Re: IDL from home, via modem

["Ian E. Sprod" <Ian.Sprod(at)gsfc.nasa.gov>]

MetaS wrote:
> 
> Hi IDL fans:
> 
> There must be others of you who sometimes need to work on IDL
> remotely from home, via modem.  I'd like to tap into the current
> wisdom on the best way to handle this.  I'm considering here
> working with datasets that are quite large, so transferring them
> and running IDL on my home computer wouldn't be feasible.
> 
> I currently have a classic Mac and use a tek4105 terminal emulator,
> and display graphics using device 'tek'.  This is OK (especially
> considering I have a small screen and B/W only, anyway).  I was
> wondering what other options there would be, and also what works best for
> the Windows PC users among you.  Tektronix emulation?
> X Windows?  Linux/X Windows?   Are there other devices besides
> 'X' and 'tek' which I could use to display on a PC or Mac?
> 
> I apologize if this post is somewhat off topic - I will summarize
> e-mail responses I receive if there is interest.  Thanks.
> 
> Meta Sienkiewicz
> metas@aol.com

I often work from home on a Mac at 14.4kbps to run IDL on my 
workstation at work. My current solution is 
to run NCSA Telnet and Netscape on my Mac at home. I can type 
IDL commands in the Telnet window once I have connected to the 
workstation. For the graphics I use the Z buffer and periodically 
do a ... 

write_gif,'/web/image.gif',tvrd()

in order to write the screen out as a GIF to a web-accessible directory. 
Then I use Netscape to view the GIF. 

This is pretty speedy as GIF is a VERY compact image format. 

I used to use MacX, but that was SO slow and painful I would not 
recommend it over a modem unless you are an extremely patient 
individual.

Ian

-- 

Ian E. Sprod  | 301-286-8036  | FAX 301-286-1616  |
ian@skye.gsfc.nasa.gov 
Hughes STX, Code 921, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
20771