IDL 8.8.1 was recently released. Some new features and improvements:

  • performance improvements by converting some .pro code to C including the List, Hash, and Dictionary classes
  • improved JSON_PARSE speed
  • many updated libraries, including support for Python 3.70.10, 3.8.10, and 3.9.5
  • support for Mac M1 chip

For more details, see the IDL 8.8.1 Release Notes.