[vtkusers] IDL or, preaching VTK to the nonconverted

[Jesse Neri]

I second most of what Joey Mukherlee said. I have programmed extensively in
both.
IDL is very good for data manipulation, and quick easy data display. If you
want
fine control of the data presentation, then IDL can bog down in the details
too.
VTK is only for data display, and you do the data handling on your own in
C++ or TK/TCL.
You can write nice GUI apps in both. However, you need a license everywhere
to be
writing in IDL. There is a free IDL display program for pre-canned
application.

VTK is highly portable. I have written VTK TK/TCL apps and run the same
files on
PC, Linux and SGI boxen without changing the app. You do have to get the VTK
and TK/TCL
libs installed on all the various platforms. Its not bad if you have systems
guys.

If you don't want to program and do detailed system installs, IDL is the way
to go.
The company is pretty good (I've been a customer for over 20 years). I like
the mouse driven
manipulation of the display in VTK, most of the IDL apps I've seen uses
sliders
to change the 3D view.

Jess

--
Jess Neri   neri at hobbes.nrl.navy.mil   (202) 404-4365
Pulsed Power Physics Branch, Plasma Physics Division
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC   20375



> -----Original Message-----
> From: vtkusers-admin at vtk.org
> [mailto:vtkusers-admin at vtk.org]On Behalf Of
> Sean McInerney
> Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 2:40 PM
> To: vtkusers at vtk.org
> Subject: [vtkusers] IDL or, preaching VTK to the nonconverted
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>    Does anyone with past or current experience with IDL have
> any insight
> into its comparison with VTK ... that they wouldn't mind
> sharing? Beyond
> being commercial and old/mature, are there any big points making the
> case for VTK over IDL in implementing a 3D visualization system (that
> will do a fair bit of image processing)?
>
> -Sean
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