© Sébastien Merkel, Université Lille 1, France
Since June 2011, multifit is open source software, licensed under the GPL Version 2.
Multifit/Polydefix homepage is at http://merkel.zoneo.net/Multifit-Polydefix/
Multifit/Polydefix is an open-source IDL software package for an efficient processing of diffraction data obtained in deformation apparatuses at synchrotron beamlines. Multifit allows users to decompose two-dimensional diffraction images into azimuthal slices, fit peak positions, half-widths, and intensities, and propagate the results to other azimuth and images. Polydefix is for analyzes of deformation experiments. Starting from output files created in Multifit or other packages, it will extract elastic lattice strains, evaluate sample pressure and differential stress, and prepare input files for further texture analysis.
Multifit itself is dedicated to the fitting of two-dimensional (2-D) diffraction data. It will extract d-spacings, intensities, and half-widths for peaks of a given material, for multiple orientations and over multiple diffraction images. Data analysis procedure is in place for 2-D data collected at the D-DIA apparatus available at the GeoSoilEnviroCARS sector of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory, USA. It is currently being adapted to data collected at the D-DIA apparatus available at the
Multifit/Polydefix is written in the Interactive Data Language (IDL) provided by Exelis Visual Information Solutions (Boulder, Colorado). It is an open-source software package, licensed under GNU General Public License that runs within the IDL Virtual Machine, as provided at no-cost by Exelis Visual Information. It will run on any platform with an IDL Virtual Machine, Windows, OS X, Linux, and Solaris. The IDL Virtual Machine does not require a license to run. An IDL license is required, however, for developing, compiling, and adding new features.
IDL comes with a complex eclipse-based development environment in a graphical user interface (gui) for editing projects. Over the years the gui became more and more complex. It is a complete overkill for what we are doing here. Moreover, each upgrade of IDL comes with technical issues and, recently, it simply stopped working on my computers. Therefore, I decided to completely quit using the IDL gui for developing applications and develop multifit/polydefix in text mode only. You are welcome to try using the gui if you want, but I will not help you with it.
Once you downloaded the latest version of the code, you can simply open the files in your favorite text editor. I use kate, one of the KDE text editor. It does have a specific mode for coloring IDL codes (select Tools -> Highlighting -> Sources -> RSI IDL).
To compile and run the code, you should move into the folder with your source,
start IDL in the command line, and type @build:
cd ~/IDL/Multifit
idl
@build
You can then test your changes by typing
multifit
in the command line. It will start the latest version you compiled.
Once you're done, if you want to quit IDL, simply type exit in the IDL command line.
I do not recommend the IDL development environment. On the other hand, the online help is extremely helpful. To start the help from the command line, simply type idlhelp.