IDL Programming Credentials Committee

QUESTION: I was reading the IDL newsgroup (comp.lang.idl-pvwave) the other day and I saw a reference to the IDL Programming Credentials Committee. What in the world is that!?

ANSWER: You mean you have never heard of them either? I've been telling these guys they need to hire a publicist to get the word out.

This is just one of several committees put together by the IDL Expert Programmers Association. Every January they accept program submissions and issue credentials to IDL programers later in March. Credential categories range from What Is This, a Joke!? to Kick-Ass Programmer. (Although as far as I know only one person has ever earned the latter designation, and they had to use some kind of triply sub-classed object in their program to even get in the running. I thought it was pathetic.) I had been stuck in the B-o-o-o-r-i-n-g category for ages. I didn't really break out until I started incorporating more objects into my programs.

The IEPA has a big invitation-only convention in October, where they invite IDL programmers who come to their attention (usually through some kind of posting on the IDL newsgroup) to answer the secret IDL Test Question. Those lucky programmers who get the question right are inducted into the Association in an elaborate ceremony at an unannounced (but lavish) location. You get a secret handshake and everything. The questions range from the esoteric, like "Which is the X direction when you are in PostScript landscape mode?", to the impossible, like "How do you get color output on a 24-bit display?".

Normally the folks at the IEPA contact you, rather than the other way around. But you can send e-mail to the Chairman Emeritus, Wily E. Coyote, Ph.D., at coyote@iepa.org. I've heard he is always willing to help newbies out.