The Motley IDL Library

Mark Hadfield

Motley is a library of IDL code written largely by me at NIWA. It is provided to the IDL community subject to the following conditions:

1. NIWA makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy of the software, the use to which the software may be put or the results to be obtained from the use of the software. Accordingly NIWA accepts no liability for any loss or damage (whether direct of indirect) incurred by any person through the use of or reliance on the software.
2. NIWA is to be acknowledged as the original author of the software where the software is used or presented in any form.

The library is a collection of the routines that I use regularly and that I think might be of interest to others. There are several Object Graphics classes, a base class for widget applications and several applications built on it, functions that make it easy to represent scaled data on axes, classes for accessing netCDF files and several utility routines. You will notice that the names begin with my initials, MGH. This is not egotism (well, OK, just a little) but an attempt to avoid naming conflicts with other software collections.

This version of the library requires IDL 6.4. It has been developed & tested on Windows XP, and also tested (some time ago now) on a Linux system. If it doesn’t work on your platform, I’d love to hear about it.

I have made no effort to keep the routines in Motley independent of each other, so if you want to use one you're advised to install the lot. The procedure is:

1. Download the library in .zip or .tar.gz format.
2. Unpack the files to a directory and add it to your IDL path.
3. Before using any of the routines in the library in any IDL session, run the initialisation routine with the command "mgh_motley". You may eventually want to add this command to your startup script.

Generally the Motley library does not require any routines outside the standard IDL library. Occasionally I make exceptions; in this case my policy is to bundle a copy of the required routine, with permission of the author. I try to keep these bundled routines up to date, but you may want to check the author’s WWW site for a more recent copy. Currently the bundled routines are:

• IMDISP by Liam Gumley, used in an example program.
• CMUNIQUE_ID by Craig Markwardt.

When used on Windows the library can make use of Oleg Kornilov’s AVI DLL to generate AVI files. A copy of the DLL should be placed in the same directory as the rest of the Motley library. The rest of Oleg’s code is not used.

Finally, the library includes a modified form of RSI’s CW_PALETTE_EDITOR. The modified routine is called MGH_CW_PALETTE_EDITOR and is included with permission of RSI, who retain copyright. For a list of the modifications, see the modified source code.