[info-gnuastro] Gnuastro 0.3.57 released [alpha]

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

Hello everyone,

We are almost ready for the fourth release of Gnuastro, so I am happy
to announce that an alpha release (Gnuastro 0.3.57) is now available
on the GNU servers in the links below.

The full list of major new/changed features in this release can be
seen in the NEWS file which is also appended to this announcement
below [*]. The emphasis has mainly been on features to improve
usability of the programs (for example simplifying the options in the
Crop and MakeProfiles programs and etc). Please try out these features
and share your thoughts/suggestions so if it is urgent we can
correct/implement them in the 0.4 release. I hope to make the 0.4
release in about one week.

The compressed sources and a GPG detached signature[**].

  http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-0.3.57-ae2f.tar.lz     [2.9MB]
  http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-0.3.57-ae2f.tar.lz.sig [488B]

Here are the MD5 and SHA1 checksums:

  d8275fbf4e44ee2962bdce5e16fb5757  gnuastro-0.3.57-ae2f.tar.lz
  17e1f9344f9fa74a6468aaaa4d0220a6c8594de1  gnuastro-0.3.57-ae2f.tar.lz

Please note that from this release onward, the alpha releases will
only be made with the Lzip compression algorithm which has better
archival features and compresses files with a much better compression
ratio (the same tarball in `tar.gz' was 4.6MB). For compatibility,
stable releases will still be released using both `tar.gz' and
`tar.lz'. Lzip is a very small program which is easy to build and
install. If you don't have it you may download it from its webpage
(link below) and build it from source or use your operating system's
package manager.

  http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lzip.html

I am very grateful to Vladimir Markelov for contributions to the code
of this release and to David Valls-Gabaud, William Pence, Adrian Bunk,
Raúl Infante Sainz, Ignacio Trujillo, Ole Streicher, Alan Lefor,
Guillaume Mahler, Mosè Giordano and Marjan Akbari for their great
suggestions, help and bug reports that made this release possible.

Gnuastro 0.3.57 tarball was bootstrapped with the following tools:
  Texinfo 6.4
  Autoconf 2.69
  Automake 1.15.1
  Libtool 2.4.6
  Help2man 1.47.4
  Gnulib v0.1-1544-g8d116e3f6
  Autoconf Archives v2017.03.21-136-g91fcf17
Note that these are not installation dependencies, for those, please see
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/manual/html_node/Dependencies.html

Cheers,
Mohammad

--
Mohammad Akhlaghi,
Postdoctoral research fellow,
Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL),
Observatoire de Lyon. 9, Avenue Charles André,
Saint Genis Laval (69230), France.





[*] NEWS file for this release:

* Noteworthy changes in release 0.3.57 (library 2.0.0) (2017-08-28) [stable]

** New features

  All programs: `.fit' suffix is now also recognized as a FITS file
  extension in all programs and libraries.

  All programs: ASCII text files (tables) created with CRLF line
  terminators (for example text files created in MS Windows) are now also
  readable as input when necessary.

  Arithmetic: now has a new `--globalhdu' (`-g') option which can be used
  once for all the input images.

  MakeNoise: with the new `--sigma' (`-s') option, it is now possible to
  directly request the noise sigma or standard deviation. When this option
  is called, the `--background', `--zeropoint' and other option values will
  be ignored.

  MakeProfiles: the new `--kernel' option can make a kernel image without
  the need to define a catalog. With this option, a catalog (or
  accompanying background image) must not be given.

  MakeProfiles: the new `--pc', `--cunit' and `--ctype' options can be used
  to specify the PC matrix, CUNIT and CTYPE world coordinate system
  keywords of the output FITS file.

  MakeProfiles: the new `distance' profile will save the radial distance of
  each pixel. This may be used to define your own profiles that are not
  currently supported in MakeProfiles.

  MakeProfiles: with the new `--mcolisbrightness' ("mcol-is-brightness")
  option, the `--mcol' values of the catalog will be interpretted as total
  brightness (sum of pixel values), not magnitude.

  Library: Functions that read data from an ASCII text file
  (`gal_txt_table_info', `gal_txt_table_read', `gal_txt_image_read') now
  also operate on files with CRLF line terminators.

