| Updated IDL Programs [message #10119] |
Mon, 20 October 1997 00:00 |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
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Senior Member |
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Hi Folks,
I just returned to my office from about a month of gallivanting
all over the globe teaching IDL classes. To say I am worn out
is an understatement. But I am also extremely excited about
what I have learned in the past month.
It is not unusual for people to come up to me at the end of a
class with a sort of Good News/Bad News discussion. Sure, they
enjoyed the class, but now they feel like they have to go back
to the lab and re-write all their programs. :-(
What they don't know is that more times than I care to admit
I feel *exactly* the same way. :-)
This was especially true this time. I have been playing
around for several months with some new ideas for writing
IDL programs. In particular, I am concerned with having
programs use colors intelligently. I want programs that
act identically on 8-bit and 24-bit devices. That don't get
thrown a loop by some other application loading different
colors in the color table, etc. I have also been struggling with
how to combine object graphics programs with direct graphics
programs in the same application.
While I certainly don't have all the answers, I have quite a
few more than I had a month ago. (The answer to one particularly
difficult problem actually occurred to me in the middle of a
lecture on how this particular problem couldn't be solved.
Sigh...)
Anyway, I've spent most of the weekend re-writing several of the
IDL example programs on my web page to take advantage of
what I now know about these topics. If any of you are interested,
I would encourage you to look at the PROCESS program
as a significantly re-worked program that incorporates
much of my new understanding of how widget programs ought
to be written. I've also updated all of my object graphics
programs to look and work better.
Just a note to those of you who do not have IDL 5. It is just
too much work to write programs that run in both IDL 4 and 5,
especially if you want to use pointers, long filenames, and
other terrific IDL 5 functionality. Since all of my teaching
and consulting work is being done on IDL 5, I have decided
not to keep trying to write programs that work in both versions.
I realize this is an inconvenience for many of you, but I want
to continue adding to the material on my web page and this
is not going to happen if I have to worry constantly about
compatibility. Sorry.
As always, if you have problems with these programs or they
don't work the way you think they should, I would like to
know about it.
Best Regards,
David
-----------------------------------------------------------
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Phone: 970-221-0438
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
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