Coyote Library Name Changes

QUESTION: Yikes! I just updated by Coyote Library and I can't find TVImage, FSC_Color, or FSC_Colorbar. There must be two dozen files missing. What in the world is going on!? Have these venerable programs been renamed? You didn't put Coyote in charge of this, did you?

ANSWER: No, no. Nothing of the sort. I know better than to put Coyote in charge of anything except buying beer for the parties.

What has happened is that a number of Coyote Library routines were "retired" so that they could be "resurrected" as renamed fundamental routines in the Coyote Graphics System. Basically, about 20 different Coyote Library routines were renamed to start with the letters “cg,” which will identify them as Coyote Graphics routines. I thought this was necessary to coincide with the release of my new book, Coyote's Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively. The book describes a "system" of working with traditional graphics commands in a way that gives them the power and functionality of the "new" function graphics commands in IDL, but without the significant limitations of the new system. I think the book has the potential to change the way a lot of us write IDL programs, and I didn't want to print thousands of copies and then spend the rest of my life wishing I had changed the names of these Coyote Library routines to reflect their origin and functionality. I decided to bite the bullet and do it now.

But, these routines have not disappeared and they have not gone away. They have been "retired" into a separate sub-directory of the Coyote Library distribution named (oddly) "retired." All the routines in the Catalyst and Coyote Libraries have been updated to use only the files with the new names. Development has stopped on "retired" routines, and will only be on-going with the routines with the new names.

If you want to continue to use the old routines you are free to do so. They will be shipped with all versions of the Coyote Library for a long time into the future. All you need to do to use them is to include all the Coyote Library sub-directories in your IDL path at the same time as you include the "coyote" directory. Normally, this is done either by checking the box in front of the directory name, if you set up your IDL path using the IDL Workbench, or by adding a plus sign to the "coyote" directory in your shell start-up script, if you set your IDL path that way.

Or, you can do what I am doing and just put the "coyote" directory on your IDL path and fix your programs that use old Coyote Library names as you use them and problems arise. The benefits of this method is that soon all your programs will be up to date and ready to move forward with the exciting plans I have for developing the Coyote Graphics System further.

List of Name Changes

The old name is on the left, and the new name is on the right.

• BlendImage — cgBoxPlot
• BoxPlot — cgBlendImage
• CTLoad — cgLoadCT
• DCBar — cgDCBar
• FSC_Arrow — cgArrow
• FSC_Axis — cgAxis
• FSC_Color — cgColor
• FSC_Colorbar — cgColorbar
• FSC_ColorFill — cgColorFill
• FSC_Contour — cgContour
• FSC_DefCharSize — cgDefCharSize
• FSC_Display — cgDisplay
• FSC_Erase — cgErase
• FSC_Plot — cgPlot
• FSC_PlotS — cgPlotS
• FSC_Query — cgQuery
• FSC_Surf — cgSurf
• FSC_Surface — cgSurface
• FSC_Text — cgText
• FSC_Window — cgWindow
• FSC_Window_Get_Defaults — cgWindow_GetDefs
• FSC_Window_Set_Defaults — cgWindow_SetDefs
• FSC_WSet — cgSet
• Histoplot — cgHistoplot
• LoadData — cgDemoData
• TVImage — cgImage
• TVInfo — cgImageInfo
• TVRead — cgSnapShot
• TVScale — cgImage
• XContour — cgContour
• XImage — cgImage
• XPlot — cgPlot
• XSurface— cgSurface

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Version of IDL used to prepare this article: IDL 7.0.1.
Last Updated: 15 March 2011.