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Re: Q: Who knows IDL?
| Re: Q: Who knows IDL? [message #4288 is a reply to message #4202] |
Wed, 17 May 1995 00:00  |
sterner
Messages: 106
Registered: February 1991
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Senior Member |
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grunes@news.nrl.navy.mil (Mitchell R Grunes) writes:
. . .
> IDL and its very similar sister PV-WAVE are discussed in
> newsgroup comp.lang.idl-pvwave. You might look at the FAQ:
> ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.lang.idl-pvwave
The latest IDL FAQ as a web page is at:
ftp://fermi.jhuapl.edu/www/s1r/idl/idl_faq/idl_faq.html
Text and compressed versions (HTML and text) are in the same directory.
> There are at least six minor deficiencies of IDL and PV-WAVE:
> (1) If you can't recast a problem into array notation, loops are quite
> slow. These are interpreters. They will never replace Fortran
> or C.
Loops are no problem if you can do enough processing each time
through a loop. Before starting a major project some time ago
we were trying to decide what language to use, C or IDL. Some C
software existed to do a needed job and I was challenged to do the
same job in IDL. I wanted to use IDL and was told that if the
processing time was within a factor of 2 or so then IDL could be
used. The C code was by a good C programmer. Unexpectedly my
IDL software was about twice as fast as the C. Some excuse was
offered (can't remember exactly what it was) but I pointed out that
the excuse would not have been mentioned if the C code had been
faster. Development time is much faster with IDL. I have done
both FORTRAN and C in the past but have no real need for them
any longer (I know some applications do require them).
Ray Sterner sterner@tesla.jhuapl.edu
The Johns Hopkins University North latitude 39.16 degrees.
Applied Physics Laboratory West longitude 76.90 degrees.
Laurel, MD 20723-6099
WWW Home page: ftp://fermi.jhuapl.edu/www/s1r/people/res/res.html
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