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Re: Linux Question [message #42670 is a reply to message #42567]

Fri, 18 February 2005 09:54

Rick Towler
Messages: 821
Registered: August 1998

Senior Member

Wow, this thread has covered a lot of ground....

Paul Van Delst wrote:
> David wrote:
>
>> Jonathan Greenberg writes:
>>
>>
>>> David: you are the expert on IDL, one thing I haven't figured out is
>>> what does IDL have that Matlab/Octave doesn't?
>>
>> In a word, objects. :-)
>
> I disagree mightily with that, but anyway....
>
> Hasn't matlab been object based from the get go?

As of release 7 it has a mature, fully implemented object API. More so
than IDL. Most everything is an object. This probably raises the bar a
bit for entry into the object club though. IDL's object API is really
easy to pick up. I was a master after a few days of David's tutelage. ;)

> For example, the standard out-of-the-box "plot" in matlab
> has the functionality that I lay awake at
> night dreaming about for IDL plots. You can zoom, change the line
> properties, print, etc. You can probably create legends too (but I'm not
> sure). This is how a regular old "plot" should work in IDL. I guess
> iTools are the attempt to do this in IDL.

Exactly! And if you take much of what has been said in this thread
about "kids these days" and how they don't know anything maybe some of
you can see why iTools was born?

The first time I threw up a plot window in MATLAB I was amazed... So is
just about everyone else who has used products like these. Given a
choice between this and IDL's direct graphics it is a no-brainer.

Sure, iTools have many limitations but I suspect they will be addressed
in future releases.

> - Everything in matlab seems to be a string, 4-byte integer, or 8-byte
> real. What's the go with that?

As of Release 7 you have all of your standard types: char, int8-int48,
uint8-uint64, single, double, complex. And like I said, they're all
objects :)

Other high points?

A great GUI builder where all of the GUI code is hidden, you just deal
with a .m file containing the callbacks (Although IDL does have more
widgets I am so sick of coding GUIs by hand.) *TIGHT* Java integration:

import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import java.util.TimeZone;
startCal = GregorianCalendar(1601, 0, 1);
gmt = TimeZone.getTimeZone('GMT');
startCal.SetTimeZone(gmt)

Holy cow. Is that Java? MATLAB? Who cares, it works? The MATLAB
compiler is pretty cool too. The user community website is far more
friendly than RSI's. It has a built in C compiler to build MATLAB's
version of .dlms!

MATLAB has some major shortcomings for an IDL user: It doesn't pass by
reference (well, not the way you want it too) and it doesn't have
KEYWORDS (well I don't consider result=myFunc(argIn, 'keyword1', data1,
'keyword2, 'data2') keywords.) The licensing is a PITA. MATLAB is just
as quirky as IDL, maybe more so if you are used to IDL's quirks and
consider them "normal". And try posting on comp.soft-sys.matlab...
With hundreds of posts a day it just isn't as friendly as c.l.idl-pvwave
(And there is *no one* posting about their personal adventures or their
tennis game!)

So at the very least RSI has some stiff competition and they will need
to deliver a quality product and nurture their user base. Michael
started an offshoot regarding (more or less) the latter point. As for
feature requests, I have found RSI to be very receptive. There is a lot
more they could do on the nurturing front though (they still owe me some
posters and t-shirts!) The user contrib site is a great idea but the
interface sucks and the "newsgroup" on the RSI website is just a mean
trick. Those poor users who post there...

-Rick

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[Message index]

		Linux Question By: David Fanning on Wed, 16 February 2005 09:54
		Re: Linux Question By: Mark Hadfield on Thu, 17 February 2005 12:15
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Thu, 17 February 2005 12:23
		Re: Linux Question By: Mr. No Address on Thu, 17 February 2005 11:33
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Thu, 17 February 2005 11:09
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Thu, 17 February 2005 11:06
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Thu, 17 February 2005 11:02
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Fri, 18 February 2005 14:24
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Thu, 17 February 2005 10:55
		Re: Linux Question By: Mr. No Address on Thu, 17 February 2005 09:15
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Thu, 17 February 2005 08:59
		Re: Linux Question By: R.G.Stockwell on Thu, 17 February 2005 08:36
		Re: Linux Question By: R.G.Stockwell on Thu, 17 February 2005 08:33
		Re: Linux Question By: K. Bowman on Thu, 17 February 2005 06:19
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Thu, 17 February 2005 02:23
		Re: Linux Question By: Paolo Grigis on Thu, 17 February 2005 01:56
		Re: Linux Question By: Paolo Grigis on Thu, 17 February 2005 01:53
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Wed, 16 February 2005 23:57
		Re: Linux Question By: Karsten Rodenacker on Wed, 16 February 2005 23:55
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Wed, 16 February 2005 20:44
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Wed, 16 February 2005 20:34
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Wed, 16 February 2005 20:22
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Wed, 16 February 2005 20:18
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Wed, 16 February 2005 16:51
		Re: Linux Question By: Mark Hadfield on Wed, 16 February 2005 16:30
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Wed, 16 February 2005 16:13
		Re: Linux Question By: Robert Barnett on Wed, 16 February 2005 15:43
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Fri, 18 February 2005 15:54
		Re: Linux Question By: Rick Towler on Fri, 18 February 2005 09:54
		Re: Linux Question By: Michael Wallace on Fri, 18 February 2005 09:18
		Re: Linux Question By: btt on Fri, 18 February 2005 08:01
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Fri, 18 February 2005 07:43
		Re: Linux Question By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Fri, 18 February 2005 07:25
		Re: Linux Question By: mperrin+news on Thu, 17 February 2005 21:24
		Re: Linux Question By: David Fanning on Thu, 17 February 2005 18:56
		Re: Linux Question By: Jonathan Greenberg on Thu, 17 February 2005 17:41
		Re: Linux Question By: Nigel Wade on Mon, 21 February 2005 01:40

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