Editing IDL (programming language) (section)

==Features==
As a computer language, IDL: 
* is [[dynamically typed]].
* has separate [[namespaces]] for variables, functions and procedures, but no namespace hierarchy.
* was originally single threaded but now has many multi-threaded functions and procedures.
* has all function arguments [[Evaluation strategy#Call by reference|passed by reference]]; but see "problems", below.
* has [[named parameter]]s called keywords which are passed by reference.
* provides named parameter inheritance in nested routine calls, by reference or value.
* does not require variables to be [[predeclared]].
* provides COMMON block declarations and system variables to share global values among routines.
* provides a basic form of object-oriented programming, somewhat similar to [[Smalltalk]], along with [[operator overloading]].
* implements a persistent, global heap of pointer and object variables, using [[reference counting]] for garbage collection.
* compiles to an interpreted, stack-based intermediate p-code (à la [[Java virtual machine]]).
* provides a simple and efficient index slice syntax to extract data from large arrays.
* provides various integer sizes, as well as single and double precision floating point real and complex numbers.
* provides [[composite data type]]s such as character strings, homogeneous-type arrays, lists, [[hash table]]s, and simple (non-hierarchical) record structures of mixed data types.