CFITSIO v2.0

[William Pence]

**** CFITSIO 2.0 (Beta) Release ****

The beta 2.0 version of the CFITSIO library for reading and writing FITS files
is now in final testing prior to the full official release later this month. 
Any feedback from users about any problems, or suggestions for more
enhancements, would be greatly appreciated at this time.  This release is
intended to be fully backward compatible with the previous v1.42 release, but it
also contains many major new features, including:

1.  CFITSIO can now read IRAF format image files (.imh files) as well as FITS
files. Thus, any program that uses CFITSIO to do image analysis of FITS images
will be able to directly read IRAF images as well.

2.  Any FITS file on the internet can be directly accessed by providing the full
FTP or HTTP URL to CFITSIO's open_file routine.

3.  Input FITS files can be filtered or modified at run-time based on a
user-supplied expression that is appended to the name of the input file.  This
allows users, at run time, to 

  a) select a subset of the rows in a table which satisfy an 
     arbitrarily complex boolean expression

  b) create new table columns whose values are calculated 
     as a function of other columns and/or keywords in the table

  c) create a virtual FITS image by binning/histogramming
     the values in one or more table columns.  This is most often 
     used to create an image by binning a list of X and Y coordinates
     for each event in a table.

These file filtering routines use new extremely fast, state-of-the-art
algorithms. Effective file I/O throughput rates of 5 - 10 MB/s are typical on
current generation workstations or PCs.

4.  A Fortran-callable interface is provided, so CFITSIO routines may be easily
called from Fortran programs as well as from C.

5.  The Users Guide has been greatly improved.


This beta version of CFITSIO v2.0 is available via a link on the FITSIO Home
Page at:

     http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fitsio

A html version of the new CFITSIO 2.0 User's Guide may also be viewed on line
from that site.

____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence                          pence at tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662         HEASARC         +1-301-286-4599 (voice)     
Greenbelt MD 20771                         +1-301-286-1684 (fax)