What is IDL?
It means the ‘Ingredient Disclosure List.’ This list is set out in section 17(1) to (4) of HPA as one criterion for ingredient disclosure on MSDS. This list has not been updated since 1988. Any chemical listed on the IDL must be disclosed in the hazardous ingredients section of an MSDS, after disclosing all ingredients which meet the classification criteria in CPR and any ingredients for which the supplier is aware of hazard information. It was never intended for, and should never be used as a basis for classification of controlled products. Instead, refer to the methods outlined in The Supplier’s Guide to WHMIS. (Available from Publications, Videos, and Forms Distribution.
IDL has a syntax somewhat like BASIC, in that what you get is a run-time interpreter with which you can either directly execute a one-line statement, or invoke a pre-written routine. Don’t let the word “BASIC” scare you off, though. IDL has three particularly strong features: • You can deal with arrays (such as images) just like a simple scalar; that is, if data represents a data array which must be divided by a normalization array normalize, you can get an image array image by typing IDL> image=data/normalize • IDL includes an incredible library of subroutines ranging from FFT routines, to display device routines, to PostScript file routines. • Well-written IDL routines can be run as-is on a variety of platforms. I regularly hop between IDL on VAX/VMS, AIX (Unix on the IBM RS/6000), and Microsoft Windows, and I type the same stuff within IDL on all three systems. You can write either procedures or functions in files, both of which end with .pro (as in img_scl.pro). (Functions return
IDL stands for Interactive Data Language. The full package consists of the language itself, a real-time compilation-execution environment, and extensive subroutine libraries. It was developed for processing images, and has large followings among professionals in the fields of astronomy and medical imaging. In the SFSU P&A Department we use as a general-purpose tool for scientific calculation and graphical data analysis.
