comp.lang.idl-pvwave archive: archive » Re: IDL Help Gone Missing

Home » Public Forums » archive » Re: IDL Help Gone Missing

Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator
E-mail to friend

Re: IDL Help Gone Missing [message #27282 is a reply to message #27278]

Wed, 17 October 2001 07:52

thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991

Senior Member

"Richard G. French" <rfrench@wellesley.edu> writes:

> At least you got a CD! I've just learned today that both the Mac and
> Alpha versions are now dead - I got e-mail from RSI about the
> demise of the Mac, but they did not inform me of the demise
> of the Alpha. Has anyone else gotten official word that the Alpha
> version is dead? We've invested a lot in these systems!

> Does anyone want to place a bet on what platform is going to be
> the most secure for IDL, or is it a question of slow attrition?
> I want to avoid Linux - too many patches to be applied every few
> minutes - and we can't do our work on Windows - so what flavor
> of Unix box is likely to have IDL on it in five years? Any
> advice?

> Dick French

I am also extremely upset that support has been dropped from Alpha computers,
which is what I'm using right now to post this message. I don't use Macs, but
I also found them dropping that platform extremely disturbing.

When I write software, it is not meant to be run simply on our own platform,
but also for the worldwide solar physics community. A big advantage of IDL has
been that it will run on all the platforms that are in use within this
community. I wasn't too upset about RSI dropping VMS, even though that
platform is still used by some solar physics projects. VMS is obviously dead,
and the VMS sites I'm aware of had frozen themselves to older versions of IDL
even before that announcement, because of backwards compatibility concerns.
However, Alpha workstations are still used by a significant part of this
community, and will be for some years to come. As RSI keeps dropping
platforms, we as a community will have to consider very carefully whether IDL
still meets our needs, or should we move to something which we have more
control over.

I particularly didn't appreciate RSI making this announcement just after I put
in a maintenance contract for a whole bunch of alpha workstations. Do you
think they intentionally waited until after the new government fiscal year
began?

In conclusion, I think dropping Alphas was a very short-sighted decision. I
intend to write a letter to RSI in the very near future.

William Thompson

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not represent NASA
or any other organization.

Report message to a moderator

[Message index]

		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Wed, 17 October 2001 08:24
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: thompson on Wed, 17 October 2001 07:52
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: stevens on Wed, 17 October 2001 03:59
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: Nigel Wade on Wed, 17 October 2001 02:14
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: Karsten Rodenacker on Tue, 16 October 2001 23:27
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: Mark Hadfield on Tue, 16 October 2001 20:36
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: David Fanning on Tue, 16 October 2001 20:03
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: Richard French on Tue, 16 October 2001 17:08
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: Mark Hadfield on Tue, 16 October 2001 15:34
		Re: IDL Help Gone Missing By: John-David T. Smith on Tue, 16 October 2001 14:39

Previous Topic:	bug in contour?
Next Topic:	Profiler

-=] Back to Top [=-

[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [

] [

]

Current Time: Mon Dec 01 19:45:40 PST 2025

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.40416 seconds