Re: It costs how much?!!?!

[Nick Bower <bowern(at)ses.curtin.edu.au>]

> > Bill - if you're a linux user, you may try PyDL (plug).
> >
> > http://nickbower.com/computer/pydl/
>
> This looked very promising until I found that the library (DSLIN) you
> built all the graphics around is propriatary and without source.  Free
> for linux (yes) but the binary is built for your system (i.e. me with
> solaris x86 and linuxPPC machines is out of luck) ... too bad, like I
> said, it looked very promising.  There is no way you can build around a
> GNU graphics library?

a good point.  as Paul said, PyDL was developed in <4 weeks as proof of
concept for a physics department presentation.  This precluded any sort of
DIY interfaces to existing C plotting libraries.  I would like to move over
to a free alternative, and have been reccommended to use a GTK option.
I'll look at this more after I submit my thesis in 8 weeks.


> One final note, to those who commented about RSI not being interested in
> marketing or selling to graduate students...  That is a very poor
> marketing practice!  People are creatures of habit.  If you get all of
> the physics graduate students using IDL, then you will have 90% of them
> going out to industry and purchasing IDL.

I don't think this always applies.  If you move to any sort of large
industry with in-house processing software, you'll probably be using that.
I went to the SSEC, I used IDL.  I go somewhere else, I'll use whatever
they use there to take advantage of the existing code-base.

nick