From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu  Tue Dec  1 16:57:15 1998
Received: (from majordom at localhost)
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id QAA09188
	for fitsbits-spinner; Tue, 1 Dec 1998 16:56:37 -0500 (EST)
Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8])
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id QAA09183
	for <fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 1 Dec 1998 16:56:34 -0500 (EST)
Received: (from dwells at localhost)
	by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id QAA25530
	for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Tue, 1 Dec 1998 16:56:34 -0500
Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8])
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA19625
	for <fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 15:06:42 -0500 (EST)
Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17])
	by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA06859
	for <fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 24 Nov 1998 15:06:41 -0500
Received: (from news at localhost)
	by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA29172;
	Tue, 24 Nov 1998 15:04:52 -0500
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Date: 24 Nov 98 19:57:08 GMT
From: rpete at ascda3.harvard.edu (Pete Ratzlaff)
Message-ID: <365b0f94.0 at cfanews.harvard.edu>
Organization: Harvard University
Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!dca1-hub1.news.digex.net!digex!news.fas.harvard.edu!mufasa.harvard.edu!cfanews.harvard.edu!ascda3!rpete
Subject: ANNOUNCE: CFITSIO.pm v0.50
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu
Precedence: bulk


A new version of the Perl interface to the CFITSIO subroutine library
is now available. This version fixes a few small bugs and introduces
new ways of accessing the CFITSIO API, as well as a major namespace
changes. There are still some glitches on various architectures, but
the majority of the library seems to be working quite well.

New features:

 * Short function names are now available
 * New object-oriented API is available
 * Nothing exported into namespace by default, use of %EXPORT_TAGS
   to get the API and constants of your choice
 * Moderate documentation updates
 * Moderate example and test script changes

As usual, you can find the newest version of CFITSIO.pm at
   http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~rpete/cfitsio

For more information on the CFITSIO subroutine library, see
   http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fitsio

-Pete Ratzlaff <pratzlaff at cfa.harvard.edu>

From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu  Mon Dec  7 15:34:25 1998
Received: (from majordom at localhost)
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA22272
	for fitsbits-spinner; Mon, 7 Dec 1998 15:33:22 -0500 (EST)
Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8])
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA22267
	for <fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu>; Mon, 7 Dec 1998 15:33:20 -0500 (EST)
Received: (from dwells at localhost)
	by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA10661
	for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Mon, 7 Dec 1998 15:33:19 -0500
Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8])
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA22226
	for <fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu>; Mon, 7 Dec 1998 15:31:51 -0500 (EST)
Received: from newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.17])
	by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id PAA10647
	for <fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu>; Mon, 7 Dec 1998 15:31:50 -0500
Received: (from news at localhost)
	by newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id PAA22172;
	Mon, 7 Dec 1998 15:31:35 -0500
To: fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu
Date: 7 Dec 98 20:22:11 GMT
From: rpete at ascda3.harvard.edu (Pete Ratzlaff)
Message-ID: <366c38f3.0 at cfanews.harvard.edu>
Organization: Harvard University
Path: newsfeed.cv.nrao.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!nntprelay.mathworks.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.fas.harvard.edu!mufasa.harvard.edu!cfanews.harvard.edu!ascda3!rpete
Subject: ANNOUNCE: CFITSIO.pm v0.90
Newsgroups: sci.astro.fits
Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu
Precedence: bulk

A new version of the Perl interface to the CFITSIO subroutine library
is now available. Features of this release:

 * Inclusion of Tim Jenness' fits_read_header(), a convenience
   routine for reading all keywords from a FITS header into a Perl
   hash.
 * Implementation of a few CFITSIO function which slipped past me earlier.
 * Tons of compatibility fixes, particularly regarding the use of undefs
   as substitute for NULL pointers.
 * Many, many bug fixes


As usual, you can find the newest version of CFITSIO.pm at
   http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~rpete/cfitsio

For more information on the CFITSIO subroutine library, see
   http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fitsio

