From swalton@aurora.csun.edu Sat Mar 28 19:01:26 1992 X-VM-VHeader: ("From:" "Sender:" "Resent-From" "To:" "Apparently-To:" "Cc:" "Subject:" "Date:" "Resent-Date:") nil X-VM-Bookmark: 3 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil "^From:" nil nil nil]) Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits Distribution: sci.astro.fits Organization: California State University, Northridge From: swalton@aurora.csun.edu (Stephen Walton) Subject: Re: FITS read and write on PC Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1992 21:44:43 GMT In article benedict@chaos.utexas.edu (Thomas Benedict) writes: >Does anyone have routines to read and write FITS format files on a PC >in C? Get a copy of PCVISTA. It is a complete, small, FITS-based image processing package for PC's from UC Berkeley. Not sure of the current cost; you can e-mail Michael Richmond at richmond@bllac.berkeley.edu. A description of the system is in Treffers and Richmond, P.A.S.P. _101_, 725. It comes with complete sources, including a set of subroutines for reading and writing FITS images in C. -- Stephen Walton, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Cal State Univ. Northridge "Anyone who remembers the sixties probably wasn't there."---Robin Williams From richmond@spiff.Princeton.EDU Wed Apr 28 09:21:09 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil "^From:" nil nil nil]) Newsgroups: sci.astro Originator: news@nimaster Nntp-Posting-Host: spiff.princeton.edu Organization: Princeton University From: richmond@spiff.Princeton.EDU (Stupendous Man) Subject: PC-Vista available via anon FTP Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 19:59:43 GMT Carlo Baffa's recent posting poked me into action, so here goes. Several years ago, Dick Treffers and I worked up a set of programs for astronomical image analysis and display which would run on IBM PC-XTs (and ATs, too, but we only had one of those :-). We called the suite of programs "PC-Vista", and made it available via the University of California's Office of Technology Licensing. You can find a description of PC-Vista in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol 101, p. 725 (1989). By now, the programs are years old, and their inadequacies are obvious compared to newer programs - we didn't have a GUI, for example! Horrors. So, we've decided to make the entire suite available via anonymous FTP. However, before I tell you how you can get it, let me list some of the drawbacks: 1. There's no user-friendly interface 2. There's no real manual or tutorial, although there are man pages and a simple on-line help system. 3. We have graphics drivers for CGA, EGA, PGA and only a little support for VGA. Nothing fancy at all, no menus, no instant zoom-in, zoom-out, scroll around. 4. I reserve the right to ignore any messages regarding the package, questions, pleas for help, etc. 5. There are bugs that we will never fix. So just why would you want it? Well, it DOES include an example of code to read 16-bit integer FITS files. But only 16-bit integer. So you'd be better off by far with some of the official NOAO FITS routines. It does basic, useful image manipulation jobs: image arithmetic, simple image display. It even includes some aperture photometry routines which work pretty well in uncrowded fields. Here's what you can get: both the source code (includes man pages, makefile), which requires MicroSoft C 5.0 or later if you want to compile and run on a PC, and/or the executables, which should run as-is on PCs. Well, maybe just old PCs. I really have no idea what happens when you try them on a 386 or 486 machine (I _told_ you we wrote it back in the Stone Age). I'll warn you that the executables require several environment variables to be set, so you'll have to root around to find the document that describes setting PC-Vista up. If you are still interested, you can find two files on the machine "flipper.berkeley.edu" (128.32.178.54). Use anonymous FTP, change to the "pub" directory, then the "pcvista" directory. You should see two files: pcvexe.a.Z - contains Unix 'ar' archive of DOS executables pcvsource.a.Z - contains Unix 'ar' archive of DOS sources, man pages You'll have to transfer the files in binary mode, use the Unix 'uncompress' command once they're back on your home machine, then run the Unix 'ar' command to un-archive the individual files. It appears that those without Unix access are out of luck. Sorry. This may seem like a lot of work, and, well, it is. You'd probably be better of looking through issues of Astronomy or Sky & Telescope for commercial packages that are really cool and have neat, user-friendly graphical interfaces with menus and stuff like that. But, what the heck, maybe someone will find a use for some of the source code, or borrow some algorithms, or something. Remember, I do not promise to reply to questions about PC-Vista, though I might if I'm not busy. Finally, let me add that Dick and I have been using a version of the package that runs on Unix under X11. It's got much more recent stuff, bug fixes, and a much nicer interactive feel to it. It's still not IRAF or FIGARO or anything, but it gets the job done for us. We may be able to release THAT code in a similar fashion. It may even be relatively soon. Michael p.s. I haven't gotten any hate-mail yet, so I'll try again. Ahem. mi-mi-mi-miiii. _pause_ "Numerical Recipes" -- ----- Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger." richmond@astro.princeton.edu From bankst@kauri.vuw.ac.nz Wed Apr 28 05:50:52 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil "^From:" nil nil nil]) Newsgroups: sci.astro Distribution: world Organization: Victoria University of Wellington Summary: try ftpover if you ain't got a unix box. NNTP-Posting-Host: kauri.vuw.ac.nz From: bankst@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Timothy Banks) Subject: PC-Vista Date: 28 Apr 1993 02:14:40 GMT Following on Michael Richmond's release of PC-Vista (cut to sounds of cheering) I have placed in ftpover.vuw.ac.nz's pub/astrophys/AMATEUR/ msdos/pcvista an uncompressed and ar-ed version for those without Unix boxes. Take it easy on our link, huh? :-) I know many Kiwis who will be beating a path to it. Incidentally, this was the archive on kauri.vuw.ac.nz, mentioned in the FAQ. We've set up a logical, so we can shift it around to other machines *and* keep overseas users out of the other archives. -- Timothy Banks, Physics Department, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. bankst@kauri|rata|matai.vuw.ac.nz, banks@beagle.phys.vuw.ac.nz. "He's dead, Jim!" "OK, you take the tricorder, I'll take the wallet!"