Subject: FITS basics and information (periodic posting) - 2/2

From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (BARRY M. SCHLESINGER)
Date: 16 Dec 1993 16:33 EDT

FITS basics and information, Part 2

3 Software and Sample Data
 3.1 NOST 
	All NOST software is available from the NOST ftp site.

  3.1.1 FITS Product Conformance Tester
	The FITS Product Conformance Tester is a software package in C
being developed by the NOST for validating FITS files.  The available
prototype validates required keywords in the primary header and, at
the user's option, prints selected values from the primary data array. 
Because this software is still under development, it should not be
run before reading the separate instructions file. 

  3.1.2 Header lister 
	This program prints out all the headers in a FITS file, 
including the primary header and all extension headers.  It does not 
evaluate them for errors.  It is a useful tool for obtaining a quick 
summary of the contents of a FITS file.

  3.1.3 Error Test files
	These files consist of several versions of the same FITS file,
a valid one and several with different kinds of header errors. They 
are useful for testing the ability of software designed to read FITS
files to cope with files that are not standard FITS or with errors in
the file.  Be sure to use binary transfer for ftp access of FITS test
files. 

 3.2 FITSIO
	The HEASARC at Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a
package of Fortran subroutines, called FITSIO.  This package provides
software for easily reading and writing FITS format files.  FITSIO
runs on most types of machines.  It supports all the currently defined
standard FITS extensions; it also supports the proposed IMAGE and
BINTABLE extension types, as well as the conventions proposed in the
BINTABLE documents.  See 4.2 for information on electronic access to
FITSIO and supporting documentation. 

 3.3 Converting FITS files to image format
  3.3.1 pbm+
	The Extended Portable Bitmap Toolkit (pbm+) can be used for
converting many FITS files to image format. However, support is not
guaranteed for all FITS files where the data are in the form of an
image.  In particular, there may be problems when the data matrix
members are in IEEE floating point format (BITPIX<0) or the matrix has
more than two dimensions (NAXIS>2). 

  3.3.2 IMDISP (IBM/PC)
     Archie Warnock and Ron Baalke have announced release of version
7.8 of the IMDISP program. IMDISP is an interactive image processing
program that runs on an IBM PC computer and supports FITS input. 
IMDISP 7.8 is available via anonymous ftp at ames.arc.nasa.gov
[128.102.18.3] in a file called imdisp78.zip in the pub/SPACE/SOFTWARE
subdirectory and at hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov in the pub/software/imdisp
subdirectory.  It is also available (at least for the time being)
through Simtel-20 [192.88.110.20] 

  3.3.3 ViewFITS (OS/2)
	Dominique Beauchamp, Universite Laval, Quebec City, has released
version 0.3, rel. 2 of ViewFITS, a FITS reader for OS/2 2.1
presentation manager.  It is on ftp.cdrom.com in /pub/os2/incoming,
file name vf03r2.zip. This program gives the user the opportunity to
display FITS images (8,16 or 32 bits, integer or float), modifying the
gray shade palette, doing negation and zooming out. The program now
uses bitmap instead of direct drawing to the screen, with 100x faster
execution time.  It is still a beta version. If you try it, report the
results to beaucham at phy.ulaval.ca. 

