The following describes the most significant changes which
occurred in the AST library between versions V5.7-1 and V5.7-2:
- The ObjectObject class has a new function astToStringastToString (C only), which creates
an in-memory textual serialisation of a given AST Object. A corresponding
new function called astFromStringastFromString re-creates the Object from its
serialisation.
- The PolyMapPolyMap class can now use an iterative Newton-Raphson method to
evaluate the inverse the inverse transformation if no inverse
transformation is defined when the PolyMap is created.
- The FitsChanFitsChan class has a new method
astWriteFitsastWriteFits
which writes out all cards currently in the FitsChan to the associated
external data sink (specified either by the SinkFileSinkFile attribute or the
sink function supplied when the FitsChan was created), and then empties
the FitsChan.
- The FitsChan class has a new read-only attribute called “NkeyNkey”, which
holds the number of keywords for which values are held in a FitsChan.
- The FitsChan
astGetFits<X>
methods can now be used to returned the value of the current card.
- The FitsChan class has a new read-only attribute called “CardTypeCardType”, which
holds the data type of the keyword value for the current card.
- The FitsChan class has a new method
astReadFitsastReadFits
which forces the FitsChan to reads cards from the associated external
source and appends them to the end of the FitsChan.
- - If the FitsChan astReadastRead method reads a FITS header that uses the
-SIP (Spitzer) distortion code within the CTYPE values, but which does
not provide an inverse polynomial correction, and for which the PolyTran
method of the PolyMap class fails to create an accurate estimate of the
inverse polynomial correction, then an iterative method will be used to
evaluate the inverse correction for each point transformed.