28-Jun-2002: TSUM() - Fix problem (IMAX undefined) if only 1 parameter supplied 27-Jun-2002: TEXTOPEN - Now has a /SILENT keyword FORPRINT - Now has a /NoCOMMENT keyword. The /SILENT keyword is now used only to suppress informational messages. 26-Jun-2002: PUTAST - Allow direct specification of CTYPE keywords 24-Jun-2002: WCS_ROTATE - Ensure argument of ASIN() is -1 < x < 1 after roundoff 14-Jun-2002: MODFITS - Work for FITS extension headers using the STScI inheritance convention 12-Jun-2002: EQ2HOR, HOR2EQ - Convert between equatorial (RA-Dec) and horizon (alt-az) coordinates, including the effects of precession, nutation, aberration, and refraction CO_ABERRATION - Calculate change in RA and Dec due to aberration 11-Jun-2002: ALTAZ2HADEC - Convert Horizon (Alt-Az) coordinates to Hour Angle and Declination HADEC2ALTAZ - Converts Hour Angle and Declination to Horizon (alt-az) coordinates 07-Jun-2002: REPSTR() - Make loop long integer, vectorize STRLEN call 05-Jun-2002: RESISTANT_MEAN - Improve sigma determination (conditional test was done on the wrong variable, higher order correction) 04-Jun-2002: PLOTERROR, OPLOTERROR - Fix Jan 2002 speed update to work with logarithmic plots 03-Jun-2002: Two new contributions from Chris O'Dell in pro/astro CO_NUTATE - Calculate changes in RA and Dec due to nutation of the Earth's rotation CO_REFRACT() - Calculate correction to altitude due to atmospheric refraction 30-May-2002: PLOTHIST - don't plot out of range with /FILL, added HALFBIN keyword, and made half bin shift default for integer data only 28-May-2002: RDFLOAT - Now has COLUMNS keyword to read only selected columns STREBCASC has been removed the Library, though it is still available in the ftp://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/obsolete directory. 20-May-2002 -GEO2GEODETIC(), GEO2GEODETIC() - new EQUATORIAL_RADIUS and POLAR_RADIUS keywords 17-May-2002 -GEO2GEODETIC(), GEO2GEODETIC() - new PLANET keyword to convert between planetographic and planetodetic coordinates READCOL - Faster algorithm, now use STRSPLIT if V5.3 or later 15-May-2002: New procedures for converting between geographic and geodetic, geomagnetic & Earth-centered inertial coordinates from Pascal Saint-Hilaire (ETH). ECI2GEO() - Convert Earth-centered inertial coordinates to geographic coords GEO2ECI() - Convert geographic coordinates to Earth-centered inertial coords GEO2GEODETIC() - Convert from geographic to geodetic coordinates GEO2MAG() - Convert from geographic to geomagnetic coordinates GEODETIC2GEO() - Convert from geodetic to geographic coordinates MAG2GEO() - Convert from geomagnetic to geographic coordinates trim.pro has been removed from the Library. It is still available in ftp://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/obsolete or in the SolarSoft directory http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/solarsoft/gen/idl/ 10-May-2002: Robust statistics procedures in contrib/freudenreich are being transferred to the main library in the new /pro/robust directory. The first 8 procedures to be transferred are AUTOHIST - Draw a histogram using automatic bin-sizing. BIWEIGHT_MEAN() - Iterative biweighted determination of mean and std. dev. HISTOGAUSS - Outlier-resistant autoscaled histogram drawing RESISTANT_MEAN - Outlier-resistant determination of mean and std. deviation. ROB_CHECKFIT() - Utility to determine quality of a fit and return biweights ROBUST_LINEFIT() - Robust fit of Y vs X (or bisector of Y vs X and X vs Y) ROBUST_POLY_FIT() - Robust polynomial fit ROBUST_SIGMA() - Robust analog of the standard deviation 07-May-2002: HREBIN - Fix astrometry update problem when contracting by an exact integral factor 30-Apr-2002: FXPOSIT - Now recognize file names with internal spaces WRITEFITS, FITS_INFO - Use FILE_SEARCH() instead of FINDFILE() if V5.5 or later 24-Apr-2002: FIND_ALL_DIR - Now follows Unix logical links FITS_READ - Don't erase error message when closing the