Re: Anyone Use Objects?, Was: Top 10 IDL Requests

[Craig Markwardt <craigmnet(at)cow.physics.wisc.edu>]

davidf@dfanning.com (David Fanning) writes:

> Joseph B. Gurman (gurman@gsfc.nasa.gov) writes:
> 
> >     And I'm very serious about the point above. I may be stuck knowing a 
> > bunch of old farts (not, actually), but maybe one person in twenty here 
> > actually uses the object capabilities when given a choice.
> 
> Oh, I don't doubt your figures at all. I just think it
> is a shame, given how easy objects are to use (and I am
> *not* talking about object graphics now) and how
> significantly they could change the way your write
> programs.
> 
> But I'm old enough to remember how we had to bring
> all you old farts, uh, excuse me, scientific programmers,
> along with widgets, too, so I still hold out hope. :-)

When I do my "I"nterative "D"ata analyses, I don't use objects or
widgets.  What would be the point?  PLOT is your best friend.  For me
the most important thing is ease of use at the interactive command
line; then, once I have a nice plot, I plop it into a script (or use
XFWINDOW) and I can reliably come back to it later.  Monkeying around
with axis objects seems like it would be a pain.  And from what I hear
the object graphics printed output is pretty crappy [at least up until
now.]  That doesn't seem like a good trade...

So, for the interactive command line user, which would you recommend
David?

Craig

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Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D.         EMAIL:    craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
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