Re: It costs how much?!!?!

[Paul van Delst <pvandelst(at)ncep.noaa.gov>]

Nigel Wade wrote:
> 
> Randall Skelton wrote:
> >
> > Bill's message seems points to a growing trend which RSI had best be
> > concerned about-- IDL is not the only programming tool available these
> > days:  Wavemetrics IGOR, Mathworks MATLAB, and a few others are all
> > gaining ground and cost a fraction of what RSI charges for IDL!
> >
> > If I didn't have access to a department site license for IDL I'd never
> > have begun using it.  As a grad student myself I am all for RSI reducing
> > the cost of single licenses to students!  I own a laptop which I take with
> > me on 'vacations' and field experiments and it is frustrating not to be
> > able to 'show off' my IDL plots at conferences or simply display my
> > results on the road.  Forget about the 'crippled version' though, I
> > develop both in C and IDL and it is essential that I can use both of these
> > tools together on my desktop computer and my laptop.
> 
> Have you tried asking?
> 
> In the past, whenever I asked FPS (the previous supplier of IDL in the
> UK)
> for a temporary license to use IDL away from our license manager there
> was
> never a problem. All they ever asked was how long I required it for.
> I haven't tried again since they became RSI (UK) but I would hope the
> situation hasn't changed.

I have done similar here. All it took was a call to RSI (after suitable verification of who and
where I was), you run genver (or something similarly named), tell them the number it generates, they
give you another number, you type it in and voila, you have 180 days of network free IDL usage.

Actually, my desktop machine is running in that mode right now to allow me to run more than one
incarnation of IDL 5.4. The RSI Tech Support bods were right on it and got me going in no time.

> >
> > I know people have been promoting the use of Matlab around my department
> > as well.  By coincidence, I contacted the Mathworks sales department about
> > a single license for my laptop... Simply put: I need to be able to plot
> > results in the field and the cost of IDL is prohibitive.  I contacted RSI
> > also and I've been told there will be an announcement early in the new
> > year regarding OS support and pricing.  I'll give them until the
> > end of February.
> 
> Are you sure your laptop can take enough memory to run MATLAB?

Ha ha. I know of a certain rather large system (i.e. gobs and diskspace and even more ram) that is
being hamstrung (sometimes) by users doing just about everything in matlab - all at once. I'm not
familiar at all with the way matlab works but it does seem to require an awful lot of memory.

> Also, don't forget to add in the extra cost of each of the additional
> toolboxes MATLAB requires to make it a usable product.

Yep. For the same functionality, IDL and Matlab are similarly priced (academic and site license
deals notwithstanding).

> Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,

Wow. Space Plasma Physics. Cool.

paulv

-- 
Paul van Delst           Ph:  (301) 763-8000 x7274
CIMSS @ NOAA/NCEP        Fax: (301) 763-8545
Rm.207, 5200 Auth Rd.    Email: pvandelst@ncep.noaa.gov
Camp Springs MD 20746