file 17-Apr-2002: ADSTRING() - Fix possible error in seconds display when the precision parameter is zero. 11-Apr-2002: GLACTC - Major rewrite, now assumes FK5 coordinates by default, added /FK4 keyword, use external precession routines 10-Apr-2002: CLEANPLOT - Now has /ShowOnly keyword to display but not reset plotting keywords with nondefault values 04-Apr-2002: AVG() - Return NAN if all input values to be averaged are NAN 27-Mar-2002: READFITS - Fixed (again) for compressed files on little endian machines 25-Mar-2002: HROT - Correct astrometry when /PIVOT keyword is set IMCONTOUR - Added XMID, YMID keywords to specify offset position for labeling (default is still center of image) 21-Mar-2002: AVG() -- Always use double precision computations internally 12-Mar-2002: SXPAR() - Make sure extracted vectors of mixed data type are returned with the highest type. 11-Mar-2002: PSF_GAUSSIAN() - Suppress floating underflow messages, added /DOUBLE keyword, integer centroid now defined as the center of a pixel. 02-Mar-2002: DBMATCH() - Fix typo when searching on sorted items 22-Feb-2002: DBFIND_ENTRY - better checking of out of range entry numbers 20-Feb-2002: MRDFITS/MWRFITS - Fix major bug in the processing of unsigned integers 03-Feb-2002: MRDFITS() - Fix problem when both the first and the last character in a TTYPEnn value are invalid structure tag characters 28-Jan-2002: UVBYBETA - Major rewrite, *slightly modified calling sequence* 24-Jan-2002: PLOTERROR, EXTAST, HROTATE- Fixed dumb typos recently introduced 22-Jan-2002: SXADDPAR - BEFORE and AFTER keywords now apply to (FITS) COMMENT keyword (behavior already in FXADDPAR). 16-Jan-2002: PLOTERROR, OPLOTERROR - Only draw error bars with in !X.CRANGE (to improve speed) 15-Jan-2002: EXTAST - Recognize CTYPE1 = 'GSS--RA' keyword in FITS header TVELLIPSE - Negative XC, YC values allowed noninteractively if /DATA is set 12-Jan-2002: AITOFF_GRID - Several tweaks, plot only hours not minutes for LABEL=2 PLANCK() - Improve precision of constants, use MACHAR for overflow 11-Jan-2002: MINMAX() - Now has DIMEN keyword (V5.5 only) to work over 1 dimension of an array DBPRINT - Don't write an initial page eject 01-Jan-2002: FSTRING() - Check if version is V5.4 or later (when 1024 element string formatting limit was removed) 31-Dec-2001: FREBIN() - Improve speed by addressing arrays in memory order (bug fixed 14-jan-2002) 30-Dec-2001: SXPAR() - Added /SILENT keyword to suppress warning messages 16-Dec-2001: *.doc files in the /text directory have been renamed to *.readme EXTAST, HROT, HROTATE, HCONGRID, HBOXAVE, HREBIN, HREVERSE - Recognize PC00m00n (pixel coordinate matrix) keywords for FITS astrometry (sigh...) 15-Dec-2001: MRDFITS() - Major upgrade (V2.5) now supports unsigned integer types (/UNSIGNED), aliases between FITS column names and structure tag names, 64 bit integers, and /POINTER_VAL option to map variable length binary tables into IDL pointers MWRFITS - Major upgrade (V1.0) to support unsigned integer types, 64 bit integers, aliases, and writing of variable length binary table arrays. 10-Dec-2001: DBEDIT - Work for entry numbers greater than 32767 9-Dec-2001: LSF_ROTATE - Create a 1-d convolution kernel to broaden a spectrum from a rotating star 7-Dec-2001: FITS_OPEN - Now uses 64 bit pointers in the file control block to allow access to very large FITS files 26-Nov-2001: FORPRINT - Bug introduced August 2001 would skip first data point when printing to a file. AVG() - Now accepts a scalar input value EXPAND_TILDE() - Can now parse a directory such as '~landsman' 25-Nov-2001: MMM - Avoid possible integer overflow for 16 bit arrays 23-Nov-2001: DBPRINT - No page eject for TEXTOUT=5 DBHELP - Fix display of multiple valued items with /SORT 20-Nov-2001: CLEANPLOT - Now sets !P.color correctly for 16 bit TRUECOLOR New contrib/maskinterp directory contains procedures by Joe Harrington (Cornell) and students for 2-d interpolation using a choice of 