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Changes Introduced in V5.1

The following describes the most significant changes which occurred in the AST library between versions V5.0 and V5.1:

  1. The Prism class has been modified so that any class of Region can be used to define the extrusion axes. Previously, only a Box or Interval could be used for this purpose.

  2. Improvements have been made to the way that Prisms are simplified when AST_SIMPLIFY is called. The changes mean that more types of Prism will now simplify into a simpler class of Region.

  3. The PointList class has a new method, AST_POINTS, that copies the axis values from the PointList into a supplied array.

  4. The PointList class has a new (read-only) attribute, ListSize, that gives the number of points stored in the PointList.

  5. The handling of warnings within different classes of Channel has been rationalised. The XmlStrict attribute and AST_XMLWARNINGS function have been removed. The same functionality is now available via the existing Strict attribute (which has had its remit widened), a new attribute called ReportLevel, and the new AST_WARNINGS function. This new function can be used on any class of Channel. Teh FitsChan class retains its long standing ability to store warnings as header cards within the FitsChan, but it also now stores warnings in the parent Channel structure, from where they can be retrieved using the AST_WARNINGS function.

  6. A new function called AST_INTERCEPT has been added to the Frame class. This function finds the point of intersection beteeen two geodesic curves.

  7. A bug in the type-checking of Objects passed as arguments to constructor functions has been fixed. This bug could lead to applications crashing or showing strange behaviour if an inappropriate class of Object was supplied as an argument to a constructor.

  8. The AST_PICKAXES function will now return a Region, if possible, when applied to a Region. If this is not possible, a Frame will be returned as before.

  9. The default gap size between the ISO date/time labels used by the Plot class when displaying an annotated axis described by a TimeFrame has been changed. The changes are meant to improve the labelling of calendar time axes that span intervals from a day to a few years.

  10. A new function called AST_TESTFITS has been added to the FitsChan class. This function tests a FitsChan to see if it contains a defined value for specified FITS keyword.

  11. The AST__UNDEF<X> parameters used to flag undefined FITS keyword values have been removed. Use the new AST_TESTFITS function instead.



next up previous 264
Next: Changes Introduced in V5.2
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AST A Library for Handling World Coordinate Systems in Astronomy
Starlink User Note 210
R.F. Warren-Smith & D.S. Berry
24th May 2011
E-mail:ussc@star.rl.ac.uk

Copyright (C) 2009 Science \& Technology Facilities Council