ITT VIS is hosting a webinar about the IDL 8.0 function graphics system next Wednesday September 8, 2010 at various times (11 am Singapore time, 2 pm London time, or 2 pm New York time). I plan on attending to learn more about this system. Not sure if this will really replace direct graphics for me, but I plan to use it for quick stuff.
If you are interested in the next version of IDLdoc, check out the downloads page for a preview of IDLdoc 3.3 including what’s new and the link to download. This is an early release; an official 3.3 release will be made soon.
If you try this out, please let me know (via email or submitting a ticket on the IDLdoc project site) if you encounter an issue.
In conclusion, I think IDL 8.0 has a wealth of new features beginning the transition to a more modern programing language. These changes are not without risk: there are a few changes that might effect poorly written code (which we all have either used or written). But there are some compelling features (I’m thinking about lists/hashes, the new graphics API, and operator overloading) and many small extremely useful features that encourage updating to IDL 8.0. My main question is when have a sufficient number of users upgraded to 8.0 so I can begin using these features in code I release? Hopefully soon.
Finally, what new features is IDL still lacking to be considered a truly modern scientific programming language? I’ll have to give this some thought, but feel free to make suggestions in the comments.
As a reference to get all them all listed in a single place, the IDL 8.0 related posts discuss lists and hashes, online help, IDL Workbench changes, distribution/licensing changes, operator overloading, other language changes, and new graphics interface. Also, note that Paulo Penteado updated his MAKE_RT über-installation to IDL 8.0. These articles are not intended to be a complete reference to all the new changes; for more information check out the IDL 8.0 webinar and, of course, the “What’s New” section of the online documentation.
There are a few important changes to the IDL infrastructure that I have not already discussed in the IDL 8.0 related posts so far. I’ll have one final wrap-up post after this one.
Continue reading “IDL 8.0 distribution/licensing.”
IDL 8.0 introduces an entirely new graphics interface. Currently, there is no name for this system except Graphics (am I supposed to say it capitalized when talking?), so I will refer to them as function graphics because all the routines are functions instead of procedures as in most direct graphics and iTools graphics routines. This new system is easy to use, interactive, programmatically accessible, and fairly complete even in this first release.
Continue reading “IDL 8.0: a new graphics interface.”
There are many other changes to the core IDL language besides operator overloading and lists/hashes, discussed here already. These changes make IDL’s syntax more convenient to use.
Continue reading “IDL 8.0: Other language changes.”
Paulo Penteado has updated his Building cross-platform IDL runtime applications article with an über-installation on 32- and 64-bit Mac, Linux, and Windows for IDL 8.0. The über-installation lets you use MAKE_RT to make all-inclusive IDL runtime applications for platforms other than the one you are building on.
The IDL Workbench is much simpler in IDL 8.0.
The result is a much faster and nimbler Workbench experience, at the cost of a few features (both non-IDL related Eclipse features and ITT VIS added features from previous versions). For example, perspectives are gone entirely now; instead of “IDL”, “Debug”, and “Visualize” perspectives there is only a single layout for your editors/views.
Continue reading “IDL 8.0: IDL Workbench.”
Operator overloading is the feature in IDL 8.0 that I have been testing the most; I am already using it in a couple of my projects. The behavior of objects when used in expressions containing nearly any of IDL’s operators can be defined through special methods of the object.
Continue reading “IDL 8.0: Operator overloading.”
I watched this “New Features and Functionality in IDL 8.0″ webinar live, but if you missed it, the recorded version is now available. It’s a great overview of the new features in IDL 8.0 by Mark Piper of ITT VIS.
