perltutorial
lin0
<p>The [http://pdl.perl.org/|Perl Data Language (PDL)] is a powerful package that uses C (and sometimes Fortran) to efficiently handle multidimensional data sets. This package has been successfully used in a variety of [http://pdl.perl.org/nifty/index_en.html|applications]. To help you get started with (or to learn more about) this package, I collected a few references (in a question and answer format) that serve as a brief overview of PDL.</p>
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<p><b>Q: I am curious: who created PDL?</b></p>
<p>A: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Glazebrook|Karl Glazebrook]. He is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Johns Hopkins University.</p>
<p><b>Q: Ok. I want to get started with PDL, is there a Web Page for that project?</b></p>
<p>A: Yes, the [http://pdl.perl.org/index_en.html|PDL – The Perl Data Language] Web Page</p>
<p><b>Q: Sounds interesting, where can I download it?</b></p>
<p>A: You can get it from [http://search.cpan.org/~csoe/PDL-2.4.3/|CPAN] or from [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=612|SourceForge.net]</p>
<p><b>Q: I downloaded it. What should I read first, just to get started?</b></p>
<p>A: I suggest you to have a look at [http://pdl.sourceforge.net/PDLdocs/Impatient.html|PDL for the Impatient]</p>
<p><b>Q: I read it. What should I read now?</b></p>
<p>A: There is a very good article, in the Perl Journal, titled: [http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/184410442|PDL: The Perl Data Language]</p>
<p><b>Q: Good. Is there any other source of documentation available?</b></p>
<p>Yes, there is a [http://pdl.sourceforge.net/PDLdocs/|Table of Contents of PDL Documentation]</p>
<p><b>Q: That is good. But I am interested in a book or a book chapter, where can I find those?</b></p>
<p>A: There are, at least, two books and one book chapter related to PDL.</p>
<p><i>Books:</i></p>
<ul>
<li>[http://pdl.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/pdl/PDL-Beggining-Book/pdl.pdf|Beginning PDL] (File Size: about 425 KB)</li>
<li>[http://pdl.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/pdl/PDL-Book/PDL-Book-latest.pdf?revision=1.5|PDL – Scientific Programming in Perl] (File Size: about 2.1 MB)</li>
</ul>
<p><i>Book chapter</i></p>
<ul><li>Chapter 7 of [http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/maperl/index.html|Mastering Algorithms with Perl]</li></ul>
<p><b>Q: Excellent! But I am curious, are there any other references available?</b></p>
<p>A: Yes, there are. For example, you might want to look at:</p>
<ul>
<li>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_Data_Language|Perl Data Language] at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page|Wikipedia]</li>
<li>[http://www.jstatsoft.org/counter.php?id=95&url=v11/i01/v11i01.pdf&ct=1|Using Perl for Statistics: Data Processing and Statistical Computing] in the ([http://www.jstatsoft.org/|Journal of Statistical Software]):</li>
<li>A lightning talk on [http://www.shlomifish.org/lecture/Perl/Lightning/Opt-Multi-Task-in-PDL/|Optimising Multi-Tasking in PDL]
<li>A tutorial (in Spanish) titled: [http://es.tldp.org/Presentaciones/200002hispalinux/conf-14/14-html/hispa_pdl.html|A Beginners Guide to PDL] </li>
<li>Lecture notes from ([http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~darin/perl/perl2002/slides/|U.C. Berkeley]) on the [http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~darin/perl/perl2002/slides/pdl.pdf|Perl Data Language]</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Q: Terrific! Now, if I have a question where can I ask for help?</b></p>
<p>A: You can subscribe to the [http://pdl.perl.org/maillists/index_en.html| PDL Mailing Lists] and ask there for help. And, of course, you can always ask for help in the [http://perlmonks.org/|Monastery]</p>
<p><b>Q: Great. Now I am wondering: are there any freely available examples?</b></p>
<p>A: Yes, there are. Here, I leave you a small list:</p>
<ul>
<li>pdl.perl.org: [http://pdl.perl.org/nifty/index_en.html|PDL Success Stories]</li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=331133|PDL-based Plotting Tool] </li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=580484|Sports Conference Rankings, Colley Matrix Style] </li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=575024|Number of unique ways to reach target sum] </li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=541052|OpenGL (PDL) JAPH] </li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=483808|Reading Files in PDL Matrix] </li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=192891|PDL Examples?]</li>
<li>perlmonks.org: [id://591588|Fuzzy Clustering] </li>
</ul>
<p><b>Q: Cool! Now, the next question is: are there any packages using PDL?</b></p>
<p>A: Yes, some of them are:</p>
<ul>
<li>[http://www.prima.eu.org/|Prima Toolkit]</li>
<li>[http://www.prima.eu.org/IPA/|IPA Toolkit]</li>
<li>[http://www.prima.eu.org/PDL-PrimaImage/|PrimaImage Toolkit]</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Q: One last question, is PDL going to be supported by Perl 6?</b></p>
<p>A: Yes. In fact, the plan is for the Perl 6 features to make it easier for the PDL folks to write numeric Perl. See for instance, [http://dev.perl.org/perl6/doc/design/syn/S09.html|perl6: Synopsis 9: Data Structures]</p>
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