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Re: Introducing FL [message #48258 is a reply to message #48144]

Tue, 04 April 2006 08:07

mmiller3
Messages: 81
Registered: January 2002

Member

>>>> > "Y" == Y T <ytyourclothes@p.zapto.org> writes:

> You're aware of PyDL, aren't you?

Be carefull with the capitalization and overlap between TLAs and
MLA - especailly when talking about "IDL".

There is PyDL, as in Python Interface Declaration Language
(www.prescod.net/pytypes) which is a different sort of IDL.

There is PyDL, as in a plotting package inspired by the plot
routine in RSI's IDL (vingilot.org/pydl).

There is also a link on the PyDL page to pyIDL. It says it is
based on PyDL "for IDL embedding in python, and has more
functionality." At that page
(www.its.caltech.edu/~mmckerns/software.html), it says pyIDL is
"based on Andrew McMurry's python-IDL"

Python-IDL (www.astro.uio.no/~mcmurry/python-idl) actually looks
somewhat promising. It provides a python module that lets python
code interact with an IDL session, as in

>>> import idl
>>> idl.ex('print, 1')
1
>>> idl.ex("a = 'Hello'")
>>> print idl.var.a
Hello
>>> print idl.fn.strlen("Hello")
5

> (I work for a federally funded research facility and you,
> the tax-payer, are expending my salary. Do you really think
> you're getting your money's worth out of the deal if I
> spend my time learning this years fad-language?)

As a (mostly) federally funded researcher, I had to learn IDL
when I moved to the medical field where it is the norm. In my
previous incarnation, python was by far the better choice because
it is 1) open source, and 2) much more capable.

I use IDL now because we have a large base of IDL code and it
would be a pain to translate it all to python or anything else.
While I appreciate IDL's capabilities, I often cringe as I
reinvent something that python has had built in for years. On
the other hand, I cheer as I see RSI slowly adding features that
most other languages have always had (see for, example,
command_line_args and persistent command line history that appear
in IDL 6.2). For basic usability and libraries, IDL just doesn't
stack up. For specialized libraries and graphics, IDL is great
(iTools aside, that is!).

It looks like Python-IDL may be a wonderful way to mix the two,
but I'm a little afraid to try IDL widgets with it (well, ok, a
lot afraid!)

Mike

P.S. As I typed this, I discovered that iTools can be mistyped
as iTrolls ;O

--
Michael A. Miller mmiller3@iupui.edu
Imaging Sciences, Department of Radiology, IU School of Medicine

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[Message index]

		Introducing FL By: FL on Sat, 01 April 2006 06:44
		Re: Introducing FL By: FL on Thu, 06 April 2006 09:50
		Re: Introducing FL By: Maurizio Tomasi on Thu, 06 April 2006 00:14
		Re: Introducing FL By: George N. White III on Tue, 04 April 2006 16:28
		Re: Introducing FL By: JD Smith on Tue, 04 April 2006 12:38
		Re: Introducing FL By: Craig Markwardt on Tue, 04 April 2006 08:45
		Re: Introducing FL By: Craig Markwardt on Tue, 04 April 2006 08:41
		Re: Introducing FL By: FL on Tue, 04 April 2006 08:21
		Re: Introducing FL By: mmiller3 on Tue, 04 April 2006 08:16
		Re: Introducing FL By: mmiller3 on Tue, 04 April 2006 08:08
		Re: Introducing FL By: mmiller3 on Tue, 04 April 2006 08:07
		Re: Introducing FL By: Ken Mankoff on Tue, 04 April 2006 07:33
		Re: Introducing FL By: Michael Wallace on Tue, 04 April 2006 06:53
		Re: Introducing FL By: FL on Tue, 04 April 2006 06:22
		Re: Introducing FL By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Tue, 04 April 2006 05:23
		Re: Introducing FL By: Ben Panter on Tue, 04 April 2006 03:13
		Re: Introducing FL By: Y.T. on Mon, 03 April 2006 21:28
		Re: Introducing FL By: Richard French on Mon, 03 April 2006 20:51
		Re: Introducing FL By: Craig Markwardt on Mon, 03 April 2006 19:17
		Re: Introducing FL By: b_gom on Mon, 03 April 2006 14:59
		Re: Introducing FL By: JD Smith on Mon, 03 April 2006 13:29
		Re: Introducing FL By: Foldy Lajos on Mon, 03 April 2006 11:33
		Re: Introducing FL By: news.qwest.net on Mon, 03 April 2006 09:19
		Re: Introducing FL By: FL on Sun, 02 April 2006 12:33
		Re: Introducing FL By: biophys on Sun, 02 April 2006 12:31
		Re: Introducing FL By: biophys on Sun, 02 April 2006 12:15
		Re: Introducing FL By: Craig Markwardt on Sun, 02 April 2006 11:09

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