The perl data language. Perl extensions for numerics.
a modular extension to perl providing funcionality
similar to that found in Matlab or IDL. Plain Vanilla Perl does not
implement arrays as simple blocks of a simple data type. It does
surprisingly well at many numerical tasks, but, for more demanding tasks, it
is not sufficient. Pdl provides data types and methods for multidimensional
arrays. New C code has been written, and interfaces to existing C and FORTRAN
libraries have been added. A few large plotting packges have been interfaced.
Of course, the large collection of perl modules for networking, graphics, and
databases, etc., are also accessible.
