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

Important reading
-----------------

Please check the following files for further information
*BEFORE* sending us your questions:

INSTALL 		detailed installation instructions

BUGS			how to make a bug report and where to send it

Known_problems	 	check before you report compilation problems

DEPENDENCIES		Other software that PDL relies on
                        (and where to get it)

perldl.conf		PDL configuration options

Basic/Pod/FAQ.pod 	the FAQ in pod format
			try 'perldoc PDL::FAQ' after installation

Basic/Pod/Impatient.pod
			a quick overview of PDL
			try 'perldoc PDL::Impatient' after installation

Basic/Pod/BadValues.pod
                        a discussion of the bad value support in PDL

PDL::Index		a guide to PDL documentation
			!only available *after* successful installation!
			try 'perldoc PDL::Index'

DEVELOPMENT		how to participate in the development of PDL

Release_Notes		a list of issues with regard to the current version
			always worth checking!

*Note* that most PDL documentation is available online within the
perldl shell. Try the help command within the shell!


PDL -- the package
------------------

The Perl Data Language (PerlDL) 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. $a=$b+$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 at http://pdl.perl.org for more information.


Installation
------------

Please read the file INSTALL for detailed information on how
to configure and install PDL.

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

	perl -Mblib perldl

from within the root of the PDL tree or just

	perldl
	
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 sourceforge at

	http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=612&atid=100612

The mailing list archives can be searched/read at

	http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/pipermail/perldl/
	http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/pipermail/pdl-porters/

Questions about problems and possible bugs can be discussed
via the perldl mailing list.  This is very useful if you are
not sure what you have is a bug or not.

If you need to post a problem report, please use the
sourceforge.net bug tracker system following the guidance
in the BUGS file:

	http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=612&atid=100612


Notes
-----

Directory structure:

Basic/	   - The stuff that PDL would be no use without
Demos/     - Showcase for PDL, type demo at the perldl prompt.
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
Lib/	   - The stuff that PDL would still be useful without but
	     which makes PDL even more useful
Padre/     - Experiments for PDL+Padre integration and perldl shell v2

Comments are welcome - so are volunteers to write code and documentation!
Please contact the developers mailing list pdl-porters@jach.hawaii.edu
(subscription address: pdl-porters-request@jach.hawaii.edu) with ideas
and suggestions.

  The pdl-porters team.

Compilation Reports:
--------------------

The CPAN Testers' result page provides a database showing the results
of compiling PDL and many other CPAN packages on multiple platforms.
See http://testers.cpan.org/