| Re: IDL & iTools used as post-processor for other commercial software [message #50529 is a reply to message #50399] |
Wed, 04 October 2006 08:51  |
MarioIncandenza
Messages: 231
Registered: February 2005
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Senior Member |
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Comparing Mirko and Bob's viewpoints does show a remarkable degree of
convergence in what is possible with the two approaches. The idea that
you might be able to meet the requirements of a peer-reviewed
profession with an interactive tool is pretty impressive, honestly. The
cornerstone of these requirements is that any graphic produced can be
re-generated on-demand starting from the data in a relatively raw form,
or using different data. Bob's scripts contain the entire process,
which I think is probably pretty typical for scientific users. My own
scripts generally start with loading data (often several hundred MB).
Does iTools have a mechanism (or perhaps, could one be built in) to
keep the code used to distill from the "original" input datasets down
to the numbers for the plot? With this feature, you truly could go from
having a script associated with every plot to having an iTool. This
might actually be an improvement over a script-based process, although
I don't know if it would get me to switch. Since everything I do
graphically is 96% recycled code, the cost-benefit calculation is
pretty tight.
But anyway, even the suggestion that an interactive tool can produce
acceptable, reproducible on-demand results I find very encouraging. I
know too many people who have turned away from science because a) "if I
wanted to be a programmer, I'd have studied programming," or b) "if all
I'm doing is programming, why don't I just get paid for it?"
--Edward H.
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