 UTC+1, Chris Torrence wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Thanks so much for the kind wishes! It has been a pleasure working with the IDL community over the years, and even though there have been some bumps in the road over functionality and licensing, it was nice to know that there was a group of people that cared passionately about IDL and scientific programming.
>
> It was a difficult decision to leave RSI/Harris, but after 17 years and lots of features and bug fixes, it was time for me to move on and try something new. CU's Snow & Ice Data Center seems like a great fit - I'm managing their software development team - they're doing lots of coding in Python, JavaScript, and Ruby. There's still quite a bit of IDL running around (courtesy of our very own David Fanning!) so I won't get too rusty.
>
> Even though I won't be fixing any more function graphics bugs (!), I hope everyone continues to enjoy and use IDL far into the future!
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
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