On Tue, 5 Sep 2006, Brad Cavanagh wrote:
> Hope this isn't too late...
>
> On Mon, 4 Sep 2006, Peter W. Draper wrote:
>
> > The distributions will come in a single tarball for Linux/UNIX
> > distributions and a disk image for OS X. These will unpack into the
> > /star directory, so any existing installation will overwritten. The
> > current tarballs are on the order
> > ~650MB, which give an unpacked tree of roughly 1.75GB.
>
> Actually, for some reason I've been building the OS X release into
> /local-star/. I can't remember the justification for doing so.
Hah, not to worry, since it's a small change on a platform with no
previous official release, I think we can leave that as an easter egg for
them. I've included the final version (with this change in so that it's
not lost) as an attachment to this message. It's slightly different from
the one circulated on Monday as Frossie came up with some officially
sanctioned JAC release note, which I merged where it seemed prudent.
Cheers,
Peter.
Note: readers should consider these as unofficial explanatory notes produced
for the Astronomy site managers meeting held at St. Andrews, September 2006
and not the official release notes or position statement. They will accompany
the actual release.
Announcing the "Keoe" release of the Starlink Software Collection.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The Keoe(^) release of the Starlink Software Collection is the first major
release since spring 2004. This release has been produced by a community
effort lead by the Joint Astronomy Centre Hawaii, with support from PPARC,
following the demise of Starlink in June 2005.
The release contains numerous enhancement and fixes, with the latest
developments focused on JAC requirements.
Keoe is expected sometime in September 2006, and will consist of binary
releases for key operating systems, although it will also be possible to
download the tagged source files from the Starlink repository and build the
Starlink elements of the release. When ready annoucements will be made on
the STARLINK and STARMAN mailing lists.
General changes
---------------
There have been many enhancements and fixes to the whole collection, including
the laborious transition (mainly done by Starlink) to a build system based on
using standard GNU autotools (configure, make) and movement of all sources to
a single, freely accessible, CVS repository. Other changes of note are that
applications now allow the ".sdf" file extension to be supplied, there is now
proper support for 64-bit applications and HDS has been changed to a new
format that allows access to data in excess of 2Gb.
Applications
------------
There are many changes to these, mostly supporting cube analysis, efficient
data access and maintainability. Packages with major changes are: KAPPA,
GAIA, CONVERT, DATACUBE, EXTRACTOR, SPLAT-VO and ORAC-DR. GAIA includes
3D data cube handling and spectral extraction, ORAC-DR has support for
WFCAM data processing.
The release will also include all previous major Starlink packages, required
by UKIRT and JCMT, i.e. FIGARO, POLPACK, CCDPACK, FLUXES, SPECX, SURF etc.,
but note it will not contain any software that depends on licensed libraries,
such as MEMSYS (e.g. KAPPA:MEM2D).
A beta release of an entirely new package called CUPID for identifying clumps
of emission in 1D, 2D or 3D data arrays has been included in the
release. CUPID is being developed for the JCMT Legacy Survey Programme, but is
a general application that can be applied to any suitable dataset.
The release will also include the complete STARJAVA set of applications and
libraries, notably TOPCAT v2.2-1, STILTS v1.2-1, SPLAT-VO & TREEVIEW (note
that these are snapshots of TOPCAT and STILTS, which will continue to observe
their own independent release schedules). In this release GAIA and TOPCAT are
able to interoperate with each other, and other VO-enabled applications using
the PLASTIC protocol.
Libraries
---------
Two libraries have had major work, AST and HDS. As noted above HDS has had its
file format enhanced to include 64-bit data file and sizes support (the
existing format continues to be supported), a proper C interface has also been
introduced. AST has had a lot of major new classes added such as Frames for
describing time, dual-sideband spectra, and various flux systems. It also now
includes experimental support for representing IVOA Space-Time-Coordinate
regions, plus a variety of new Mappings.
Available Distributions
-----------------------
Pre-built releases will include:
- 32-bit Linux
- 64-bit Linux
- Mac OS X PPC
There may also be a binary release for Solaris. The software is also known to
build and run on Tru64 UNIX and Cygwin.
Note that JAC currently runs 32-bit Linux operationally. Other platforms are
supported on a best efforts basis.
The distributions will come in a single tarball for Linux/UNIX distributions
and a disk image for OS X. These will be rooted to the /star (32bit Linux),
/star64 (64bit Linux) and /local-star (OS X) directories, so any existing
installations may need to be removed. The current tarballs are on the order
~650MB, which give an unpacked tree of roughly 1.75GB.
There is no upgrade path for this release so all obsolete packages will
finally be lost (although many of these are present in the CVS repository
applications/obsolete directory, for instance, CHART, IRCAMDR and IRAS90,
some may build, but there are no plans to support any of these applications).
Support
-------
The Starlink Project was terminated in June 2005. The Starlink Software
Collection is being maintained by the JAC, with support from PPARC, for the
benefit of its users. Bugs or feature requests reproducible with UKIRT or JCMT
data sets should be e-mailed to [log in to unmask](*) where they will be
attended to in priority order.
Non-JAC users are encouraged to send report bugs to [log in to unmask]
where they may be attended to on a best-efforts basis by volunteers.
Open source developers wishing to send in patches or wanting access to
the CVS repository should email [log in to unmask](*).
Future releases
---------------
Further releases of the collection are anticipated to support JAC user
requirements, and will include any contributions and bug fixes.
(^) "Keoe" -- the Hawaiian name for Vega. It is pronounced keh-'oh-eh.
(*) Mailing list may not work yet.
|
