Perl Data Language Files

Release Notes for PDL 2.4.9 --------------------------

General Notes:

 * Fixes a couple of surprise bugs that were discovered
   immediately with the PDL-2.4.8 release.

 * See Also: the Release Notes for PDL-2.4.8 below


Highlights:

 * Fix sf.net bug #3267408 "t/slice.t crashes in tests 68-70 for BSD"
 
 * Fix sf.net bug #3190227 "PDL build fails with parallel GNU make -j3 -j3"

 * Fixed various tempfile name generation problems by switching
   to File::Temp instead of hand rolled solutions.  This is the
   recommended approach going forward.

 * Force Convert::UU usage for BSD to work around a t/dumper.t
   failure on MirBSD.



Release Notes for PDL 2.4.8 --------------------------

General Notes:

 * The deprecated Karma imaging library support code
   has been removed from the PDL distribution.
 
 * Perl OpenGL (POGL) is now the only build option for
   3-D graphics support in PDL.  The POGL build has
   proven to be portable and reliable.  This prepares
   TriD graphics development for the next stage of
   re-factoring for support and new features.
 
 * Many improvements to the PDL configuration, build
   and test process make this the most robust PDL yet.
 
 * PDL::IO::FlexRaw now supports automatic header file
   creation when writeflex() is given a filename argument
   for writing.  readflex/writeflex/mapflex now support
   reading and writing piddles with bad values in them.
 
 * New PDL::Constants module provides PI and E.

 * PDL::Complex now supports in-place operations.

 * Added $PDL::toolongtoprint to set the maximum piddle
   size allowed to print as a string.  This was added
   to the default.perldlrc to make it easier to discover
   by users.

 * wmpeg() from PDL::IO::Pic uses the new ffmpeg back-end
   and can create many additional file formats beyond MPEG
   alone, including MP4 and animated GIF.  See the
   documentation for details.
 
 * Lots of improvements to the documentation, overall
   usability and many bugs fixed!

Highlights:

 Build and Test Enhancements:

 * Karma support code has been *removed* from the PDL
   distribution The last stable PDL distribution with
   Karma code was be PDL-2.4.7.
   
 * You must use the Perl OpenGL module to build the
   PDL 3-D graphics module, PDL::Graphics::TriD.
   OPENGL_LIBS, OPENGL_INC and OPENGL_DEFINE are no
   longer used by perldl.conf for the configuration
   process.
   
 * Added a check for mis-installed PROJ4 libraries.  If
   the library does not initialize (even if present) then
   PDL will not build the PROJ4 modules.  This is sf.net
   feature #3045456.
   
 * GD, HDF, PROJ4, OpenGL, and GSL tests will not be run
   unless the corresponding module was configured to be
   built.  This addresses the possibly mysterious test
   failures caused by previous PDL installations in the
   perl path at build time.
   
 * Use of the Test::More TODO {} blocks allows tests for
   known bugs to be added to the test suite without 
   causing the suite to fail.  This replaces the previous
   SKIP_KNOWN_PROBLEMS option and should better enable
   test first development and debugging.
   
 * utils/perldlpp.pl is a new script for off-line source
   filtering to pre-filter PDL source files with NiceSlice
   constructs.  This allows PDL to use NiceSlice constructs
   in the core functionality while still allowing PDL to
   work in environments where source filters are not supported.
   
 * The 'perl Makefile.PL' response to detecting another PDL
   in the build path has changed.  If such a pre-existing PDL
   installation is detected, the user is warned *but*
   configuration and build will proceed nonetheless.
   
 * Clean-up and fixes to demos and tests for reliability and
   portability.

 Documentation:

 * Added INTERNATIONALIZATION file with i18n notes.  PDL
   does yet not have internationalization support beyond
   that provided  by perl itself.
   
 * Cleared up the documentation on when to use lu_decomp
   and versus lu_decomp2.  Now that lu_decomp is threaded,
   it is the preferred implementation.
   
 * wmpeg() with the ffmpeg converter supports generation of
   many different output video file formats including MPEG,
   MP4, and animated GIF.  Documentation on these uses were
   added.

 * New example code refresh.pdl in Example/PLplot to
   provide for PLplot, some of the same functionality
   as in PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT.
   
 * Other documentation updates for clarity and correctness.

 New Features or Functionality:

 * New PDL::Constants module providing PI and E (so far)
   
 * Inplace support added for PDL::Complex operations
   
 * pdldoc and the pdl2/perldl help commands now print all
   matches by default when multiple matches are found.

 * A do_print command was added to the pdl2 shell which
   toggles the input mode between printing and not
   printing the return value of each command.
   
 * readflex/writeflex/mapflex now support reading and writing  
   piddles with bad values in them. This was sf.net feature
   request #3028127, "add badvalue support to FlexRaw".
   
 * writeflex now supports automatically calling the
   writeflexhdr() routine if you have set the variable
   $PDL::FlexRaw::writeflexhdr to a true value and are
   writing to a file given by filename as argument.
   
 * Updated the error handling for GSL::INTERP to match other
   GSL module usages.
   
 * Applied sf.net patch #3209075 IO::HDF square sds
   
 * New binary blob support in PDL::IO::GD::OO

 Bugs Fixed:

 * Applied Christian Soeller's patch for FFTW on 64-bit
   systems.  This resolves bug #3203480 "t/fftw.t fails
   on 64-bit systems".
   
 * Fixed sf.net bug #3172882 re broken threading in inv().
   inv() and lu_backsub() now handle threading.  Updated
   documentation for lu_decomp, lu_deomp2, and lu_backsub.
   
 * Fixed sf.net bug #3171702 "missing podselect command
   breaks PDL build"
   
 * Fixed sf.net bug #3185864 (bad adev in statsover)
   
 * Fixed sf.net bug #3139697: fixed imag2d() to work better
   with Mac OS X GLUT and not just FreeGLUT.
   
 * Fixed uniqind bug #3076570
   
 * Fixed SF bug #3057542: wmpeg doesn't error on missing
   ffmpeg program.  Now wmpeg returns 1 on success and
   undef on error.  If ffmpeg is not in PATH, it just fails
   immediately....
   
 * Fixed SF bug #3056142: pdl2 fallback to perldl broken
   on win32
   
 * Fixed SF bug #3042201: t/dumper.t fails mysteriously
   
 * Fixed SF bug #3031068: PDL::IO::FlexRaw mapflex memory
   mapping fails
   
 * Fixed SF bug #3011879, "pdl() constructor crashes perl for
   mixed ref/piddle args" and #3080505, and #3139088.  This
   fix also includes a larger and more complete set of tests.
   
 * Fixed segfault in plplot.t with a work-around.
   
 * Fixed bug in readenvi.pdl header list value processing
   and added support for embedded file headers.
   
 * Fixed bug in FlexRaw.pm support for headers with Type
   passed  as string.
   
 * Fixed imag2d() in PDL::Graphics2D.  It no longer calls
   exit on ESC if run within the pdl2/perldl shell.  Also
   did some clean up of key controls and module mechanics.
   
 * Fixed upstream bug in Devel::REPL for MultiLine
   continuation.  Now incomplete q[] and qq[] constructs
   continue reading until properly closed.  See the
   Known_problems file for details.