provides composite data types such as character strings, homogeneous-type arrays, lists, hash tables, and simple (non-hierarchical) record structures of mixed data types.provides various integer sizes, as well as single and double precision floating point real and complex numbers.provides a simple and efficient index slice syntax to extract data from large arrays.compiles to an interpreted, stack-based intermediate p-code (à la Java Virtual Machine).implements a persistent, global heap of pointer and object variables, using reference counting for garbage collection.provides a basic form of object-oriented programming, somewhat similar to Smalltalk, along with operator overloading.provides COMMON block declarations and system variables to share global values among routines.does not require variables to be predeclared.provides named parameter inheritance in nested routine calls, by reference or value.has named parameters called keywords which are passed by reference.has all function arguments passed by reference but see 'problems', below.was originally single threaded but now has many multi-threaded functions and procedures.

has separate namespaces for variables, functions and procedures, but no namespace hierarchy.

SOL was an array-oriented language with some primitive graphics capabilities. Unlike its predecessors, it was a true programming language with a FORTRAN-like syntax. Later, Stern wrote a program named SOL, which also ran on the PDP-8. MMED was used by LASP scientists to interpret data from Mariner 7 and Mariner 9. A version of Rufus developed on the PDP-8 was the Mars Mariner Spectrum Editor (MMED). It accepted two-letter codes that specified an arithmetic operation, the input registers to serve as operands, and the destination register. The first program in the evolutionary chain to IDL that Stern developed was named Rufus it was a simple vector-oriented calculator that ran on the PDP-12. At LASP, David Stern was involved in efforts to allow scientists to test hypotheses without employing programmers to write or modify individual applications.

The predecessor versions of IDL were developed in the 1970s at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Automatically resizes pictures down to fit screen.Top Software Keywords Show more Show less

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