Re: IDL i/o on G4

[JD Smith <jdsmith(at)astro.cornell.edu>]

"Dmitri A. Sergatskov" wrote:

> 
> >I should think a G4 titanium with OSX would be just about the fastest
> >laptop for running IDL available, but only if RSI is on the ball and has
> >a version ready when it hits prime time (sometime this summer, though
> >the release is next week).
> >
> 
> Sometimes I with Apple would get a clue and _pay RSI (and Mathworks
> for that matters) money_ to do that. They advertise the G4 as
> a "supercomputer", but so far it looks more like a glorified
> $5k DVD player. I am pretty sure it was one of the reasons
> the Cube fail.

Since RSI and Apple seem so chummy lately (reading that press release),
I'm sure Steve mentioned their new little OS project on the horizon. 
Time will tell.

And not to proselytize, but you could get two of them for that price:

New! Titanium PowerBook G4 400MHz
400MHz G4, 128MB SDRAM, 10GB Hard Drive, Slot Load DVD, 56K Modem, 15.2"
Mega Wide Screen.
Extra 128MB RAM FREE!*
Only $2,594! 

> 
> >You might also consider bothering RSI about LinuxPPC support, which
> >should be pretty trivial for them.  Then your I/O issues largely
> >dissappear.
> 
> One would think they can do it. After all RSI were probably the first to
> port serious application on x86/Linux. They also have TerraSoft next door.
> From the other end I was always dissapointed with x86/Linux port of IDL
> (I have not tried the latest releas though). It was not very stable,
> required multiple visuals (that x86 hardware would not provide)...

I have used almost exclusively Linux IDL.  I find it very stable.  The
problem you refer to has to do with hardware and the free X display
servers, not IDL, and has been (partially) alleviated with XFree86
v4.0.  It's the inability to simultaneously *overlay* an 8-bit
pseudo-color visual on a native 24-bit Truecolor session.  Usually you
want to do this to accomodate a program written in a color-depth
specific way (yes David, it is a crime).  Overlay functionality has been
typical of most unix workstation video hardware for a long time, but has
only recently been catching on among standard PC components.  The Matrox
cards are a good example.


JD