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******************************************************* TABLES/STSDAS v3.8 and STSCI_PYTHON v2.6 NOW AVAILABLE *******************************************************The Science Software Branch of the Space Telescope
Science Institute wishes to announce the availability of version
3.8 of the Space Telescope Science Data Analysis Software (STSDAS).
Concurrent with the STSDAS release, we have also released v3.8 of
the TABLES external package. Both of these packages are layered upon
IRAF as external packages; it is therefore necessary to obtain and
install IRAF (from http://iraf.noao.edu) before installing TABLES
and STSDAS. STSDAS is linked against libraries in TABLES, so TABLES
must be installed before STSDAS.This release of STSDAS contains changes to NICMOS, ACS, STIS,
WFPC/CALWP2, Dither, SYNPHOT, Nebular, and CTOOLS, with some minor
changes to GFLIB. One new package has been added; namely, WFC3. This
package currently only contains CALWF3, the pipeline processing
software for WFC3 data.STSDAS also includes some Python-based tasks; running these requires the
STScI Python Libraries to be installed (all the non-Python tasks
can be used in the traditional way and do not require Python
or the STScI Python libraries). These tasks can only be run from
PyRAF using standard IRAF CL task syntax, or within Python scripts
using Python syntax.The Science Software Branch of STScI also wishes
to announce the availability of version 2.6 of STSCI_PYTHON.
Stsci_python is a collection of Python modules, packages and C
extensions that has been developed to provide a general astronomical
data analysis infrastructure. They can be used for Python tasks
that are accessible from within STSDAS when running under PyRAF or
standalone from within Python.All tasks in this release of STScI_Python rely on the
use of numpy for array operations and will be the last release to provide
any support for the use of numarray. It has been reorganized such that
tasks specific to each HST instrument are grouped as separate packages, with
the addition of new tasks for WFPC2 and COS data. This release also
contains an
updated version of Multidrizzle as used by the HST ACS and WFPC2 pipelines,
along with new versions of PyFITS and PyRAF. Use of the Python
tasks requires upgrading to this version of STSCI_PYTHON.FIRST RELEASE TO USE NUMPY
==========================
This release is the first release that uses numpy as the base array
package. Numarray is no longer used within STScI_Python. Support
for numarray will be phased out entirely within a year of this
release. Support for numarray now is limited to critical problems or
major platform support issues. The threshold for 'critical' or 'major'
is continually becoming harder to meet; you are advised to migrate
to numpy as soon as possible.This switch to numpy represents a step towards unifying the Python
scientific community in the use of a common array package. This is
a very desirable outcome despite the inconvenience in making the
switch. Information on making the switch to numpy from numarray can
be found in this document:http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray/numarray2numpy.pdf
STSCI_Python on WINDOWS
=======================
This release includes a port of stsci_python that runs natively under Windows.
Although IRAF is now available for running under Cygwin, PyRAF is not yet
available for use under Windows. This means that, in this release, all
the tasks in the STScI_Python distribution will be run under Python
(or preferably, IPython) on Windows using Python syntax rather than
a parameter-based interface provided by PyRAF and IRAF.The primary requirement is that the Windows executables were built
against and, therefore, can run only under Python 2.5.
WHERE TO OBTAIN THIS SOFTWARE
=============================
STSDAS/TABLES v3.8 can be downloaded from the STSDAS web sitehttp://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/stsdas/downloadInstallation instructions are available on the web site. Precompiled
binaries also exist for some of the ports supported by NOAO, including
Sun Solaris, RedHat Linux and Mac OS X.STSCI_PYTHON v 2.6 be downloaded from the PyRAF web sitehttp://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyraf/stsci_python/current/down
loadInstallation instructions are available from the PyRAF web site, with
support for installations on Sun Solaris, RedHat Linux, Mac OS X,
and Windows.Please contact us through e-mail (help@stsci.edu), by telephone at
(410) 338-1082.