IDL, the Interactive Data Language, is software for data analysis, visualization, and cross-platform application development needs. IDL combines all the tools you need for any type of project, from "quick-look" interactive analysis and display, to large-scale commercial programming projects. All in an easy to use, fully extensible environment. Interactively perform all your analysis and development in IDL, where you'll find high-performance processing and an intuitive environment. o Visualize your data with high-performance image processing, integrated 2D and 3D graphics, and volume visualization. o Create leading-edge solutions using IDL's object-oriented graphics technology. o Save time with flexible data I/O. o See results "on the fly" with integrated mathematics and statistics. o Develop applications quickly with IDL's high-level 4GL and cross-platform GUI tools. o Minimize time-consuming code rewrites with versatile program linking tools. Fast, Advanced Graphics ----------------------- IDL software will help you identify subtle relationships and trends in your data. Easily create and interactively manipulate X-Y and polar plots, error bars, contours (standard and filled), shaded surfaces, and mesh surfaces with hidden line removal. Filter out noise to highlight true data characteristics and expose anomalies. Animate a series of images for change detection, quality control and pattern recognition. Explore and manipulate your data like never before with IDL's new object-oriented, extensible graphic system. Interactively render 3D images. Spin or fly-through a surface. Shade and illuminate with multiple light sources. And because IDL's accelerated 3D graphics takes advantage of OpenGL and other compatible standards, interactive 3D graphic operations will perform faster than ever before. Analyze Any Data from Any Source -------------------------------- Enjoy unparalleled flexibility on large images or multi-dimensional data with IDL's open architecture. You can read and write virtually any formatted or unformatted data and handle user-defined and unusual data formats with ease. We even include specialized support for HDF, CDF, and netCDF standard formats, as well as data types central to missions at NASA, JPL, NOAA and other prominent organizations. IDL supports efficient byte and 16-bit integer data types to conserve memory and speed processing. Of course, you also have at your disposal: floating point, double-precision, double-precision complex, and complex value data types. IDL Insight - Using IDL is Even Easier ------------------------------------------ You don't have to be an experienced programmer to take advantage of IDL. You can immediately access common interactive analysis functions with IDL Insight, a new graphical interface that makes using IDL even easier. Import data directly into IDL Insight, perform your analysis and export your results. All with the click of a mouse. You can display, manipulate and print plots, images and tables, customize menus and create templates. And maintain command line access throughout your session. Mapping ------- If you work with geospatial or astronomical data, you can chart your course through fast and accurate analysis with IDL's multitude of map projections. IDL is the standard software at many major cartographic and astronomical institutions. And, if your work is highly detailed, a high-resolution database is included, complete with continents, coastlines and other geographical information. Integrated Mathematics and Statistics ------------------------------------- Conveniently remain in one software environment while you work with IDL's visual and numerical analysis tools. IDL's mathematics and statistics libraries -- including industry-standard Numerical Recipes(TM) algorithms and numerous intrinsic routines -- offer functions for everything from basic number-crunching and signal processing to experimental programming. We provide you with a broad suite of the most useful, exhaustively-tested algorithms for numerical analysis. These libraries are fully integrated into the IDL language and included at no extra charge, so you won't waste time and money buying third-party libraries and integrating them with your programs. IDL DataMiner - Convenient Database Access ------------------------------------------ Quickly access multiple databases from within a single application with the IDL DataMiner, a database-independent API that lets you easily connect, query, modify and extract data from any ODBC-compliant database system. ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is the industry standard for multi-database access. IDL DataMiner lets you combine data on the fly from a variety of applications and databases for quick, thorough analyses. Since IDL DataMiner uses a standardized set of SQL functions, you don't need to know data structures or be an SQL expert. To make it even easier, a built-in set of high-level IDL interface routines allow a database table to be called without writing any SQL statements. The data called will automatically be converted to IDL data types when imported. Switching or combining database engines is no problem either. Just call the appropriate ODBC driver. You can develop on one engine and port it to another. You can even port the same application to different engines at different sites. Your ODBC applications are not affected by new database versions, server changes, or network transports.