2-d fitting functions, given a bad pixel mask. 18-Nov-2001: GAUSSIAN() - Use machar() to avoid underflows, output double precision, if input is double precision 11-Nov-2001: PRODUCT() - Use internal vector algorithm from C. Markwardt 8-Nov-2001: MODFITS - Major internal rewrite to use FITS_OPEN. Now works with unsigned integers, and allows file control block unit instead of filename. Tape I/O procedures have been removed from the Library. They are still available in ftp://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/obsolete or in the SolarSoft directory http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/solarsoft/gen/idl/ 6-Nov-2001: TVLASER - /TRUE now also applies when reading from truecolor display (formerly applied only when an image array was supplied) 29-Oct-2001: STR_INDEX(), NINT(), FORPRINT, EXPAND_TILDE(), BREAK_PATH(), TBDELCOL, TAG_EXIST(), MODFITS, - Now use SIZE(/TNAME) rather than DATATYPE() 19-Oct-2001: JPLEPHINTERP - Fixed minor bug to now recognize "NUTATIONS" and "LIBRATIONS" object names READFITS()/HEADFITS() - One can now supply a file unit number instead of a file name 17-Oct-2001: LINTERP - Work for unsigned, 64bit integers FTCREATE - Work for one row tables, option to create just header 16-Oct-2001: SXADDPAR - Treat COMMENT or blank keywords like HISTORY keywords SXADDHIST - Can now also be used for COMMENT or blank keywords MKHDR - Added COMMENTS giving FITS definition in primary header 14-Oct-2001: DBBUILD - Fix error display message for incorrect data type 13-Oct-2001: PLOTHIST - Now has /NAN keyword to check for NAN values APER - Set bad fluxes to !VALUES.F_NAN if /FLUX is set 11-Oct-2001: KSTWO - Fixed problem when supplied (integer) arrays with equal values 1-Oct-2001: GET_DATE - Can now convert systime() format to FITS date format MRD_SKIP - More forgiving when reading compressed FITS files with incorrect byte padding 25-Sep-2001: FILTER_IMAGE() - Now has PSF keyword to allow reuse of the Gaussian convolution kernel 19-Sep-2001: TABINV, QUADTERP, YDN2MD - Now use VALUE_LOCATE internally FREBIN, GCIRC, CLEANPLOT - Updated to V5.1 features, e.g. size(tname) 14-Sep-2001: READFITS() - Support (unofficial) 64bit integer format 30-Aug-2001: FORPRINT - Much faster printing to a file, added COMMENT keyword TEXTOPEN - filepath(/TERMINAL) not allowed with IDLDE under V5.4 8-Aug-2001: EXTAST - Don't choke on headers with only one CTYPE keyword 6-Aug-2001: ARCBAR - Use device-independent label offset positioning 31-Jul-2001: FXBWRITM - Added ability to pass columns using pointers FXBREADM - Can now read variable length binary tables, ability to read unlimited number of columns via POINTER keyword 29-Jul-2001: IDL Version 5.1 or greater is now assumed default for Astro Library This means that (Size,/tname), !ERROR_STATE, NAN values and /SWAP_IF_LITTLE keyword to OPENR are recognized. Updated procedures READFITS(), IMF(), IEEE_TO_HOST, WRITEFITS 27-Jul-2001: TDB2TDT() - Compute relativistic timing correction from geocentric (TT) to solar system barycentric (TDB) coordinates BARYVEL, PLANET_COORDS - Now have a /JPL keyword to use JPL ephemeris files ASTROLIB - Now check if system variable exists before defining it 26-Jul-2001: IDL Database routines can now handle longword and unsigned integer datatypes (for IDL V5.2 and later). Modified routines are DBCREATE, DBXVAL(), DBFIND(), DBFIND_SORT(), DBINDEX_BLK and DBBUILD. 