I have a subroutine I am very satisfied with. Its arguments are a string and a short list, say, (var1,var2). After parsing some templates, making some input files, running some programs and parsing some output files, it spits out a floating point number.

Now I want to make a three dimensional plot of the mathematical function this subroutine represents as a function of var1 and var2. This requires I make loop through hundreds of values of var1 and var2. I read about PDL--which implements "vectorization" using "threads" and "piddles"--all completely new terms to me. I do not understand how they work (and yes, I have read all the perldocs on them several times.)

I was wondering if there was some way to implement this vectorization technique--or something similar as a more efficient alternative to for loops.

I am not currently using more than one cpu, but I have access to more at a network (just not at my home computer) so any parallel advice would be appreciated as well.

In reply to How to vectorize a subroutine--perhapse using PDL piddles or threads by Feynman

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