Log Message:
Initial import of PDL, the "Perl Data Language".  The package \ 
currently supports
the builtin 3D graphing routines, but not the PLplot or PGPLOT bindings.  I hope
to soon package up PLplot so that PDL can use it.  I do not plan to do so for
PGPLOT, as it its license would be problematic for many people.

Fuller description of PDL follows:

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PDL ("Perl Data Language") gives standard Perl the ability to \ 
compactly store
and speedily manipulate the large N-dimensional data arrays which are the bread
and butter of scientific computing.

PDL turns perl in to a free, array-oriented, numerical language similar to (but,
we believe, better than) such commerical packages as IDL and MatLab.  One can
write simple perl expressions to manipulate entire numerical arrays all at once.
For example, using PDL the perl variable $a can hold a 1024x1024 floating point
image, it only takes 4MB of memory to store it and expressions like
$a=sqrt($a)+2 manipulate the whole image in a few milliseconds.

A simple interactive shell (perldl) is provided for use from the command line
and a module (PDL) for use in perl scripts.