Introduction to IDL is a three-day course that provides scientists, engineers and developers with a working knowledge of the IDL programming language. Through a mixture of lectures, instructor-led exercises and challenge problems, this course significantly shortens the startup time for learning IDL, increasing efficiency. The course is focused on using IDL for data exploration, visualization and analysis, with examples from astronomy, atmospheric science, remote sensing and medical imaging. This course is intended for new users of IDL; however, experienced users will also benefit from interacting with our veteran instructors. No knowledge of IDL is required.

Prerequisite: Basic operating knowledge of computers required; programming experience (in IDL or another language) helpful.l.

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IDL has long been used by scientists as an interactive tool for tackling research problems. Although it's easy to learn the basics of IDL, most scientists do so by trial and error under the pressure of completing a deliverable. Because of this, even long-time IDL users aren't always familiar with many of the features and programming aids built into IDL. Scientific Programming with IDL is a three-day course on programming with IDL. In the course, we focus on programming methods and best practices in IDL. We also explore techniques for data access, analysis, visualization and output that make IDL useful for scientists in research settings.

Prerequisite: Completion of Introduction to IDL or equivalent experience; many of the topics covered in this course won’t resonate with someone who hasn’t used IDL. This course is directed in particular at IDL users who want a refresher, or who want to see the “right way” to program in IDL.

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Scientists, engineers and developers can strengthen their skills in employing IDL as an application programming language, not just as a command-line tool. The major topics covered in this course include widget programming, data visualization with Object Graphics, object-oriented programming and external linking. These topics, though useful in their own right, are also used to demonstrate techniques for building effective, efficient IDL programs. Take this course and learn how to write better code that can be used by others.

Prerequisite: Experience with IDL and another programming language, or completion of Introduction to IDL or Scientific Programming with IDL.

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Application Development with IDLII is an IDL programmer's course that builds on the subject matter introduced in the first Application Development with IDL course. The topics covered in the course change, depending on new features introduced into IDL. Emphasis is placed on object-oriented programming and visualization using the IDL Object Graphics System. A highlight of the course is the application built on the final day: a class-based widget application employing a user interface that allows a user to interactively manipulate data in a graphical scene. This course is designed for the scientist or programmer wanting to increase the visual impact and usability of their IDL applications for customers or colleagues.

Prerequisite: Competency in building UIs in IDL and familiarity with the Object Graphics system or completion of the Application Development with IDL I course. To get the most out of this course, you should be able to answer "yes" to at least four of the following questions:

• Have you used the WHERE function?
• Have you used pointers in IDL?
• Have you written a widget program in IDL?
• Have you used objects in IDL?
• Have you used Object Graphics in IDL?
• Have you written your own object classes in IDL?

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Extending ENVI with IDL is a three-day course for remote sensing scientists, engineers and developers who wish to incorporate their own algorithms and workflows into ENVI. This course provides an overview of the programming constructs available in IDL, the language in which ENVI is written, as well as the tools necessary for a user to extend ENVI with IDL, including ENVI library routines, custom file readers and writers, batch mode programs and user functions. Students should be familiar with ENVI, ideally having taken Exploring ENVI. Several ENVI programs are developed in class. Though it is helpful to have programming experience in IDLfamiliarity with basic programming topics in any language is suitable.

Prerequisite: Exploring ENVI (or equivalent experience) and familiarity with basic programming.

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