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Foreword written by David Fanning I've been teaching people how to use IDL for nearly 10 years now. In all that time, I can probably count on one hand the people who just immediately understood the power and versatility of IDL. Ronn Kling was one such student. I remember I couldn't even leave the room on breaks because Ronn kept pestering me with questions. And, sure enough, in almost no time at all Ronn was writing IDL programs that far surpassed my own in terms of complexity and elegance. Now, in this book, he shares the understanding and excitement of writing complex and interesting IDL programs with us. Teaching is a complex business. It is not always enough to know something. It is often more useful to teach *how* you came to know something. The process is more important than the final result. Ronn takes you step by step though the development of several extremely useful algorithms and their implementation in IDL. His book is unique in explaining the techniques and thinking required to write complex IDL programs in an elegant and straightforward style. The book is perfect for the intermediate IDL programmer who wants to take his or her IDL programs to the next level. I don't know about you, but I certainly fall into that category and I found the examples in this book welcome, indeed. David Fanning, Ph.D. Fanning Software Consulting