| Re: Solving nonlinear equations [message #36827] |
Sun, 02 November 2003 10:19  |
David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001
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Senior Member |
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trouble writes:
> </shameless plug for own code>
>
> Gents, please. We all know you're really clever.
Alright, I'll rise to this bait. Here are five
reasons I prefer to have the experts on this
newsgroup blow their own horns:
1. The programs they tout are (nearly always)
better than comparable routines that come
with IDL. This is especially so with Craig's
mathematical routines, IMHO.
2. Their programs almost always address shortcomings
or weaknesses in IDL routines. For example, Liam's
IMGDISP is a much better image display routine
than TV, for all kinds of reasons (you don't have
to know the decomposed setting of your device,
it works identically on your display and in PostScript,
it works with !P.MULTI, etc., etc.).
3. The advice is (almost always) motivated by
experience, not hype. I've never seen an
acknowledged IDL expert advocate the GUI Builder
here, for example. Even when the advice *is*
motivated by self-aggrandizement (I've noticed
some of this in my own posts, particularly), the
advice is always free and it is easy to tell when
it is worth as much as it costs.
4. The experts don't *have* to hang out here.
Lord knows they are not getting rich answering
all the questions they answer. Putting up with
the occasional shameless plug is a small price
to pay for having them here and available
to us. I wish they got *more* acknowledgement
for their significant contributions, not less.
(And I want to mention especially how much I
appreciate Karl Shultz's contributions to this
newsgroup. I wish we had more of this from RSI.)
5. Sometimes you have to say the same thing over
and over again before people hear it. I offer the
10 million Google references to the phrase
"Device, Decomposed=0" as evidence.
And I offer one bonus reason. The IDL newsgroup
experts really *are* clever. New and experienced
users alike can learn more about IDL by following
the links to their (possibly over-hyped) programs then
they will ever learn by reading the iTools User Guide.
Cheers,
David
--
David W. Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
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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