24-Jul-2001: READCOL -- Added COMMENT keyword 22-Jul-2001: FXBWRITM - Fixed bug when column numbers specified instead of names JPL Ephemeris routines developed by C. Markwardt now available for high precision planetary positions and velocities JPLEPHINTERP - Interpolate position and motion of planetary bodies using a JPL Ephemeris JPLEPHREAD - Open and read JPL DE200 or DE405 Ephemeride FITS File 9-Jul-2001: astron.html file now includes one-line descriptions 13-Jun-2001: RDFLOAT - No integer overflow when skipping more than 32767 lines 8-Jun-2001: PRECESS_XYZ - Use two parameter call to ATAN (major bug fix) 5-Jun-2001: CHECKSUM32 - Compute the 32bit checksum of an array (ones-complement arithmetic) N_BYTES() - Return the number of bytes in an IDL variable 4-Jun-2001: FILTER_IMAGE - Recognize NaN values for SMOOTH, use /EVEN for MEDIAN 23-May-2001: MEDARR - V5.4 fix for new SIZE() definition of undefined variable 4-May-2001 COPY_STRUCT, COPY_STRUCT_INX - Use long integers internally 3-May-2001: MRDFITS() - Added a strtrim when parsing binary format string FTAB_HELP, FTAB_EXT - Don't call fits_close if a FITS control block supplied FTAB_PRINT - Don't leave any open files 26-Apr-2001: TCTOOL - in /contrib/malumuth has new annotation capabilities 25-Apr-2001: FITS_READ - Ensure EXTEND keyword is in primary header if extensions are present 11-Apr-2001: TSUM() - Now work for non-integer values of IMIN, IMAX parameters 6-Apr-2001: MWRFITS - Now recognize '~' symbol in Unix directory name 31-Mar-2001: FITS_WRITE - Ensure required table extension keywords are in the correct order 28-Mar-2001: PLOTSYM - Improved star symbol, added COLOR keyword 21-Mar-2001: OPLOTERROR - Removed bug introduced Jan. 2001 (NSUM keyword) CLEANPLOT - Mac specific fix for 32 bit (?) visual depth 17-Mar-2001: ASINH() - Return the inverse hyperbolic sine of its argument 12-Mar-2001: RDPLOT - Use !MOUSE.BUTTON instead of !ERR, skip translation table for 24bit color. 9-Mar-2001: DBEXT_IND - Fix for extraction of indexed multiple-valued items FACTOR, GETWRD, POLREC - Upgraded to match latest version of JHUAPL library (major upgrade for FACTOR) 6-Mar-2001: AITOFF_GRID, EQPOLE_GRID - Now uses _EXTRA facility to control grid lines. Added CHARSIZE, CHARGRID keywords 13-Feb-2001: HERMITE - Now use VALUE_LOCATE instead of TABINV TVLASER - Fix problem with /NOCLOSE and unequal X,Y axes 08-Feb-2001: APER - No bad pixel check if badpix[0] = badpix[1] 02-Feb-2001: FIND_ALL_DIR - In Windows OS, use EXPAND_PATH(/ALL, /ARRAY) if since V5.3 30-Jan-2001: The contrib/bhill directory now has the following object-oriented display widgets: XCTVN - Displays a series of images for examination and comparison XINSPECT, XINSPECT2 - Browse a big FITS image (or two of them) without having to read the entire image into memory. 29-Jan-2001: PLOTERROR - Fix logic when NSUM keyword or !P.NSUM is set 23-Jan-2001: VALUE_LOCATE - Emulate the intrinsic IDL function introduced in V5.3 (bracket search values in a monotonic vector) CNTRD - Avoid integer wraparound for unsigned integers PUTAST - Use GET_EQUINOX to get the equinox value 19-Jan-2001: EXTAST - Signal that if CTYPE = 'PIXEL' then there is no astrometry CURVAL - Replace !ERR calls with !MOUSE.BUTTON 15-Jan-2001: IRAFRD - No longer read past end of file for V5.4 compatibility MRD_SKIP - Direct check for gzip compressed files under V5.4 29-Dec-2000: MRD_STRUCT - Fix concatenation of temporary directory & file name under Windows 26-Dec-2000: XMEDSKY - Fixed conditional WHERE, added NSIG keyword 23-Dec-2000: CALZ_UNRED - Deredden a galaxy spectrum using the Calzetti et al. (2000) parameterization JPRECESS - Make sure proper motions are (at least) floating pt. 22-Dec-2000: CHECK_FITS - Fixed bug when updating DATATYPE keyword 18-Dec-2000: GAL_UVW - Compute the Galactic space velocity (U,V,W) of a star 16-Dec-2000: HEADFITS(), FXPOSIT, FXMOVE, MRD_HREAD - Now have a /SILENT keyword to suppress warning messages about invalid characters in a FITS file FITSDIR - Now has /EXTEN keyword to display info on extensions, now works with compressed files, additional alternate keywords 8-Dec-2000: MODFITS - Improved check for incompatible input/output sizes 7-Dec-2000: NUTATE - Corrected minor typos in d_lng term 4-Dec-2000: PLOTERROR, OPLOTERROR - Now ignore data points with NAN values 2-Dec-2000: DBINDEX, DBEXT_IND - Now allow multiple-valued index items 28-Nov-2000: DATE_CONV() - Added FITS input/output format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SS 17-Nov-2000: DBFIND, DBFIND_ENTRY, DBFIND_SORT, DBSEARCH, IMDBASE - Now have a Count keyword; deprecate use of !ERR 16-Nov-2000: MWRFITS - Fix scaling and missing keywords in image extensions 10-Nov-2000: MOONPOS - Now uses improved expressions for the elongation, & mean anomaly (very small change in output results). 