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Perl Data Language (PDL)

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PDL ("Perl Data Language") gives standard Perl the ability to compactly store and speedily manipulate the large N-dimensional data arrays which are the bread and butter of scientific computing.

PDL turns Perl into a free, array-oriented, numerical language similar to (but, we believe, better than) such commercial packages as IDL and MatLab. One can write simple perl expressions to manipulate entire numerical arrays all at once. Simple interactive shells, pdl2 and perldl, are provided for use from the command line along with the PDL module for use in Perl scripts.

WARNING: There is absolutely no warranty for this software package. See the file COPYING for details.

Important reading

Before sending us your questions, please see the following files for further information, and check for any open issues.

  • INSTALL: Basic installation instructions
  • INTERNATIONALIZATION: Notes re PDL i18n issue and status
  • DEPENDENCIES: Other software that PDL relies on (and where to get it)
  • Changes: A list of features or issues with regard to the current version, always worth checking!
  • Bugs.pod: How to make a bug report, PDL::Bugs
  • perldl.conf: PDL configuration options
  • Basic/Pod/FAQ.pod: The FAQ in pod format. Try perldoc PDL::FAQ after installation.
  • Basic/Pod/QuickStart.pod: A quick overview of PDL. Try perldoc PDL::QuickStart after installation.
  • Basic/Pod/BadValues.pod: A discussion of the bad value support in PDL
  • Basic/Pod/DeveloperGuide.pod: How to participate in the development of PDL

Note: Most PDL documentation is available online within the PDL shell, pdl2 (or perldl). Try the help command within either shell.

PDL -- the package

The Perl Data Language (a.k.a. PerlDL or PDL) project aims to turn perl into an efficient numerical language for scientific computing. The PDL module gives standard perl the ability to compactly store and speedily manipulate the large N-dimensional data sets which are the bread and butter of scientific computing. e.g. $x=$y+$c can add two 2048x2048 images in only a fraction of a second.

The aim is to provide tons of useful functionality for scientific and numeric analysis.

Check the pdl web site for more information.

Installation

Please read the file INSTALL for information on how to configure and install PDL. The Changes file contains important version specific information. Be sure to check for any open issues if you have any INSTALL issues.

Once you have built PDL and either installed it or done make doctest, try either

perl -Mblib Perldl2/pdl2

from within the root of the PDL tree or just

pdl2

if you have installed PDL already (make install) to get the interactive PDL shell. In this shell, help gives you access to PDL documentation for each function separately (help help for more about this) and demo gives you some basic examples of what you can do.

Bug Reports

You can check the existing PDL bugs on GitHub here.

The mailing list archives can be searched/read here.

Questions about problems and possible bugs can be discussed via the pdl-general mailing list. This is very useful if you are not sure what you have is a bug or not. For example, the list is the place to go for install problems.

If you need to post a problem report, and after checking with the pdl-general list that it is a bug, please use the GitHub issue tracker system following the guidance in PDL::Bugs.

Notes

Directory structure:

Basic/ : The stuff that PDL would be no use without

Demos/ : Showcase for PDL, type demo at the perldl prompt.

Doc/ : Modules for building/using the PDL documentation database

Example/ : Sample programs using PDL

Graphics/ : The stuff that PDL needs to make pictures

IO/ : The stuff that PDL needs to write and read strange files

Libtmp/ : The stuff that PDL would still be useful without but which makes PDL even more useful

Perldl2/ : The PDL shell version 2 source and development

cygwin/ : Platform specific information

macosx/ : Platform specific information

t/ : PDL tests directory

utils/ : Utilities relating to PDL

win32/ : Platform specific information

Comments are welcome - so are volunteers to write code and documentation! Please contact the developers mailing list pdl-devel@lists.sourceforge.net (subscription info) with ideas and suggestions.

The PDL developers.

Compilation Reports:

The CPAN Testers' result page provides a database showing the results of compiling PDL and many other CPAN packages on multiple platforms.