4 Summary of on-line sources
 4.1 NOST
	The NOST maintains a file of FITS information available by
anonymous ftp from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov or DECnet copy from NSSDCA, in
the directory FITS. A proposed reorganization could move the FITS
material to a FITS subdirectory under a STANDARDS directory. The FITS
files include copies of the current NOST standard, the Definition of
FITS, in flat ASCII, PostScript, and LaTeX.  Style and index files are
provided for the LaTeX form.  The only difference among the three
formats is that the ASCII form lacks typeface formatting; only one
need be retrieved.  A current list of the extension type (structure)
names registered with the IAU FITS Working Group is maintained.  Also
available, in LaTeX form, is the text of the proposal for one of these
new extension types, IMAGE.  There is a PostScript copy of the current
version of the User's Guide, generated by capturing the Macintosh MS
Word original in PostScript format.  Nearly 200 copies have been
retrieved, with only one printing problem and one preview problem
reported; however, because of the well-known problems in converting
Macintosh Word to PostScript, universal portability cannot be
guaranteed. Please notify the FITS Support Office by electronic mail
of any problems. The directory also contains a modified version of
this posting. An AAREADME.DOC file describes the contents of the
directory. 
	A SOFTWARE subdirectory contains the FITS Product Conformance
Tester prototype, along with instructions.  The instructions should be
retrieved along with the software. The C software to read and list the
headers of a FITS file is also in this subdirectory.  Another file
provides information on publicly available FITS software packages. The
ERRTEST subdirectory contains the error test files described in
section 3.1.1. Remember that binary transfer should always be used for
FITS files.  Both the SOFTWARE and ERRTEST subdirectories include
AAAREADME.DOC files describing their content. 

 4.2 HEASARC
	The FITSIO package, supporting documentation, and some other
software resources are available via anonymous ftp from
legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the /software/fitsio/ directory. 

 4.3 NRAO
	The machine fits.cv.nrao.edu at the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory (NRAO) contains a library of FITS-related material in the
directory fits.  The documents subdirectory contains a number of
subdirectories.  A proposals subdirectory contain proposals such as
the BINTABLE Binary Tables extension proposal. A drafts subdirectory
contains drafts of designs not yet submitted, for example, a proposed
method for incorporating data compression under FITS.  The wcs
subdirectory contains a draft of the current proposal for world
coordinate system conventions now under community review.  Other 
subdirectories of the fits directory include sample fits files -- both 
actual data files and files specially constructed to test the ability 
of software to read all kinds of fits structures, some code for 
particular environments and pointers to other code, and an archive of 
Usenet postings related to FITS.
	This machine supports a WAIS server named nrao-fits which
has an index of all of the FITS-related text files in the archive;
the file nrao-fits.src is available at think.com and at
ftp://fits.cv.nrao.edu/fits/wais-sources/nrao-fits.src.  There is a
World Wide Web server for this FITS archive, at the URL
http://fits.cv.nrao.edu, as well. 
(Thanks to Don Wells for this information)

4.4 HEAFITS exploder
	An electronic mail listserver called HEAFITS has been set up
as a specialized group for discussion of High Energy Astrophysics-
specific FITS issues that would not necessarily be of interest to the
majority of subscribers to the existing sci.astro.fits newsgroup and
fitsbits mailing list. To *subscribe* to the HEAFITS group, send the
following one-line e-mail message to listserv at legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov: 
		subscribe heafits Your Name 
where 'Your Name' is your actual First and Last names. Messages to
the actual mailing list are sent to heafits at legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov. 

5. NOST services 
	The NOST Librarian can provide printed copies of many of the
documents listed above. Printed or electronic copies of the User's
Guide and the NOST Standard, for those without ftp access, are
available.  Because of restrictions set by the copyright holder, NOST
can send copies of the four FITS papers only to non-profit
organizations.  The NOST can be reached as follows: 

(Postal) NASA/Science Office of Standards and Technology
	 Code 633.2
	 Goddard Space Flight Center
	 Greenbelt MD 20771
	 USA

(Internet) nost at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
(DECnet) NCF::NOST

Telephone: +1-301-286-3575 7:30 a. m. - 4:30 p. m., U. S. Eastern Time
	If the Librarian is unavailable, a phone mail system takes the
call after four rings. 
	Please mention this posting in your request.

	Use the FITS office electronic mail address below for replies
or questions. It is monitored by other NOST staff members when I am
away from the office and provides a greater certainty of rapid
response. 

					Barry M. Schlesinger
					Coordinator,
					NASA/NSSDC
					NOST FITS Support Office
		
+1-301-441-4205				fits at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
					NCF::FITS