Installing on Win32
===================
To install via ppm for Strawberry Perl (for 32-bit builds only, as their 64-bit builds
don't provide a ppm utility) and ActiveState Perl (both 32-bit and 64-bit builds):

First up install Astro::FITS::Header and Convert::UU by running:

  ppm install Astro-FITS-Header
  ppm install Convert-UU

Then install the OpenGL, PGPLOT and PDL modules from the sisyphusion repo by running:

  For 32-bit builds of perl (versions 5.8 and later):
    ppm install http://www.sisyphusion.tk/ppm/OpenGL.ppd
    ppm install http://www.sisyphusion.tk/ppm/PGPLOT.ppd
    ppm install http://www.sisyphusion.tk/ppm/PDL.ppd

  For 64-bit builds of perl, ppm packages are provided only for perl versions 5.10 and later.
  Also, there are no PGPLOT packages for these builds - so just run:

    ppm install http://www.sisyphusion.tk/ppm/OpenGL.ppd
    ppm install http://www.sisyphusion.tk/ppm/PDL.ppd

Note that the ActiveState ppm for PDL currently lacks some of
the functionality that is available in the above PDL ppm packages
from sisyphusion.
Note also that it's best to install both OpenGL and PDL from the *same* repo - ie
either install *both* from the ActiveState repo, or install *both* from the
sisyphusion repo. (The difference being that ActiveState's OpenGL and PDL packages
are built against a dynamic freeglut library, whereas the sisyphusion ppm packages
are built against a static freeglut library.)

Having installed the relevant ppm package, PLPLOT and PROJ4 support is enabled by
setting the PLPLOT_LIB and PROJ_LIB environment variables to the location of the
plplot_supp and proj_supp folders (respectively). The ppm post-install script will
terminate with a message that tells you the settings these environment variables
should take on. (If you missed the message, the two folders will be in your
perl/site/lib directory - eg, for most builds of ActivePerl the PLPLOT_LIB
environment variable would be set to C:\perl\site\lib\PDL\plplot_supp, and PROJ_LIB
would be set to C:\perl\site\lib\PDL\proj_supp.)

Installing ffmpeg will enable the creation of mp4 and animated gif files, whereby
one can turn a piddle of images into a movie.
For a demo of this feature, create an mp4 file (bounce.mp4) by running the
Example/IO/wmpeg.pl that ships with the PDL source.
The requisite ffmpeg binaries are available from a number of places, including
(at time of writing):
 http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/
 http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffmpeg
but googling for 'ffmpeg download' should turn up useful hits if those 2 links
become dead in the future.

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If you would like, instead, to build PDL from source, that's also easy!!

Certain parts of PDL (eg PDL::Slatec and PDL::Minuit) can't be built
without a fortran compiler.  In the docs that follow I call these parts
(somewhat loosely) "the fortran stuff".



To Build from Source
--------------------
1) You'll need a make utility and a compiler - dmake/MinGW provides
   best mileage.  To install them onto ActivePerl (if you don't
   already have them) simply:

   ppm install MinGW

2) Then run:

   cpan -i ExtUtils::F77    # Optional - this is for "the fortran stuff".
                            # This will fail if using a Microsoft Compiler
			          # (see "Other Options" below).
                            # This will also fail on Strawberry Perl
			          # (no fortran compiler)

   cpan -i PGPLOT           # Optional - for PGPLOT graphics support.
                            # This will fail if the pgplot C library can't
                            # be found.
			          # It will also fail if no Fortran compiler is
			          # found---simpler to install using ppm
			          # (see above).

   cpan -i OpenGL           # Optional - this is for PDL's TriD support.
                            # Also available via ppm (see above) if there
                            # is any problem building.

   cpan -i PDL              # Will first install any missing pre-requisites.

If it's a developer release that you're trying to install then you'll
need to specify the full distribution path info, e.g.:

   cpan -i CHM/PDL-2.4.7_001.tar.gz



Other Options
-------------
1) Using f2c instead of g77 (for "the fortran stuff")
 The capability of building "the fortran stuff" with f2c and
 associated libraries libi77.lib and libf77.lib probably still
 exists (but is untested by any of the current developers).

 If you want to use f2c you need to edit win32/win32f77.pl to
 reflect the location of f2c, the libs and the include file f2c.h.

 You'll also need to run:
    perl Makefile.PL F77CONF=win32/win32f77.pl
 instead of simply:
    perl Makefile.PL

2) Building a "non-default" PDL
 If you don't want to accept a "default" build of PDL, download
 the source from CPAN, extract it to some location, cd to that
 location and edit (the self-documenting) perldl.conf accordingly.

 Then run, in succession:

    perl Makefile.PL
    dmake test
    dmake install

 This enables building of such things as:
 a) PDL::IO::GD (needs the gd C library);
 b) PDL::GSL::* modules (needs the gsl C library);
 c) PDL::Graphics::PLplot (needs the plplot C library);
 d) PDL::GIS::Proj & PDL::Transform::Proj4 (needs the proj4 C library);
 e) PDL::FFTW (needs the fftw2 C library)

As of the release of PDL-2.4.7 (and later), all of this functionality is
provided by the above mentioned ppm packages.