ITT Visual Information Solutions (ITT VIS) has announced the release of IDL 8.0, the most recent update of its scientific programming language used to create high-quality, meaningful visualizations out of complex numerical data.

IDL is used by scientists, researchers, engineers, and professionals across disciplines to create a range of data analysis and visualization solutions from small analysis programs to widely deployed software applications.

IDL 8.0 introduces a powerful new graphics system, an enhanced and expanded programming language, and a streamlined development environment.

The most notable enhancement in IDL 8.0 is a dynamic new graphics system that allows users to more easily produce meaningful, presentation quality graphics, such as 2D and 3D plots, graphs, and maps, from virtually any type of numerical data. The system is both interactive and dynamic, and provides the capability to quickly make on-the-fly adjustments to individual graphic elements, which saves significant time and effort. The new graphics system is powered by an improved language syntax that saves time and effort by requiring fewer lines of code to produce high quality graphics when compared with other popular programming languages.

Additionally, the IDL workbench development environment is now easier to navigate and more intuitive. The streamlined environment makes it easy to access advanced, modern programming tools while creating visualizations or feature-rich scientific applications.