09-Nov-2000: HASTROM - Fixed bug if two FITS headers were not at the same equinox. 03-Nov-2000: CLEANPLOT - Also reset negative !X values 28-Oct-2000: AD2XY, EXTAST, GETROT, HROT, HROTATE, PUTAST, XY2AD - Now use a consistent conversion between CROTA and CD matrix notation 25-Oct-2000: LEGEND - Added an option (LINESTYLE=-99) to left-justify text 11-Oct-2000: DBXVAL - Work for multiple-valued strings 9-Oct-2000: CNTRD - Better checking if centroid is at edge of image 3-Oct-2000: FITS_WRITE - Now pad data (except ASCII Tables) with zero bytes per FITS standard. 29-Sep-2000: XCTV, XCTV2 - Image display widgets in contrib/bhill directory now allow aperture photometry and entire image statistics 27-Sep-2000: EXPAND_TILDE - Made more robust 22-Sep-2000: STARAST - Added /RightHanded to indicate a right-handed coordinate system, and HDR input-output keyword to update FITS astrometry 21-Sep-2000: TVLIST - Removed broken call to !TEXTUNIT when no image supplied 06-Sep-2000: READFITS()- Fix error handling to FREE_LUN iin case of READU error 01-Sep-2000: XCTV, XCTV2 - Image display widgets in contrib/bhill directory now include blinking and 24bit color awareness 29-Aug-2000: SIGRANGE() - Now defaults to consider 99% range of data as significant (for compatibility with the Solar Library) 23-Aug-2000: MKHDR, CHECK_FITS - Now force NAXISi, EXTEND keyword to appear in proper order in a FITS header. 22-Aug-2000: HELIO - Fixed problems when a vector planet list supplied PLANET_COORD - Fixed internal Julian date conversion problem FXBREAD - Now catches I/O errors. 16-Aug-2000: LEGEND - Make some keyword names longer to avoid ambiguity if calling LEGEND from a plot routine with _EXTRA 08-Aug-2000: DBPRINT - Change a loop index to type LONG (sigh...) 06-Aug-2000: MPHASE - Use /RADIAN keyword to SUNPOS, MOONPOS internally 04-Aug-2000: EQPOLE_GRID, AITOFF_GRID - Now create default plot limits if none had been previously specified FM_UNRED - now has keywords for LMC-type extinction 03-Aug-2000: HELIO - Major rewrite, improved mean elements, more accurate solution of Kepler equation, **new calling sequence** PLANET_COORDS - return low-precision RA and Dec of of the planets 28-Jul-2000: OBSERVATORY - Return longitude, latitude, altitude & time zones of selected observatories 26-Jul-2000: AVG() - Now accepts /NAN and /DOUBLE input keywords 24-Jul-2000: GET_EQUINOX - Fixed check for EPOCH keyword CLEANPLOT - Work for new V5.4 !X tags, add /SILENT, check visual depth to obtain default of !P.COLOR 16-Jul-2000: HEADFITS() - Now has ERRMSG output keyword to catch errors 14-Jul-2000: HOST_TO_IEEE, IEEE_TO_HOST - Now recognize new IDL integer datatypes introduced in IDL V5.1 WRITEFITS - Correctly update BZERO value for unsigned integers 12-Jul-2000: LOOK - Widget image display program in /contrib/knight now has several changes / fixes / improvements 10-Jul-2000: MEDARR - Faster algorithm for an odd number of images 07-Jul-2000: FITSDIR - Avoid integer overflow for NAXISi > 32767 Don't leave open file units 05-Jul-2000: FXPOSIT - Added test for Windows NT machine MRDFITS - Added STATUS=-1 for "File access error" 04-Jul-2000: MAKE_2D - Rewritten for improved speed 28-Jun-2000: APER - now better approximates the fractional intersection of a circular area on a pixel, and also has a /EXACT keyword to (slowly) perform this calculation exactly. PIXWT() - Compute the area of a circle-rectangle overlap. 23-Jun-2000: The Web server for the IDL Astronomy Library has been upgraded to an Ultra-10, and now has a faster connection (100BaseT) to the Internet. 