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IDL DeCal - Spring 2008

University of California at Berkeley
Department of Astronomy




Welcome to the IDL Decal course page! Below you will find the course syllabus, the homework assignments, and a list of helpful tutorials and links.

Facilitator: Paul Higgins
Faculty Sponsor: Carl Heiles
GSI: Dustin Winslow
GSI: Tyler Pritchard


Upper Division: Astro 198
CCN: 06802

Lower Division: Astro 98
CCN: 06763

Credit: 1-4 units, PASS/FAIL

Class: Wednesday 6:00-7:30 in 705 Campbell [Jan 23 - April 30]
Office Hours: Most weekdays between 1:00 - 4:30 PM


Student Websites

Resources:

--> The Syllabus - PDF

--> DeCal Listing - http://www.decal.org/idl

--> Undergraduate Astronomy Lab Rules - HTML

--> Recommended Texts:

-----------The Purple Book - (FREE) general theory of programming.

-----------David Fanning's Book - its expensive- the website is probably as good as the book.

-----------The IDL Manual - (FREE) focus on the "IDL Documentation > Using IDL section".

Homework:

Assignment_00 - Getting Started - Due February 1st - HTML

Assignment_01 - Basic Procedures - Due February 8th - HTML

Assignment_02 - Loops and Arrays - Due February 15th - HTML

Assignment_03 - Monte Carlo and More Arrays - Due February 29th - HTML

Assignment_04 - Minimization and Integration - Due March 14th - HTML

Assignment_05 - Reading and Writing Data using FITS and ASCII - DUE March 28th - HTML

Assignment_06 - Plotting a Fourier Transform - DUE April 18th - HTML

Assignment_07 - Plotting an HR-Diagram - DUE May 9th - HTML

Lectures:

Week_00 - January 23, 2008 - PDF PPT

Week_01 - January 30, 2008 - PDF PPT
Journal Batch File - 1-30-08.pro
Demonstration - dice.pro, blackjack.pro
Comic-A-Day

Week_02 - February 6, 2008 - PDF PPT
Journal Batch File - 2-6-08.pro
Demonstration - hangman.pro, test.pro
Comic-A-Day

Week_03 - February 13, 2008 - PDF PPT
Journal Batch File - 2-13-08.txt
Demonstration - battleship.pro, sun.sav
Comic-A-Day

Week_04 - February 20, 2008 - PDF PPT
Journal Batch File - 2-20-08.txt
Demonstration - battleship.pro

Week_05 - February 27, 2008 - PDF PPT
Journal Batch File -
Demonstration - battleship.pro

Helpful Tutorials:

--> Unix - PS

--> Emacs - Basic - PS

----------- Shortcut Keystrokes - PS

--> Running IDL on your Laptop - HTML

--> Interpreting Procedure Listings (ie. in Alphabetical IDL) - HTML

--> Quick IDL Tutorial - Basic - PS

----------- Data Structures and Organization Techniques - PS

--> HTML Tutorial - HTML

----------- Creating File Links - HTML

Useful Links:

The UG Astro Tutorial Page - It is a good idea to go through the the UNIX tutorial the first week of class. Learning UNIX can be a major hurdle.

The UG Astro Computing Page - Go here for help with your UG Astro account.

The Amazing Alphabetical IDL Page - Information about specific IDL functions. Useful if you know what you're looking for.

David Fanning's IDL Resource - Another useful tutorial and help page.


Update: Paul Higgins - December 7, 2007 - UG Astro, Department of Astronomy, University of California at Berkeley