Re: Top 10 for old farts

["Mark Hadfield" <m.hadfield(at)niwa.cri.nz>]

"Joseph B. Gurman" <gurman@gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote in message
news:gurman-FF65F5.09515928072000@news.gsfc.nasa.gov...
>     I guess you've seen the responses from Mark Hadfield and Luis Alonso
> on the overhead involved in using objects.

Speaking only for myself (not Luis) I should elaborate.

As David has already pointed out so well elsewhere in this thread

"OBJECTS" does not equal "OBJECT GRAPHICS"

Objects were a necessary development in IDL and are certainly a good thing
IMHO. Well, OK some of the design decisions were debatable.

Object graphics were also a necessary development but are less obviously a
good thing. The main problem with them is that producing a simple plot using
IDL's standard object graphics facilities is ridiculously difficult. It's
possible to finish RSI's job by writing a set of smarter, higher-level
graphics classes & routines but it's a lot of work. Hence my comment about
productivity.

---
Mark Hadfield
m.hadfield@niwa.cri.nz  http://katipo.niwa.cri.nz/~hadfield/
National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research
PO Box 14-901, Wellington, New Zealand