Re: Can this be done using CALL_FUNCTION?

[Struan Gray <struan.gray(at)sljus.lu.se>]

edward.s.meinel@aero.org writes:

> How many of you started using the HANDLE_* routines
> as soon as IDL4 came out?

    Guilty as charged.  Fanning?  Who he? :-)

    When I first started programming in IDL I was porting a large
microscope control and analysis program from Unix IDL to run on cheap
machines like Macs and PCs.  Working my way through that spaghetti
gave me a deep and abiding hatred of common blocks.  4.0, and the
ability to hang dynamic data structures off a single system variable
was like manna from heaven.

    The only problem with objects is that the possibilites are endless,
and it's easy to get lost footling around with high-level abstract
objects when what you really need is something to draw a single red
dot *today*. Objects are certainly here to stay, and even if your
users see no benefits you as a programmer will find your life made
much easier once you start to use them.  Your looping procedure is an
almost exact copy of the classic situation used in most textbooks to
show the advantages of Object-orientation.

    Of course, you should think hard about whether you have the
maturity to cope with the screaming crowds of nubile IDL object
groupies...


Struan