IDL 8.2.2 is complete and set to be released in early February. While this is a maintenance release, there are several new and improved features which I think are pretty cool. Here’s a teaser (from an 8.2.2 build on my laptop) for something I’m excited about:

IDL> print, !version
{ x86_64 linux unix linux 8.2.2 <integration_EP build Tue Dec 18 17:34:22 2012> Dec 18 2012 64 64}
IDL> x = randomn(1, 1e7)
IDL> tic & plot, x & toc
% Time elapsed: 3.3339999 seconds.
IDL> tic & p = plot(x) & toc
% Time elapsed: 2.3920000 seconds.

(New) Graphics are now faster than Direct Graphics for a plot of ten million points! One of the biggest problems with NG is that, when compared with DG, they’re slow to render large data. We’re working to address this issue, as you can try for yourself when you get 8.2.2.

I’ll post more information on what’s included in 8.2.2, along with a set of programmatic examples, on the release date.