IDL

This is still a work in progress, but hopefully it is useful as is

IDL for Beginners:

  1. IDL - What it is and when to use it
    • Interpreted versus Compiled languages
    • The programming language hiearchy
    • Advantages/Disadvantages of IDL
  2. Setting up your IDL environment
    • Setting your path
    • Adding the AstroLibrary
    • Command Line versus IDLDE
    • Compile options!
    • online_help
  3. Variables and variable usage
    • Data-types and conversions
    • Printing variables and string formats
    • Math! */+-><,etc
    • The size() function
    • Arrays!
      • Array declaration
      • Array subscripting
      • Array operations and functions
      • Where()
  4. Functions and function usage
  5. Program flow control
    • if ... then ... else
    • while
    • repeat
    • for
    • continue, break
  6. File input/output
    • ASCII files
    • FITS files
  7. Plotting in IDL
    • plot windows
    • plot
    • oplot
    • plot options
    • psym
    • .ps files
    • histograms
      • plothist
      • histogram
  8. Colors in IDL
    • **shudder**
  9. Useful IDL functions
    • TBA
 Advanced IDL:

  1. Floating point and floating point limitations

  2. Speed optimization in IDL
  3. Advanced Algorithms
    • Chunk Indexing
    • Sorting uses
    • Sorting sorts
    • Indexing arrays with arrays
    • Learn by doing
  4. Structures and Pointers

  5. Widgets!
    • Everything about widgets
  6. Possibly featuring:
    • Sparse Arrays
    • Running fortran/c++ code from IDL

Links

IDL