News

3 March 2012: Created new Coyote Library download of tagged release 1.11.0, which includes many updates and the addition of cgOPlot, a wrapper for cgPlot, which can serve as a direct replacement for OPlot in IDL programs. Note that to keep up with current changes (which can be frequent!), it is much easier to download the Coyote Library directly from the Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming web page.

8 December 2011: There have been significant changes to the Coyote Library this week. I think 28 of the 41 Coyote Graphics programs have been updated. Time to update your library!

Users can update to the latest tagged release by issuing an SVN command like this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_library_1.4 local_dir

20 August 2011: Paul van Delst has convinced me to change the organization of this repository to support frequently updated tagged releases. To that end, I have created "coyote" and "catalyst" folders in the "tags" branch of the repository and I have renamed previously tagged releases to support the new naming convention for tagged releases. The "trunk" branch of the repository will still be used for current development work. As soon as I deem current work "stable," I will create a tagged release. I expect tagged releases to occur frequently.

Users can update to the latest tagged release by issuing an SVN command like this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_library_1.0.7 local_dir

If you are interested in the very latest code development, or in older routines (say in the "retired" folder), you will find these in the "trunk" branch of the repository. For example:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/coyote/retired local_dir

The tagged release naming convention will involve three numbers (e.g. 1.0.5). The first number will be a major release number. This number should change infrequently. The second number is a minor release number and will indicate new features in the library, such as programs with new keywords added, algorithm changes, etc. The third number is an update number and will indicate, primarily, bug fixes or documentation changes to current library programs.

28 April 2011: A bug-fix version of code originally released with the book, Coyote's Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively, has been created and tagged today. This corresponds to the state of the software after returning from my "book tour" and fixing all known problems. Users wanting the latest tagged release should use a command like this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_code_release_6_20110428 local_dir

Personally, I think it is better to use the latest Coyote Library version from the trunk of the repository. The trunk version is keep up to date and corresponds exactly to the Coyote Library version available on my web page. The trunk version can be checked out with a command similar to this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/coyote local_dir

10 April 2011: A bug-fix version of code originally released with the book, Coyote's Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively, has been created and tagged today. Users wanting the latest tagged release should use a command like this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_code_release_5_20110410 local_dir

7 March 2011: The book, Coyote's Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively, has been released to the printer. Books will be shipped by the end of March. Meantime, the book can be purchased at a pre-publication discount until 25 March 2011. To correspond with the release, a new tagged release of the Coyote Library is made available. These will be the Coyote Library routines described in the book. It is highly recommended you update to this tagged release, as there have been a great many feature enhancements, bug fixes, and general testing of these routines.

Users who want to get the released version should use a command such as this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_code_release_4_20110307 local_dir

18 February 2011: We created a new tagged release of the Coyote Library today which coincides with the the PDF release of my latest book, entitled Coyote's Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively.

Users who want to get the released version should use a command such as this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_code_release_3_20110218 local_dir

A zip file of this release is also available in the Downloads section.

The PDF version of the book is available now. The paperback edition of the book is expected sometime before the end of March 2011.

3 January 2011: We created a new tagged release of the Coyote Library today which implements Coyote Graphics routines discussed and used in the about-to-be-released new book, entitled Coyote's Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively. An announcement will be made when the book is ready to be published.

Users who want to get the released version should use a command such as this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_code_release_2_20110103 local_dir

16 November 2010: A number of new programs have been created, and old programs updated, to create device independent, color mode independent, graphics programs to replace the Plot, PlotS, Oplot, Contour, Surface, and Shade_Surf commands in IDL. Have a look at FSC_Plot, FSC_PlotS, FSC_Contour, FSC_Surf, FSC_Display, FSC_Erase and all the rest. Changes have been made to TVImage, TVScale, FSC_Colorbar, and DCBar to name only a few of the programs that have changed to accommodate the "new" old commands. This might be a good time to update your Coyote Library distribution. Additional information can be found on the Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming web page.

12 October 2010: A stable release of the Coyote and Catalyst Libraries was made today in the "tags" section of the repository. Users who want to get the released version should use a command such as this:

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/tags/coyote_code_release_1_20101012 local_dir

The very latest changes to the Coyote and Catalyst libraries are still available from the "trunk" section of the repository.

svn co http://idl-coyote.googlecode.com/svn/trunk local_dir

We expect to create released versions several times a year, as necessary.

8 Oct 2010: It has come to my attention that UNIX and Windows machines report the UTC time in the SysTime function differently. UNIX reports today's data as "Fri, 8 Oct 2010 21:53:26 GMT", whereas Windows reports it as "Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:53:26 GMT". The problem lies in the way the day string is reported. I mean for the day string to always contain two digits (e.g., "08"), but this was not happening on UNIX machines. I've modified the TimeStamp code so that it always reports the day string as two digits on all computers.

7 Oct 2010: Adding "system" colors to FSC_Color may have been the worst design decision I ever made. Since these require a window connection to determine, this decision has haunted me for years in the form of people wanting to use the software in places where there is no window connection. For example, in cron jobs. To accommodate legacy code, I need to always check for a connection. I am loath to do this because it means opening and closing a window, which is, relatively speaking, a slow process. I've made another attempt to solve this problem with this update and the corresponding update to the Coyote Library program CanConnect. CanConnect how creates the system variable !FSC_Display_Connection. If this system variable exists, FSC_Color consults it to determine if there is a display connection. It it doesn't exist, it calls CanConnect. This way, a window has to be open only once in an IDL session to determine if a display connection can be made.

The Coyote Library routines FSC_Color, CanConnect, and PickColorname have been updated, as well as the Catalyst Library program CatColors__Define.

5 Oct 2010: Histoplot has been updated to allow multiple polygon fill colors with the POLYCOLOR keyword.

4 Oct 2010: Histoplot has been updated with better handling of NANs and "missing" data. Now all missing data is set to NANs before processing, which ensures that the reverse indices returned by the program will be correct.

29 Sept 2010: XColors has been updated to better allow user-supplied color table files to be used with the program. And a name mis-match with the Brewer color tables has been corrected in the fsc_brewer.tbl file.

27 Sept 2010: IDL Coyote and Catalyst libraries have been updated to account for all known IDL 8 name space conflicts. At least 10 programs have changed. The major change is that COLORBAR has been moved to an "obsolete" directory and replaced by the FSC_COLORBAR program in the Coyote Library. It is recommended that you update both your Coyote and Catalyst installations. Additional information about IDL 8 name conflicts can he found in this article.

23 Sept 2010: IDL Coyote and Catalyst libraries are now available via a Subversion repository.

Downloads

If you prefer not to download the library files from this Subversion repository, you can download zip files containing the most recent files in the libraries from Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming:

Installation instructions are available for installing both libraries for your particular IDL installation. Please note that nearly all Catalyst Library modules depend upon Coyote Library programs, so if you want the functionality of the Catalyst Library, you will also need to install the Coyote Library.