14-Jun-2000: CR_REJECT - Now has SKYBOX keyword to specify region where sky should be evaluated 30-May-2000: UNZOOM_XY, ZOOM_XY -- Fix calculation when non-zero offset supplied 23-May-2000: MODFITS - Remove obsolete !ERR call, add ERRMSG output keyword 20-May-2000: FTINFO -- This low-level FITS ASCII table procedure has been rewritten ***and the new calling sequence is incompatible with the old***. (It is now analogous to TBINFO for binary tables.) Procedures updated for the new FTINFO (often with a speed improvement) include FTADDCOL, FTDELCOL, FTGET(), FTPUT, FTPRINT, FTSORT, FTHMOD, FTAB_EXT, T_APER, T_NSTAR, T_GETPSF, T_GROUP, T_SUBSTAR, ST_DISKREAD, and WFPC2_READ FTSIZE - Added ERRMSG keyword 19-May-2000: RINTER - Correctly output derivatives for 2-d input arrays RDPLOT - Use !D.TABLE_SIZE instead of !D.N_COLORS for 24bit support 15-May-2000: APER - Don't abort entire program for insufficient number of sky pixels 12-May-2000: TICS, TICLABELS - Now allow sub arcsecond formatting IMCONTOUR - Removed call to obsolete !ERR system variable 2-May-2000: HASTROM, HBOXAVE, HCONGRID, HREBIN, HREVERSE, HROT, HROTATE - Now have ERRMSG output keyword to pass error message to calling program 28-Apr-2000: FITS_CD_FIX,HBOXAVE, HCONGRID, HREBIN, HREVERSE, HROT , HROTATE - Now use full double precision formatting for the CD matrix 27-Apr-2000: TRIM() - Now accepts vector arguments MATCH - Again accepts string arguments (fixed bug added 10-Mar) 25-Apr-2000: READFITS() - Fixed bug introduced 10-Feb-2000 affecting proper byte-swapping of compressed files on little endian machines 17-Apr-2000: REMOVE - Major rewrite for improved speed 11-Apr-2000: FXWRITE - Catch error if unable to open file. 09-Apr-2000: HEADFITS() - Added COMPRESS keyword, under IDL V5.3 can now read gzip compressed FITS file under any machine OS 06-Apr-2000: MRDFITS - (1) Now can read gzip compressed files under any OS when used with IDL V5.3 or later (2) User can now specify a unit number instead of a file name for more efficient processing of multiple extensions (3) Now has a output status keyword Note that MRDFITS now requires the new FXMOVE and updated FXPOSIT procedures FXMOVE - Move to a specified extension in a FITS file FXPOSIT - Rewritten to call FXMOVE 04-Apr-2000: SXADDPAR, FXADDPAR - Exponential format now always written with an upper-case ('E' or 'D') per FITS standard 02-Apr-2000: LUMDIST() - Compute luminosity distance as a function of redshift for a given cosmological model GALAGE() - Compute galaxy age as a function of current redshift, formation redshift and cosmological model COSMO_PARAM - Subroutine to return a full set of cosmological parameters given a subset ZANG() - Updated to allow for a non-zero cosmological constant 26-Mar-2000: WFPC2_READ, FTAB_EXT - Improved performance by eliminating loops 22-Mar-2000: READFITS() - Fixed logic error in use of NSLICE keyword 19-Mar-2000: TO_HEX() - Now calls FSTRING to process more than 1024 values STRNUMBER() - Now has /HEX keyword, to recognize a string as hex READCOL - Now recognize a 'Z' (hexadecimal) format string READFMT - Now recognize octal ('O') and hexadecimal ('Z') formats 14-Mar-2000: FITEXY - Fixed error in scaling for initial guess; this caused generally insignificant changes in the final fit. 10-Mar-2000: MATCH - Use a faster algorithm (HISTOGRAM with REVERSE_INDICIES) when input vectors are integers 8-Mar-2000: TBGET() - Improved performance by (1) not indexing when all rows are requested and (2) not byteswapping unless necessary TBPRINT - Made more robust for various print formats. 