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| Paper: |
Space Missions: Long Term Preservation of IDL-based Software using GDL |
| Volume: |
461, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XXI |
| Page: |
615 |
| Authors: |
Coulais, A.; Schellens, M.; Arabas, S.; Lenoir, M.; Noreskal, L.; Erard, S. |
| Abstract: |
GNU Data Language
(GDL) is a free software clone of IDL,
an interactive language
widely used in Astronomy and space missions since decades. Proprietary
status, license restrictions, price, sustainability and continuity of
support for particular platforms are recurrent concerns in the
Astronomy community, especially concerning space
missions, which require long-term support.
In this paper, we describe the key features of GDL and the main
achievements from recent development work. We illustrate the maturity
of GDL by presenting two examples of application: reading spectral
cubes in PDS format and use of the HEALPix library. These examples
support the main argument of the paper: that GDL has reached a level
of maturity and usability ensuring long term preservation of analysis
capabilities for numerous ground experiments and spaces missions based
on IDL. |
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