** Removed features

** Changed features

  Crop: The new `--center' option is now used to define the center of a
  single crop. Hence the old `--ra', `--dec', `--xc', `--yc' have been
  removed. This new option can take multiple values (one value for each
  dimension). Fractions are also acceptable.

  Crop: The new `--width' option is now used to define the width of a
  single crop. Hence the old `--iwidth', `--wwidth' were removed. The units
  to interpret the value to the option are specified by the `--mode'
  option. With the new `--width' option it is also possible to define a
  non-square crop (different widths along each dimension). In WCS mode, its
  units are no longer arcseconds but are the same units of the WCS (degrees
  for angles). `--width' can also accept fractions. So to set a width of 5
  arcseconds, you can give it a value of `5/3600' for the angular
  dimensions.

  Crop: The new `--coordcol' option is now used to determine the catalog
  columns that define coordinates. Hence the old `--racol', `--deccol',
  `--xcol', and `--ycol' have been removed. This new option can be called
  multiple times and the order of its calling will be used for the column
  containing the center in the respective dimension (in FITS format).

  MakeNoise: the old `--stdadd' (`-s') option has been renamed to
  `--instrumental' (`-i') to be more clear.

  MakeProfiles: The new `--naxis' and `--shift' options can take multiple
  values for each dimension (separated by a comma). This replaces the old
  `--naxis1', `--naxis2' and `--xshift' and `--yshift' options.

  MakeProfiles: The new `--ccol' option can take the center coordinate
  columns of the catalog (in multiple calls) and the new `--mode' option is
  used to identify what standard to interpret them in (image or
  WCS). Together, these replace the old `--xcol', `--ycol', `--racol' and
  `--deccol'.

  MakeProfiles: The new `--crpix', `--crval' and `--cdelt' options now
  accept multiple values separated by a comma. So they replace the old
  `--crpix1', `--crpix2', `--crval1', `--crval2' and `--resolution'
  options.

  `gal_data_free_contents': when the input `gal_data_t' is a tile, its
  `array' element will not be freed. This enables safe usage of this
  function (and thus `gal_data_free') on tiles without worrying about the
  memory block associated with the tile.

  `gal_box_bound_ellipse' is the new name for the old
  `gal_box_ellipse_in_box' (to be more clear and avoid repetition of the
  term `box'). The input position angle is now also in degrees, not
  radians.

  `gal_box_overlap' now works on data of any dimensionality and thus also
  needs the number of dimensions (elements in each input array).

  `gal_box_border_from_center' now accepts an array of coordinates as one
  argument and the number of dimensions as another. This allows it to work
  on any dimensionality.

  `gal_fits_img_info' now also returns the name and units of the dataset
  (if they aren't NULL). So it takes two extra arguments.

  `gal_wcs_pixel_scale' now replaces the old `gal_wcs_pixel_scale_deg',
  since it doesn't only apply to degrees. The pixel scale units are defined
  by the units of the WCS.

  `GAL_TILE_PARSE_OPERATE' (only when `OTHER' is given) can now parse and
  operate on different datasets independent of the size of allocated block
  of memory (the tile sizes of `IN' and `OTHER' have to be identical, but
  not their allocated blocks of memory). Until now, it was necessary for
  the two blocks to have the same size and this is no longer the case.

** Bug fixes

  MakeProfiles long options on 32bit big endian systems (bug #51341).

  Pure rotation around pixel coordinate (0,0) (bug #51353).

  NoiseChisel segfault when no usable region for sky clumps (bug #51372).

  Pixel scale measurement when dimension scale isn't equal or doesn't
  decrease (bug #51385).

  Improper types for function code in MakeProfiles (bug #51467).

  Crashes on 32-bit and big-endian systems (bug #51476).

  Warp's align matrix when second dimention must be reversed (bug #51536).

  Reading BZERO for unsigned 64-bit integers (bug #51555).

  Arithmetic with one file and no operators (bug #51559).





[**] Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the
.sig suffix) is intact.  First, be sure to download both the .sig file
and the corresponding tarball.  Then, run a command like this:

  gpg --verify gnuastro-0.3.57-ae2f.tar.lz.sig

If that command fails because you don't have the required public key,
then run this command to import it:

  gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 16A8A4B2AEC42AFF

and rerun the 'gpg --verify' command.