6-Mar-2000: This news file is now also available in HTML format at http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/news.html 2-Mar-2000: JULDATE - Make negative years correspond to B.C., work for year 1582, disallow 2 digit years to signify 1900+ 1-Mar-2000: VSYM - Create "Mongo"-like plotting symbols, rotationally symmetric polygons 29-Feb-2000: CHECK_FITS - Now has ERRMSG keyword to replace use of obsolete !ERR system variable. ZPARCHECK - Can now check for new data types (e.g. unsigned integers) 28-Feb-2000: HCONGRID - Now has /HALF_HALF keyword to avoid shift of image centroid when CONGRIDing images 24-Feb-2000: TVBOX - Now has ANGLE keyword to draw boxes or rectangles at a specified angle 19-Feb-2000: FSTRING() - Wrapper around STRING function to fix 1024 element limit on formatted strings ADSTRING() - Now calls FSTRING(), accepts vector input XYAD, ADXY - Now use a vector call to ADSTRING() FTHELP - Remove calls to !ERR, some vectorization 17-Feb-2000: CONCAT_DIR, BREAK_PATH() - Fix last directory character on Macintosh systems 16-Feb-2000: A new beta test directory /v53 contains some procedure upgrades to take advantage of new features in IDL V5.3. These procedures will *not* work in earlier versions of IDL. 15-Feb-2000: DBPRINT, FITS_READ - Only byteswap when necessary, for much improved speed. 10-Feb-2000: READFITS - Open with /swap_if_little_endian if since V5.1 for improved speed 09-Feb-2000: BPRECESS - Fixed bug where E-terms of aberration not properly initialized for vector input 06-Feb-2000: CONS_RA - Now supports SIN projection, CONS_DEC - Fix case where DEC is scalar, X is a vector 02-Feb-2000: MWRFITS - Much faster processing of ASCII tables, Use G rather than E formats as defaults for ASCII tables 30-Jan-2000: IMLIST - Now supports new integer data types, new OFFSET keyword TVLIST - Major rewrite to use IMLIST to format output. 27-Jan-2000: SXMAKE, SXHMAKE, SXOPEN -- Now support unsigned integers for IDL V5.1 or later 25-Jan-2000: FINDPRO - Added a strlowcase to fix VMS compatibility problem introduced October 1999 24-Jan-2000: HROT - Now accepts /PIVOT keyword to pass to the ROT() function 19-Jan-2000: BOXAVE() - Now recognizes unsigned data types FITS_READ, CHECK_FITS, MKHDR, READFITS - now output BZERO = 0 for unsigned data types SXPAR() - For a wildcard search on a keyword name, (e.g. cdelt = sxpar(h,'cdelt*') only return integer values of wildcard This behavior already exists in FXPAR.PRO 18-Jan-2000: MEANCLIP - Compute an iteratively sigma-clipped mean on a data set SKYADJ_CUBE - Added EXTRAPR, EDEGREE, INPUT_MASK keywords, call meanclip if necessary CR_REJECT - Minor updates to support enhanced SKYADJ_CUBE function 12-Jan-2000: FITS_READ - The /NO_ABORT keyword now works correctly for an undefined file MWRFITS - Force an update of a FITS keyword value if the datatype has changed (even if the value remains equal). GET_DATE - Work after year 2000 even with the /OLD keyword 10-Jan-2000: The LaTex file fits_bintable.tex (describing use of the FX* FITS I/O procedures) has been updated to include a discussion of new procedures FXBREADM and FXBWRITM and methods of modifying existing binary tables. 21-Dec-1999: A number of updates to the fx* FITS I/O routines, mainly for improved performance FXBCREATE, FXBFINDLUN - Now return newly created extension number FXBFIND - vectorized for speed increase FXPAR - Optimized to do local lookup using START keyword FXBOPEN - added access = 'RW' for read/write on an existing table keyword REOPEN an already open file FXBPARSE - performance increase by (1) using START keyword to FXPAR (2) using FXBFIND instead of multiple FXPARs FXBTFORM - performance increase on calls to FXPAR using START keyword 20-Dec-1999: MWRFITS - Changed two ENDIF statements to END since IDL V5.3 is now fussier about this FXBGROW - Increase the number of rows in a binary table FXBREAD - Now has /NOIEEE keyword to leave byteorder unchanged CHECK_FITS, FITS_READ, FITS_WRITE, MKHDR, READFITS, WRITEFITS - updated to recognize unsigned integer FITS data (BITPIX=16, BZERO=32768) and convert to or from UINT data type for IDL V5.2 or later 14-Dec-1999: QUADTERP - Fix possible integer overflow problem for input X tabular vector 4-Dec-1999: NGP, TSC, CIC - Now avoids integer overflow when interpolating images of large dimension 1-Dec-1999: FXADDPAR - now write FITS keywords longer than 68 characters using the FITS continuation convention described in http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/ofwg/docs/ofwg_recomm/r13.html New procedures set in the /contrib directory /markwardt - (Craig Markwardt, Goddard) contains further enhancements of the FX* FITS I/O procedures (mainly for speed). 