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Re: Interesting Rant [message #51301 is a reply to message #51299]

Wed, 15 November 2006 05:25

Maarten[1]
Messages: 176
Registered: November 2005

Senior Member

David Fanning wrote:
> I disagree with much of what he has to say, but I
> can't tell whether this is because I am old enough
> to remember what things were like *before* IDL, or
> whether I've just become inured over the years. :-(

On the contrary, I'd like to imagine what things can become *after*
IDL. While I would list a different set of annoyances, I'd say you have
become inured to the IDL idiosyncrasies over the years. Lovely word,
"inured", had to look it up though (can you tell I'm not a native
speaker?)

* Arrays in structures can not be resized. This also applies to
objects.
* You can have resizable arrays in structures, if you use pointers. The
way to access data in the array changes, you'll have to rewrite your
code.
* Pointers that can get lost in a scripted language. If I want a memory
leak, I'll use C, Fortran, ...
* Default integer size is 16 bits (how long have computers been at
32bits by now; how much code will break if you change that to 32 (or
even 64 bits)? How can code break on such a change? I think the code
was broken in the first place if it relies on this bit-size.
* Individual floating point constants are float, not double.
* Direct graphics seem to be dead, object graphics are not practical
for interactive use. Hello, the I in idl stands for interactive, right?
* Procedure arguments as output parameter and array elements.
* Brain dead for loops. Nice to have a vector engine (which doesn't
work in all cases, idl_validname() only accepts strings, not string
arrays, so for loops cannot be avoided in all cases), but sometimes an
explicit for loop aids readability (histogram jugling, anyone?).
* Stupid end of line behaviour, especially on interactive use.
* Logical test on least significant bit only
* The UI on Mac OS X. Using X11 on Mac OS X does not make a port.
* Special characters in graphs, combined with the butt ugly Hershey
fonts. The graphs look old-fashioned, and like they were made with some
homebrew software, rather than a professional, expensive tool. Yes, you
can do better in IDL, many don't.

So while IDL probably is an improvement over what came before it (I'm
too young to really tell), those programs are truly dead and buried.
IDL seems to survive, despite better solutions, especially for
interactive use. The only things that keep idl alive are the dinosaurs
that use it, and the legacy code that has been written for it. Others
have suggested to use Python as a basis, and I think I agree, although
some array indexing issues will be as annoying as IDL. At least there
is a large community behind it, and the core of python is free.

Maarten

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[Message index]

		Re: Interesting Rant By: Braedley on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:47
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Jo Klein on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:20
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Maarten[1] on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:17
		Re: Interesting Rant By: K. Bowman on Wed, 15 November 2006 06:47
		Re: Interesting Rant By: greg michael on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:03
		Re: Interesting Rant By: David Fanning on Wed, 15 November 2006 06:10
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Maarten[1] on Wed, 15 November 2006 05:25
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Robbie on Tue, 14 November 2006 17:13
		Re: Interesting Rant By: James Kuyper on Tue, 14 November 2006 15:25
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Richard Edgar on Tue, 14 November 2006 11:13
		Re: Interesting Rant By: David Fanning on Tue, 14 November 2006 11:09
		Re: Interesting Rant By: news.qwest.net on Tue, 14 November 2006 10:56
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Tue, 14 November 2006 10:36
		Re: Interesting Rant By: David Fanning on Wed, 15 November 2006 10:44
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Earl F. Glynn on Wed, 15 November 2006 09:19
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Thu, 16 November 2006 08:02
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Earl F. Glynn on Wed, 15 November 2006 09:07
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Jeff Hester on Sat, 18 November 2006 13:42
		Re: Interesting Rant By: fburton on Wed, 15 November 2006 10:24
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Paolo Grigis on Wed, 15 November 2006 09:02

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