-Pete Ratzlaff <pratzlaff at cfa.harvard.edu>

From owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu  Tue Dec 15 18:38:24 1998
Received: (from majordom at localhost)
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id SAA29544
	for fitsbits-spinner; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:37:59 -0500 (EST)
Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (dwells at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8])
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id SAA29539
	for <fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:37:56 -0500 (EST)
Received: (from dwells at localhost)
	by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) id SAA06157
	for fitsbits at majordomo.cv.nrao.edu; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:37:56 -0500
Received: from fits.cv.nrao.edu (root at fits.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.8])
	by kochab.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id SAA29481
	for <fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:01:29 -0500 (EST)
Received: from palantir.cv.nrao.edu (tismail at palantir.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.254])
	by fits.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8/CV-2.2) with ESMTP id SAA05940
	for <fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:01:29 -0500
Received: (from tismail at localhost)
	by palantir.cv.nrao.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA18101
	for <fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:01:28 -0500
Received: from wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov(128.183.50.20) by palantir.cv.nrao.edu via smap (V1.3)
	id sma018098; Tue Dec 15 18:01:27 1998
Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov [128.183.16.178])
	by wheelo.gsfc.nasa.gov (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id RAA03452
	for <fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu>; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 17:55:09 -0500 (EST)
Received: from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov by tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
	id RAA09285; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 17:55:02 -0500
Message-ID: <3676E8C6.EAB06E03 at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 17:55:02 -0500
From: William Pence <pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Organization: HEASARC
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.6 sun4u)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: FITSBITS <fitsbits at fits.cv.nrao.edu>
Subject: FTOOLS v4.2 Release
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-fitsbits at kochab.cv.nrao.edu
Precedence: bulk

************* FTOOLS RELEASE 4.2 READY ***********************

A new release of the FTOOLS software package is now publicly available. 
FTOOLS is a package of about 300 data analysis programs and Perl and Tcl
scripts that operate on FITS format data files (and now also on IRAF format
image files).  Some of these tasks are very general and may be used on any
FITS format file while others are specific to various high-energy
astrophysics misssions supported by the HEASARC.  This software can be
obtained from:

  http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools/

or via anonymous FTP from:

  legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/software/ftools/release/FTools_4.2/

or (in Europe) from the LEDAS mirror site:

  www.star.le.ac.uk

or (in Asia) via anonymous FTP from:

  vega.bac.pku.edu.cn

PLEASE NOTE: The Chinese mirror site in particular may take sometime before
it can be updated.

As was true of Ftools 4.1, both source and binary distributions
are available for all supported Unix platforms. See the files
INSTALL.BINARY, INSTALL.GUIS and INSTALL.SOURCE, for detailed
installation information.

Highlights of What's NEW in FTOOLS 4.2:
=======================================

1) A binary distribution of FTOOLS 4.2 is now available for
MS Windows NT/95/98.  A Windows version of FTOOLS on CDROM
should be available in January.

2) Changes have been made to the directory structure, and
corresponding changes were made to the installation procedure. Please
make sure to read and follow the instructions in the installation
guides.

3) The following is a list and brief description of some of the more general
new features in FTOOLS v4.2. For more detailed information, as
well as some discussion of changes to preexisting tools, please see the
Release_notes_4.2 file.

CFITSIO/FITSIO
==============
    Many  new features were added, including support for
    handling files over the internet and filtering of files at
    run time.  All the ftools tasks automatically inherit these
    new CFITSIO capabilitities.

FV
==
    New features include improvements to plotting and graphing
    routines. A standalone release of FV is also available which
    will work independently of the Ftools.

FUTILS
======
    New tools include:

     cphead -- Copy keywords from an HDU of an input file to an HDU of an
               output file.

    fcollen -- Modify the vector length of a column in a binary table
               extension of a fits file.

      fcopy -- Copy the contents of a FITS file to a new file (for use with
               new command-line filtering).

      fdiff -- Display differences between pairs of fits file.

   xfverify -- Verify that a FITS file conforms to the FITS Standard.
               (This is a faster, more capable replacement for fverify.)
    

Notices of FTOOLS Releases
==========================

Notices of the FTOOLS Releases, online HTML versions of FTOOLS
documentation (like this document), the official FAQ, and other
goodies are available on the World Wide Web at:

    http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools/

This is where the most up to date FTOOLS information is available,
including a frequently updated FAQ. For fastest help, users are
encouraged to check here first for answers to questions.

Notices of FTOOLS Releases, patches, and other bits of
important information can also be obtained by an electronic mail
exploder. The list is called ftoolsnotes. If you would like to have
your name added, send a message to:

                listserv at athena.gsfc.nasa.gov

requesting this action. This message should be sent from the
account and host on which you would like to receive the
notices. Leave the subject blank and include in the body of your
request the following:

                 subscribe ftoolsnotes name

where "name" is replaced by your actual name.

Bug Reports
===========

Any problems installing or using FTOOLS should be reported to:

                ftoolshelp at athena.gsfc.nasa.gov