18-Nov-1999: Two FX* new procedures from C. Markwardt for faster I/O FXBWRITM - Write multiple columns/rows to a FITS binary table file FXBREADM - Read multiple columns/rows from a FITS binary table file. 17-Nov-1999: GLACTC - Now has /DEGREES keyword for R.A. input/output in degrees 15-Nov-1999: OPLOTERROR - Now checks limits for logarithmic axes READCOL - Now has DELIMITER keyword to specify column delimiter 5-Nov-1999: HELIO_JD - Make J2000 default equinox, add /B1950, /TIME_DIFF keywords, compute variation of the obliquity XYZ - Don't compute velocities unless user asked for them 1-Nov-1999: DBINDEX, DBEXT_DBF - Now allow a maximum of 18 instead of 15 items 19-Oct-1999: PLOTERROR - Fixed case where /XLOG is set but no X error bars given 16-Oct-1999: FITS_WRITE - Inserts required PCOUNT, GCOUNT keywords for IMAGE extensions 13-Oct-1999: SXPAR() - Did not properly recognize numbers such as 1E-10 as floating point. 05-Oct-1999: The XCTV and XCTV2 procedures in /contrib/bhill now support display of astronomical coordinates. 04-Oct-1999: FINDPRO - Now checks for .sav files along with .pro files 21-Sep-1999: DBPRINT - Fixed occasional problem when /NOHEADER supplied 04-Sep-1999: DBCIRCLE - Fixed bug that could cause some entries to be missed in large search fields at high latitudes. 23-Aug-1999: The IDLAstro Web site was down between 18 Aug and 23 Aug due to a system crash. 13-Aug-1999: DATATYPE - major rewrite, recognize unsigned, 64 bit datatypes, now has /TNAME keyword to emulate the size(/TNAME) option introduced in V5.2 12-Aug-1999: WFPC2_READ - Better astrometry handling of PC image in the "batwing" configuration 09-Aug-1999: PLOTERROR, OPLOTERROR - Now correctly handle NSUM keyword 06-Aug-1999: New procedure set in the /contrib directory /beck - IDL routines for neural network classification 05-Aug-1999: DBMATCH - Removed loop (faster) for substring searches 03-Aug-1999: SXMAKE - Now has PSIZE input keyword, for when STSDAS parameter blocks have mixed data types FXPOSIT - Expand tilde in Unix directory name if necessary 27-Jul-1999: Two new procedure sets are available in the /contrib directory /bhill (Robert Hill, Raytheon) - Contains the procedures XCTV and XCTV2 which are object-oriented display widgets for roaming, zooming, scaling and examining pixel values in an image. /malumuth (Eliot Malumuth, Raytheon) - Contains TCTOOL, a widget tool for create true-color images on 24 bit displays 24-Jul-1999: XYZ - Added more terms, EQUINOX keyword, and now optionally computes velocities PRECESS_XYZ - Precess equatorial geocentric rectangular coordinates. DBMATCH() - Change some loop indicies to type LONG 21-Jul-1999: LINTERP - Now has /NoINTERP keyword to use nearest value rather than interpolating 18-Jul-1999: QSIMP, QTRAP, TRAPZD - Now use _EXTRA facility to allow keywords to be passed the user-supplied function. 12-Jul-1999: GSSSEXTAST, GSSSADXY, GSSSXYAD -- Routines for handling ST Guide star photometry did not include all necessary coefficients for some images. Older procedures had errors of up to 15'' near the edges of ~10% of northern DSS images. DBCIRCLE() - Leave output DIS vector unchanged if no entries found 18-Jun-1999: MRDFITS - Fixed for the case where all variable length tables are empty 15-Jun-1999: DIST_CIRCLE - Added /DOUBLE keyword, make XCen, YCen optional SRCOR, CR_REJECT - Replace RETALL lines with RETURN 05-Jun-1999: FXPOSIT - Use /NoShell with spawn to eliminate dangling processes when reading compressed files. 26-May-1999: IRAFWRT - Now works for double precision 20-May-1999: HREBIN - Fixed bug introduced 14-Apr for "header only" calling sequence