Re: Kodak buys RSI!!

["Pete Riley" <uk2(at)linuxfan.com>]

"David Fanning" <davidf@dfanning.com> wrote in message
MPG.1439c39132ed1995989c36@news.frii.com">news:MPG.1439c39132ed1995989c36@news.frii.com...

> Why don't you wait until after you get IDL 5.4. I
> figure that will be around at least for a little while. :-)
>

Hello David:

After beta-testing 5.4 for a while I'm not impressed at our $250 per license
investments. Of course that's not fair: I don't expect small-version
increments to yield much, but I was holding out for a 6.0 that would
integrate *real* object graphics with the syntax of direct graphics (another
wild dream). I'm skeptical now that there will be a 6.0.

I would like something more definitive from David Stern/RSI as to their
future plans and support for IDL. Their lack of specificity in this
announcement makes me uneasy about IDL's future. It might be time to hedge
our bets and look at the competition. Although RSI has always perceived
Matlab to be the enemy (which is probably fair, financially speaking), both
AVS and OpenDX have a lot to offer and cover both ends of the expense-ware
spectrum. Who's up for a round of Scientific anal/vis software comparisons?

BTW, was this a complete surprise to you?

-Pete