Re: Many procedures, what to do?

[Craig Markwardt <craigmnet(at)cow.physics.wisc.edu>]

davidf@dfanning.com (David Fanning) writes:
> I have to admit, I'm always confused when I read articles
> like this. I've been writing IDL programs for over 12 years
> now, and I've maybe used FORWARD_FUNCTION three times. I
> have gotten the wrong FOO program from some other directory
> maybe a few times more than that. But I have never, in all
> those years, had difficulty getting programs to compile 
> and run when they are suppose to. 

Hi David--

I guess what I'm saying is that I *already* have a library of 25
individual files that do low-level stuff.  I am feeling like this is a
pain in the butt for me and for other people to manage.  Also, all of
these functions share a lot of common parameters and keywords, so it
makes sense to only document them once, rather than in each file.  All
typing and no rest makes Craig a bad carpal tunnel boy.

My thought was to collapse all these routines into one single file.
That way it's easy to keep everything in one place, and there can be
lots of shared documentation.

The problem with that is then there are a bunch of functions like
CMSV_RLONG CMSV_RSTRING, CMSV_RCOMM, stored in a file called
cmsvlib.pro.  IDL has no way to figure out these functions are stored
in cmsvlib.pro, or for that matter that they are functions at all.

You are saying, "put each function in a separate file."  I am saying,
"I already have that, but am wondering whether one single library file
would be more convenient for downloaders."

Craig

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Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D.         EMAIL:    craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
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