Re: Time on My Hands [message #28155] |
Wed, 21 November 2001 14:58  |
David Fanning
Messages: 11724 Registered: August 2001
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Senior Member |
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Richard G. French (rfrench@wellesley.edu) writes:
> Now that is totally cool! Where do we start the list of features
> we'd like to add?? I love the way you can reposition the plot
> using that little gizmo.
The only reason I wrote this program was to find
another excuse to use that little gizmo!
> I did manage to crash it by putting in an illegal format. Was not
> sure what I was supposed to do at one point, so I tried a question
> mark! That was a bad idea!
Yeah, I forgot a RETURN statement. It shouldn't have
crashed. :-(
I anticipated that you might not know how to
create a proper format. For example, if you
leave the parentheses off, I'll fix that for you.
I didn't anticipate a question mark, however.
Although with this crowd that really is inexcusable. :-)
This program has a couple of weaknesses. This
is one of them. When you input a string, pretty much
anything is fair game. I could look for question marks,
of course, but then I'd have to look for asterisks,
and at signs, and, well, where would it end? In the
first version of the program I had a pull-down list
of possible formats, but this was considered too
limiting. I guess at the very least I should have
a RESET button to get back to the starting parameters.
> What I should REALLY do is print out the program and figure out what
> the heck is going on inside. Maybe I can talk someone else into washing
> the dishes tomorrow while I do that....
This is not the easiest program to understand,
probably. We started with a couple of assumptions
that, in the end, added more complexity than we
would have liked. If we wrote it again, it would
have a slightly different structure, I think.
But, heck, if you get someone to do the dishes,
it is still a productive way to spend the afternoon. :-)
Cheers,
David
--
David W. Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438, E-mail: david@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155
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