GNU Data Language

GNU Data Language
Developer(s)Marc Schellens
Initial release2004 (2004)
Stable release
1.0.5[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 20 May 2024; 6 months ago (20 May 2024)
Repository
Written inC++ (wxWidgets)
Operating systemLinux, macOS, Solaris, POSIX, Windows
TypeTechnical computing
LicenseGNU GPL-2.0
Websitegnudatalanguage.github.io

The GNU Data Language (GDL) is a free alternative to IDL (Interactive Data Language),[2][3][4] achieving full compatibility with IDL 7 and partial compatibility with IDL 8.[5] Together with its library routines, GDL is developed to serve as a tool for data analysis and visualization in such disciplines as astronomy,[6] geosciences, and medical imaging. GDL is licensed under the GPL. Other open-source numerical data analysis tools similar to GDL include Julia, Jupyter Notebook, GNU Octave, NCAR Command Language (NCL), Perl Data Language (PDL), R, Scilab, SciPy, and Yorick.

GDL as a language is dynamically-typed, vectorized, and has object-oriented programming capabilities. GDL library routines handle numerical calculations (e.g. FFT), data visualisation, signal/image processing, interaction with host OS, and data input/output. GDL supports several data formats, such as NetCDF, HDF (v4 & v5), GRIB, PNG, TIFF, and DICOM. Graphical output is handled by X11, PostScript, SVG, or z-buffer terminals, the last one allowing output graphics (plots) to be saved in raster graphics formats. GDL features integrated debugging facilities, such as breakpoints. GDL has a Python bridge (Python code can be called from GDL; GDL can be compiled as a Python module). GDL uses Eigen (C++ library) numerical library (similar to Intel MKL) to offer high computing performance on multi-core processors.

Packaged versions of GDL are available for several Linux and BSD flavours as well as macOS. The source code compiles on Microsoft Windows and other UNIX systems, including Solaris.

GDL is not an official GNU package.

  1. ^ "Release 1.0.5". 20 May 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference GDL_MacObserver was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference GDL_MacResearch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Coulais_et_al_2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ http://aramis.obspm.fr/~coulais/IDL_et_GDL/Adass2011/O11_ADASS2011_GDL_Coulais.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference GDL_astro_examples was invoked but never defined (see the help page).