source: tags/release-1.0.5/CHANGES

Last change on this file was 172, checked in by Matthew Whiting, 18 years ago
  • Improved the way the beam size is dealt with, utilising the parameter beamSize better when the necessary info is not in the FITS header.
  • Also fixed the way this is reported to the user in the parameter listing.
  • Updated the CHANGES document.
  • Other minor fixes to the headerIO code, so that a subsequent call to Param::copyHeaderInfo is not necessary.
File size: 7.0 KB
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1Duchamp version 1.0.5 (2006/09/06)
2----------------------------------
3
4Since version 1.0, there have been a range of mostly minor
5changes. These are generally bug-fixes, thanks to feedback from a
6number of users, as well as a few extra features.
7
8Here is a summary of the changes since version 1.0:
9
10USER INTERFACE:
11
12* The user is now able to enter the value of flag parameters in the
13  parameter file as strings, as well as integers (so one can enter
14  true or 1 to give the same result).
15
16GRAPHICAL OUTPUT:
17
18* Added a new function that draws the edge of the blank region on the
19  maps and image cutouts. There is a new flag parameter --
20  drawBlankEdges -- that controls the use of this function (the
21  default is true).
22  Also, the edge of the field is plotted on the image cutouts as a
23  yellow line. This distinguishes it from the purple blank pixel
24  dividing line.
25
26* The size of the tick mark in the image cutout (indicating the
27  spatial scale of the image) is now adaptable, so that it shows the
28  scale that best fits the image (ranging from 1 arcsec to 15
29  degrees). (This is a change from the previous standard length of 15
30  arcmin.)
31
32* The zoomed spectrum had its flux scale determined by all points in
33  the zoom box,including those flagged by the Milky Way (MW)
34  range. This has been fixed so that any MW channels will not affect
35  the flux scaling, potentially improving the appearance of objects
36  detected close in velocity to strong MW emission or absorption.
37
38* Improved Karma Annotation file output, so that files without good
39  WCS are dealt with appropriately.
40
41TEXT-BASED OUTPUT:
42
43* The position resolution in the IAU-format names has been increased,
44  so that distinct objects close to one another are more readily
45  distinguished.  Overlapping sources at different velocities may
46  still have the same name, but this is a more general problem.
47
48* The presentation of the results in tabular format has been improved,
49  so that the precision of faint sources is sufficient to show their
50  flux, for instance, is not 0. This also applies to the information
51  presented above the spectral plots.
52
53* Improved error and warning reporting, so that the formatting and
54  presentation of information is clearer.
55
56FITS I/O RELATED:
57
58* The previous version was did not deal well with 4 (or greater)
59  dimensions in the FITS file -- the memory allocation was badly done,
60  and the axes needed to be in a particular order. This has been
61  fixed, so that the FITS I/O routines can now handle any sized FITS
62  file, with axes in any order (as long as there are two spatial and one
63  spectral axes).
64
65* When the FITS file does not have a rest frequency defined, there is
66  no way to transform the frequency axis into velocity. In this case,
67  the spectral axis is left as frequency, and put into units of MHz.
68
69* If the beam size is not indicated by the FITS header (through the
70  BMAJ and BMIN keywords), the user can manually specify the size
71  through the parameter file (using parameter beamSize).
72
73* The FITS I/O routines make use of the command fits_file_exists. This
74  was introduced into the CFITSIO package from version 2.5, so Duchamp
75  will only work with this version or higher. Version 3+ is preferred.
76
77OTHER BUG-FIXING:
78
79* Several bugs related to the blank-pixels were dealt with.
80  The correct values were not propagating through correctly, meaning
81  that the default values were being used. Also, there was the
82  potential for blank pixels to be detected when the FDR method was
83  used. Finally, the image cutout displays occasionally did not
84  obscure the blank pixels. All these problems should be fixed now.
85
86* The FDR setup routine was occasionally failing with a segmentation
87  fault, due to it accessing unallocated memory. This has been fixed.
88
89* Fixed bugs that affected the way 2D images (rather than 3D cubes)
90  were dealt with. The minChannels test failed when minChannels=0.
91
92* If there is no beam information in the FITS header, the user can now
93  enter a beam size as a parameter.
94
95* Other minor fixes to the code, to improve its structure and
96  robustness.
97
98
99Duchamp version 1.0 (2006/06/30)
100--------------------------------
101
102The first full release version.
103
104Several major changes compared to previous version:
105
106* Incorporated a FitsHeader class, to keep track of header information
107  (including WCS) from the FITS file. All units-related calculations
108  are done with this class, such as conversion to velocity, and
109  pixel-to-WCS conversion.  The main advantage of this is improved
110  speed of execution, more adaptable to different units, and improved
111  code (easier for me!).
112
113* Able to select the dimensionality of the reconstruction, rather than
114  just doing it in 3-D.
115
116* Robust text output, so that the columns are sized correctly given
117  the data being written, and the relevant units (derived from the
118  FITS header) are included in the output table.
119
120* Improved the way the reconstructed image is saved and read back in,
121  with a better naming scheme and a better set of new FITS header
122  keywords. The MW headers are now not written.
123
124Other, more minor changes include:
125
126* MW channels now not set to 0, but just ignored for searching
127  purposes (and for the scaling of the spectral output -- they are
128  plotted though and highlighted with a hashed box).
129
130* The scale bar in the moment map in the spectral output file has its
131  length indicated.
132
133* Improved VOTable output, with more information about the way Duchamp
134  was run.
135
136* Made sure all statistics calculations in the reconstruction are
137  based on robust (ie. median) methods.
138
139Also moved to an autoconf based configure/make compilation, for ease of use.
140
141
142Duchamp version 0.9.2 (2006/06/27)
143--------------------------------
144
145* Added the use of warning flags for detections: for either edge
146  location or negative enclosed flux.
147
148* A new command line option added so that the user can specify a FITS
149  file to be searched with the default parameters, rather than giving
150  a full parameter file.
151
152* The scale bar on the moment cutout now works in general case, using
153  an iterative process to get to the correct length.
154
155* RA axes are now done correctly on the full-scale maps.
156
157* Various coding fixes, improving the readability of the code,
158  particularly regarding the declaration of temporary variables.
159
160* Changed the way the time of execution is called : now using time.h
161  functions, rather than a system call.
162
163* Changed output in Detection/outputDetection.cc for the pixel
164  information of detected objects (the info printed above the spectral
165  plots) -- now print out number of voxels in object, and have
166  improved the formatting a little.
167
168* Improved the functionality of saving the FITS file containing the
169  reconstructed array. Added ability to save and read back in the MW
170  parameters when saving a reconstructed cube (if a reconstructed cube
171  has different MW range to that being considered, it would cause
172  problems). ReadRecon now just returns a FAILURE and will reconstruct
173  the cube anew.
174
175* Changed default value of flagGrowth to 0.
176
177
178
179Duchamp version 0.9 (2006/05/05)
180--------------------------------
181
182First public release version.
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