++ 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                 Basic installation instructions

INTERNATIONALIZATION    Notes re PDLA i18n issue and status

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

Release_Notes           A list of features or issues with regard to the
                       current version, always worth checking!

Known_problems          Check before you report problems

BUGS.pod                How to make a bug report, PDLA::Bugs

perldl.conf             PDLA configuration options

Basic/Pod/FAQ.pod       The FAQ in pod format
                       Try 'perldoc PDLA::FAQ' after installation.

Basic/Pod/QuickStart.pod
                       A quick overview of PDLA
                       Try 'perldoc PDLA::QuickStart' after installation.

Basic/Pod/BadValues.pod
                       A discussion of the bad value support in PDLA

DEVELOPMENT             How to participate in the development of PDLA



*NOTE*  Most PDLA documentation is available online within the PDLA shell,
       pdl2 (or perldl).  Try the help command within either shell.



PDLA -- the package
------------------
The Perl Data Language (a.k.a. PerlDL or PDLA) project aims to turn perl
into an efficient numerical language for scientific computing. The PDLA
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 at http://pdl.perl.org for more information.



Installation
------------
Please read the file INSTALL for information on how to
configure and install PDLA.  The Release_Notes and Known_problems
files contain important version specific information.  Be *sure*
to read Known_problems if you have any INSTALL issues.

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

       perl -Mblib Perldl2/pdl2

from within the root of the PDLA tree or just

       pdl2

if you have installed PDLA already ('make install') to get the
interactive PDLA shell.  In this shell, 'help' gives you
access to PDLA 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 PDLA bugs on GitHub at

       https://github.com/PDLPorters/pdla-core/issues

The mailing list archives can be searched/read at

       http://pdl.perl.org/?page=mailing-lists

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 the BUGS file.


Notes
-----
Directory structure:

Basic/     - The stuff that PDLA would be no use without
Demos/     - Showcase for PDLA, type demo at the perldl prompt.
Doc/       - Modules for building/using the PDLA documentation database
Example/   - Sample programs using PDLA
Graphics/  - The stuff that PDLA needs to make pictures
IO/        - The stuff that PDLA needs to write and read strange files
Lib/       - The stuff that PDLA would still be useful without but
              which makes PDLA even more useful
Perldl2/   - The PDLA shell version 2 source and development
TestTools/ - Tools for testing PDLA
cygwin/    - Platform specific information
debian/    - Platform specific information
inc/       - Local module directory for PDLA build process development
macosx/    - Platform specific information
t/         - PDLA tests directory
utils/     - Utilities relating to PDLA
win32/     - Platform specific information



Comments are welcome - so are volunteers to write code and documentation!
Please contact the developers mailing list [email protected]
(subscription info http://pdl.perl.org/?page=mailing-lists) with ideas
and suggestions.

 The PDLA developers.



Compilation Reports:
--------------------
The CPAN Testers' result page provides a database showing the results
of compiling PDLA and many other CPAN packages on multiple platforms.
See http://www.cpantesters.org.