Re: Top 10 IDL Requests

[Nicolas Decoster <Nicolas.Decoster(at)Noveltis.fr>]

Hi.

Here are few thoughts/wishes I had while writing IDL code.

* A very interesting thing for beginners and for code clarity is to
replace the use of integer values by strings for arguments like
line_style of object graphics (like IDLgrPlot). As suggested by Patrick
Broos, it would be nice too to be able to use named colors ("red").

* Postscript output of object graphics. This was the main subject of my
"newsgroup activity", and I think efforts can be done to have some
improvments. In particular, I think about the postscript order of
objects that is different than the object graphics tree one. But perhaps
this point is fix in IDL 5.4 ? 

* On line object/named-structures development. With IDL 5.3 you can't
change a named structure on the fly. When you work on a new object
graphic or any object or structure, if you add or remove a field you
must exit/re-enter IDL for the modification to be effective. It is a bit
painfull, and you loose the interest of the use of a scripting language.

* The best thing that can happened to IDL, is to open its source. But,
well, perhaps RSI prefers other development models. I must be a little
bit idealistic.

Thanks.

Nicolas.

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