As promised I've attempted to pull all the comments about the release into
a note for the site managers meeting. Can any interested parties have a
quick look and suggest any changes ASAP. Since Brad (& JAC presumably) are
on leave (tonight), I'm tempted to push this first version out sooner,
with some disclaimer like, due to timezone differences and family
commitments this may not represent the complete truth, but should bare
some resemblance. The actual position will be stated in the release notes.
Cheers,
Peter.
(ps, I did have a longer version, with fuller changes to applications and
libraries, but thought that OTT for this occasion).
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, following the demise of
Starlink in June 2005.
The release contains numerous enhancement and fixes, with the latest
developments focused on JACH requirements.
Keoe is expected sometime in September 2006, and will consists 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.
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.
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 and NAG.
It will also include the complete STARJAVA set of applications and libraries,
notably TOPCAT (1.4), STILTS & TREEVIEW.
Libraries
---------
Two libraries have had major work, AST and HDS. As noted about 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
TimeFrame, DSBSpecFrame, FluxFrame and SpecFluxFrame and support for
representing IVOA Space-Time-Coordinate structures.
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 on Tru64 UNIX and Cygwin.
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.
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, some may build, but there are no plans to
support any of these applications).
Support
-------
Everyone should be aware that full support can only be given to JACH users
reducing JACH data. All others will be supported at a best-efforts level. Bug
reports are welcome, patches even more so, as the long-term future clearly
depends on larger contributions from a community of interested people. All
reports should be made via the [log in to unmask] list. Developers use
the [log in to unmask] list.
Future releases
---------------
Further releases of the collection are anticipated to support JACH user
requirements, and will include any contributions and bug fixes.
(^) "Keoe" -- the Hawaiian name for Vega. It is pronounced keh-'oh-eh.
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