Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sample.eng.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven.umd.edu!umd5!suns.UMD.EDU!paul From: paul@suns.UMD.EDU (Paul Butler) Newsgroups: comp.lang.idl-pvwave Subject: Re: IDL or PV-WAVE? Message-ID: <8749@umd5.umd.edu> Date: 20 Jun 91 18:37:20 GMT References: Sender: news@umd5.umd.edu Reply-To: paul@suns.UMD.EDU Organization: University of Maryland, Astronomy Lines: 39 >Which should we buy? Presumably PV-WAVE has more features, but are >they worth more money? Since they can now diverge, which would you bet >on long term? >Thanks. >Brian It is amusing that this excellent question should have prompted the first flame throwing contest in this group. As a long time IDL user, I agree completely with the eloquent statement of Dr. Landsman. Unfortunately, nobody in this group seems to have had sufficient experience with both IDL and PV-WAVE necessary to make a valid comparison. My experience with the new divergent PV-WAVE is limited to a single, two-hour hands-on demonstration of the product that was conducted by the PV-WAVE president himself. I offer this poor comparison in hopes that someone better informed than myself will follow-up with greater insight and correct my mistakes. PV-WAVE is becoming two products. The older product is the established IDL-like plotting package, graphics package, and scientific language. The newer product is a Mac-like point-&-click package. Both the older product and the newer product run the IDL kernel. The newer product gives the user most of the capability of PV-WAVE, but without having to write a line of code. Everything from reading data in to graphic display is run with a point-&-click set of menu options. I was surprised by the flexibility of this package to manipulate and process data. The graphics were excellent, as one would expect. If you buy the point-&-click package, you do not get the standard language. As good as it is, there is no way the point-&-click package can be as flexible as the standard IDL/PV-WAVE language. The point-&-click package is therefore aimed at people who do not want to write code, but want more flexibility than standard reduction packages offer. It remains to be seen how large a market this product will generate. I enjoy both the simplicity and the flexibility of the IDL language, so I am prepared to become an old timer who still writes code. paul