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Experienced IDL Users
Destry
Gray
Useful Links
http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/contents.html
http://www.dfanning.com/documents/tips.html
http://www.fizyka.umk.pl/nrbook/bookcpdf.html
comp.lang.idl-pvwave which is a helpful Usenet group. It has a Google Groups page which gets lots of spam, or you can use a newsreader.
For use with the CAL license server, download IDL 7.0 here
Installation instructions are at http://download.ittvis.com/idl_7.0/linux/web_install_idl_all.html
And instructions for setting up your license is here
(from Lia)
Misc Notes
Upgrade to IDL 8.0, the new graphics system is fantastic. (Gray)
To easily figure out how to write greek symbols in your plot axis titles, I recommend TeXtoIDL (Kathryn)
To make pretty plots, try out Erin Sheldon's packages: SDSSIDL. Of most use are the procedures SETUPPLOT.pro (which is a program that sets-up intelligent plotting and loads color tables so that the system variables named "!color" are the appropriate numerical value, for example: !red or !blue or !turquoise or !orangered), NTOSTR.pro (which is a function that takes any number and converts it into a displayable string), BEGPLOT.pro (which is a program that, after running SETUPPLOT, is an intelligent way to start a Postscript-file plot), ENDPLOT.pro (which is a program that, after running BEGPLOT, closes the plotter intelligently), MAKE_RAINBOW.pro (which is a function that makes an array of colors) and PLEGEND.pro (which is a program that intelligently constructs a legend for plots).
For some hefty programming capabilities in IDL check out Markwardt IDL library which has an impressive QPINT integrator, a decent CMREPLICATE array replicator, and an absolutely to-die-for PLOTIMAGE procedure that will enable you to easily superimpose images onto plots and plots onto images, among other exciting features.
Also, the David Fanning website has some pretty great packages you can use. I'm particularly pleased with the way that Coyote Graphics handles color tables and image issues.
(Josh)
