| Re: General info question for newbie [message #26826 is a reply to message #26825] |
Mon, 01 October 2001 11:03   |
Paul van Delst
Messages: 364
Registered: March 1997
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Senior Member |
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Chris wrote:
>
> Just a quick question:
>
> Having dl'd the IDL 5.4 demo and played around a bit, I wondered how
> this would help me in a GIS environment and what advantages it would
> hold over a regular programming language?
Well, that depends on what you want to do. (And, btw, why don't you consider IDL a "regular
programming language"?) Also, if no else in your field and/or department/job/whatever is using
IDL, it's probably not a good choice - unless you're the type of fellow who will eventually
convince a goodly proportion of people you work with that IDL is the ant's pants and they
should use it. (I have seen that happen.)
> The opinion seems to be that
> there is less coding involved,
In IDL? Less coding? My experience is indifferent in this respect. E.g. in my IDL
functions/procedure I have the check the correct dimensionality of the arguments as well as
size since there is no type decalrations as such in IDL. In F90, for example, I know the input
array dimensions are correct (otherwise the code wouldn't compile), I just have to check the
sizes.
When it comes to (direct) graphics, there's no question that IDL involves less coding. Can't
get much simpler than:
IDL> PLOT, x, y
Also, a big plus/speedup for me in using IDL is (apart from the graphics) the command line. I
can easily test code without having to write a test program.
> And how hard is it
> to learn what is essentially a new language?
Not essentially - it IS a new language. With a bunch of neato features and associated
idiosyncracies just like any other programming language/environment. I get the distinct
impression you think of IDL only a few lines above "toy" on the "Neat Things to do with your
Computer" list.
As to learning curve - well, that depends on how keen you are. :o)
paulv
--
Paul van Delst Religious and cultural
CIMSS @ NOAA/NCEP purity is a fundamentalist
Ph: (301)763-8000 x7274 fantasy
Fax:(301)763-8545 V.S.Naipaul
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