Re: Was: Curious... Now: What will IDL be like

[Andrew <noymer(at)my-deja.com>]

In article <39D9F442.F558E69E@cmdl.noaa.gov>,
  promashkin@cmdl.noaa.gov wrote:
> Hi,
> I have contacted Kodak and received an e-mail assuring me that IDL
will
> continue to be developed as universal as it is now. Let me provide a
> couple of citations:
>
> "We believe this partnership will be beneficial not only to the two
> companies, but to the products and customers as well."
> "we agree that it [IDL] has made its name on being a full purpose
> scientific programming language.  It is our
> intent to continue to enhance IDL, not only in the area of image
> processing but in the analysis and formats side as well.  We have a
very
> large customer base and we intend to continue to listen and respond to
> the need of all of
> our customers."
> "p.s. IDL 5.4 is almost ready, we expect to be shipping sometime in
October."
>
> This info came from the Chief Operating Officer at RSI. I am not sure
I
> am feeling 100% safe, but at least better.
> Cheers,
> Pavel
>

Pavel,

    You should not feel 100% safe (ever, but least of all now).

    UM... he's teh COO... what were you EXPECTING him to say???
"IDL's toast, baby... " ?

    Unless he is at least an EK VP, he is in no position to say
what will happen to IDL.  Pencils have erasers, decisions come
and go.  EK wanted image processing.  EK got image processing.
The profits from IDL are a rounding error on EK's balance sheet,
and now EK calls the shots.  If IDL is out, it's out.  The worst
thing probably is that nobody, not even the EK brass, knows.  That
EK/IDL FAQ is a smokescreen until more decisions are made.  I would
say it's an extremely good sign that RSI are not moving to Rochester.

    *** Only time will tell ***

    Personally, my fingers are crossed, and I don't see the advantage
of jumping to something else yet.  I've been using IDL for 18 months,
and I feel like I am only BEGINNING to learn its full potential.  I
don't want to go through the same with R/Gauss/MATLAB/Octave/Yorick/
S-plus/fooware unless I have to.

    Sorry to be so sour in this EK love-fest.

      Cheers,
         Andrew


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