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eclipse latest new features |
From version 4.0 to version 4.1
C library --------- 1. API changes in object detection A large re-write of all modules related to object detection in astronomical images has taken place. The new code is more robust, much smaller, and hopefully easier to use. If you have used the previous functions, you will appreciate the new API. Notice that the new API is incompatible with the previous one. If you have some code using object detection, you will need to modify it to link against eclipse 4.1. 2. qfits Caching has been made more robust, by including additional rules. If a FITS file has already been read and corresponding informations inserted into the cache, then later modified, it is re-loaded. This is useful if qfits is used within daemons that run over long periods of time. qfits has also received some changes in its API to make it simpler to use. 3. Spectroscopy low-level routines All routines have been changed so that they now only deal with horizontal spectra. To work with vertical spectra, simply rotate the image before you pass it on to spectroscopy routines. This halves the lines of code needed for spectroscopy, reducing the number of potential replication bugs by a large amount. 4. Strehl computation as a library function. Strehl computation has been added to the library as a standard library function. This should help standardizing measurements done on AO systems for consistency. 5. Cube history now stored in a separate object. If you have written recipes that carry around the history of what happened to a cube, you will face a change in the API. Cube history is now handled by a dedicated object that can be passed to the cube_save() methods for dumping into a FITS header. eclipse-main ------------ 1. Optimizations Image rotation functions have been optimized for large gains in performance, thanks to C. Cumani (ESO). 2. fitsmd5 fitsmd5 now offers a '-a' option to compute the MD5 sum over the whole file, including the header. This is useful to compare the results of this command with standard MD5 computation tools (mostly for validation purposes). This way, fitsmd5 can be used as an MD5 checksum tool on machines that do not offer any. 3. RTD communication. eclipse can now display its results on an RTD session. This is available to C programmers, but not yet accessible to command-line users. eclipse can display images and lists of points onto a running RTD session (this includes skycat). eclipse commands handle now input data coming from a running RTD session. All commands are concerned. If the input file name is 'RTD' (in capital letters, without quotes), the eclipse command will try to load data from the currently running RTD session (if any). This allows to launch a number of commands on the image you are viewing. Commands work in read-only mode, i.e. they can read pixels from RTD but not modify them. To try this out, open an RTD (or skycat) session and display an image, then call: % stcube RTD This should yield statistics about the image currently being displayed. eclipse-isaac ------------- 1. Quadrant support in 'jitter' Added quadrant separation support in 'jitter'. It is now possible to request that all input images are split into 4 quadrants before sky subtraction actually takes place, then merged back together afterwards (just before shift-and-add). Although this is supposed to reduce quadrant-to-quadrant differences, it has actually be found to increase difference levels. Use with caution! 2. FWHM computation in spectro arcs. In spectroscopy arcs: the arcs FWHM is now computed and stored in output. 3. Spectroscopy 'combine' now more robust. In spectroscopy 'combine': the frame classification method is hopefully more robust now. 4. Streamlined building process The whole module building process has been streamlined to a library which is common to all ISAAC modules. This should make like simpler for other modules as well. 5. Support for DET.FRAM Added support for both DET.FRAM and DET.FRAME in LW mode. This keyword has been changed in ISAAC and this had some consequences on LW recipes which were unable to identify data types. Support has been added so that both old and recent data are correctly handled. eclipse-adonis -------------- No change. eclipse-wfi ----------- No change. eclipse-Python -------------- The top-level Python bindings are now called eclipse.py. Renaming has taken place, to yield only lowercase names in agreement with the conventions used within the C library. eclipse-lua ----------- No change.
See all changes for eclipse versions since 1.2