Question(s) regarding development of proprietary FITS manipulation software. . .

Hi All,

I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files. However, they want a 100% proprietary solution. They know the
functionality they need, but they don't know how to code it. That's
where I come in. . .

My question to the group is: What librar(y/ies) would you all
recommend for working with FITS files? Currently I've been looking
at "http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html".
It seemed to talk the talk much better than the others, but I have 0
experience with it.

I have literally 0 knowledge of what the FITS format even entails so
I'm asking for reading recommendations as well as any potential coding
pointers, gotchas, or opinions. Just fyi, I have a little over 2
months to complete a rough outline.

Regards,
Michael

On Mon 2007-07-30T20:25:53 -0700, gberz3 hath writ:
I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files.

Neverminding the rest, what does the client mean by FITS files?

No two creators of FITS files produce them the same way. Some are
tables, some are images, some are extracts of relational databases,
some are all of the above.

This was the major challenge that inspired the FITS MIME types, and it
was a challenge that in the end MIME could not handle. There is not
yet any way to tell a machine what sort of processing and display is
appropriate to do with any given FITS file.

--
Steve Allen WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855
University of California Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m

gberz3 wrote:

I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files. However, they want a 100% proprietary solution. They know the
[...]

My question to the group is: What librar(y/ies) would you all
recommend for working with FITS files? Currently I've been looking
at "http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html".

sorry, can't help it, but to me 100% proprietary and using the
fitsio library are a contradiction in terms.

Aloha,
Maren

On 7/31/07, Maren Purves wrote:
gberz3 wrote:

I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files. However, they want a 100% proprietary solution. They know the
[...]

My question to the group is: What librar(y/ies) would you all
recommend for working with FITS files? Currently I've been looking
at "http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html".

sorry, can't help it, but to me 100% proprietary and using the
fitsio library are a contradiction in terms.

Well, to be fair the cfitsio license allows it, unless the standard
compress.c file or the wcsutil.c file is used, in which case any code
written that uses the cfitsio library has to conform to the GNU Public
License. If they both the wcsutil_alternate.c and compress_alternate.c
files to compile the library, then they can do whatever they want with
the library and their code, including making it 100% proprietary.

Cheers,
Brad.

sorry, can't help it, but to me 100% proprietary and using the
fitsio library are a contradiction in terms.

Yes, perhaps 100% was a bit too strong, but I was going for a bit of
hyperbole there. Basically they want to write their own finished
product. They aren't interested in purchasing copies of anything,
but, rather, wholly owning the finished product for future sales and/
or licensing.


Regards,
Michael

If they both the wcsutil_alternate.c and compress_alternate.c
files to compile the library, then they can do whatever they want with
the library and their code, including making it 100% proprietary.

Is there supposed to be the the word "removed" between the word they
and the word both?

On 8/1/07, Greg Hennessy wrote:
If they both the wcsutil_alternate.c and compress_alternate.c
files to compile the library, then they can do whatever they want with
the library and their code, including making it 100% proprietary.

Is there supposed to be the the word "removed" between the word they
and the word both?

No, it should read "If they used both the wcsutil_alternate.c and
compress_alternate.c files in place of their non-alternate files to
compile the library..."

Sorry for the confusion.

Hi Michael,

The other library that may be worth looking at -- especially in the
prototyping stages and for creation of test data -- is pyFITS. See:

http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyfits

Hope that helps,
Best,
Bojan

gberz3 writes:

Hi All,

I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files. However, they want a 100% proprietary solution. They know the
functionality they need, but they don't know how to code it. That's
where I come in. . .

My question to the group is: What librar(y/ies) would you all
recommend for working with FITS files? Currently I've been looking
at "http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html".
It seemed to talk the talk much better than the others, but I have 0
experience with it.

I have literally 0 knowledge of what the FITS format even entails so
I'm asking for reading recommendations as well as any potential coding
pointers, gotchas, or opinions. Just fyi, I have a little over 2
months to complete a rough outline.

Regards,
Michael


--
Bojan Nikolic Tel: +44 1223 339991
Astrophysics Group Mob: +44 7894 223621
Cavendish Laboratory Fax: +44 1223 354599
Cambridge CB3 0HE

Excellent, I'll check that out. One question in general though: When
searching through the libraries and all, what is the best mechanism
for figuring out the actual included functionality? For instance, if
I'm looking at C code, I could certainly look through the header files
and some of the source, but that's a very prohibitive process. Are
any of the libraries (no I haven't thoroughly looked as of yet)
thoroughly documented as to what functions do what?

So far, I've really only looked at the CFITSIO items and it's very
well documented (really too well) but the function names don't seem
very intuitive. I'm sure they mean a lot more to someone familiar
with FITS, but I'm absolutely not. It's basically like someone in
1989 asking you to write a JPEG file manipulation program. Sure the
information exists, but with 0 familiarity you'll need a lot of input.

Anyway, per Steve Allen's comment earlier, I'll know what kind of
functionality I need shortly. Once that occurs I'll need to be able
to look through the libraries and say "ok, yes, I need a 'FLIP'
function and a 'COLOR-RED' function and a 'GRAYSCALE' function. . .".
Does anything even remotely like that exist currently?

A FITS "quickstart" of sorts would be nice also. I definitely prefer
doing the work myself, but am otherwise open to anything. Basically,
I have 2 months to get something together, hence the need to avoid all
of the "function hunting". . .

My apologies for the amateurish FITS questions, but I know nothing
about it.

Regards,
Michael

On Aug 2, 10:52 am, Bojan Nikolic wrote:
Hi Michael,

The other library that may be worth looking at -- especially in the
prototyping stages and for creation of test data -- is pyFITS. See:

http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyfits

Hope that helps,
Best,
Bojan



gberz3 writes:
Hi All,

I'm currently working with a client that needs to manipulate FITS
files. However, they want a 100% proprietary solution. They know the
functionality they need, but they don't know how to code it. That's
where I come in. . .

My question to the group is: What librar(y/ies) would you all
recommend for working with FITS files? Currently I've been looking
at "http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html".
It seemed to talk the talk much better than the others, but I have 0
experience with it.

I have literally 0 knowledge of what the FITS format even entails so
I'm asking for reading recommendations as well as any potential coding
pointers, gotchas, or opinions. Just fyi, I have a little over 2
months to complete a rough outline.

Regards,
Michael

--
Bojan Nikolic Tel: +44 1223 339991
Astrophysics Group Mob: +44 7894 223621
Cavendish Laboratory Fax: +44 1223 354599
Cambridge CB3 0HE

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007, gberz3 wrote:

So far, I've really only looked at the CFITSIO items and it's very
well documented (really too well) but the function names don't seem
very intuitive. I'm sure they mean a lot more to someone familiar
with FITS, but I'm absolutely not. It's basically like someone in
1989 asking you to write a JPEG file manipulation program. Sure the
information exists, but with 0 familiarity you'll need a lot of input.

there used to be a file called longnames.h ...

Aloha,
Maren