++ 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 		detailed installation instructions
Known_problems	 	check before you report compilation problems
DEPENDENCIES		Other software that PDL relies on (and where
			to get it)
BUGS			how to make a bug report and where to send it
perldl.conf		PDL configuration options
Basic/Pod/FAQ.pod 	the FAQ in pod format
			try 'perldoc PDL::FAQ' after installation
Basic/Pod/Impatient.pod
			a quick overview of PDL
			try 'perldoc PDL::Impatient' after installation
Basic/Pod/BadValues.pod
                        a discussion of the bad value support in PDL
PDL::Index		a guide to PDL documentation
			!only available *after* successful installation!
			try 'perldoc PDL::Index'
DEVELOPMENT		how to participate in the development of PDL

Release_Notes		a list of issues with regard to the current version
			always worth checking!

*Note* that most PDL documentation is available online within the
perldl shell. Try the help command within the shell!

PDL -- the package
------------------

The perlDL project aims to turn perl into an efficient numerical language for
scientific computing. The PDL 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. $a=$b+$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 detailed information on how
to configure and install PDL.

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

	perl -Mblib perldl

from within the root of the PDL tree or just

	perldl
	
if you have installed PDL already ('make install') to get the
interactive PDL shell. In this shell, 'help' gives you
access to PDL documentation for each function separately ('help
help' for more about this) and 'demo' gives you some basic
examples of what you can do.


Notes
-----

Directory structure:

Basic/	   - The stuff that PDL would be no use without
Lib/	   - The stuff that PDL would still be useful without but
	     which makes PDL even more useful
Graphics/  - The stuff that PDL needs to make pictures
IO/	   - The stuff that PDL needs to write and read strange files

Comments are welcome - so are volunteers to write code and documentation!
Please contact the developers mailing list pdl-porters@jach.hawaii.edu
(subscription address: pdl-porters-request@jach.hawaii.edu) with ideas
and suggestions.

  The pdl-porters team.

Compilation Reports:
--------------------

The CPAN Testers' result page provides a database showing the results
of compiling PDL and many other CPAN packages on multiple platforms.
See http://www.perl.org/cpan-testers/results.cgi	

Acknowledgement
---------------

m51.fits is included as a demonstration by kind permission of IRAF
group at the National Optical and Astronomical Observatories, in particular
Pat Seitzer, who retain ownership.