[fitsbits] FITS Liberator (article on space.com)

[Peter Teuben]

Bob et al,

yes, i was being a bit open-source zealous. I do however commend them on putting
it out in the open. Of course linux people are bound to react to it. The only
one thing that irked me is the binding sentence that despite that is was a
plugin their binding with this company would forbid them to bring it out in the
open. That's a very weird construction, to say the least. 

Tools like ds9 (RGB loading) and karma make at least as good, if not better,
figures for EPO, if you know what you're doing! But they are rarely used by
non-professional astronomers, and thus photoshop is a good way bring these
techniques available in a wider field. At the same time, since GIMP and
Photoshop are so close, i do hope to see some interest in a "port" of these
tools. As said by Patrick already, GIMP does come with a fits load/save plugin,
so perhaps most of it can be done already.

btw, another group at ST presented some fascinating use of OpenOffice and use of
those toolkits at the previous ADASS. It was more for non-science/non-EPO use i
believe, but the OpenOffice people were thrilled with it.

And like i said, i'm mostly concerned with locking up the source code of this
plugin software because of some strange licening arrangment with the Adobe.

- peter



On Fri, 9 Jul 2004, Robert Hanisch wrote:

> I think you all are being are bit overly critical.  The professional
> outreach folks use Photoshop as their primary tool.  I know and work with
> Lars and Zolt and know that this effort was totally well-intentioned.  And
> the FAQ comment about the 8-bit version does not sound like a cheap-shot to
> me.  It says:
> 
> 4. Q: Photoshop CS is too expensive. Are there other options?
> A: You can also use Photoshop Elements 2.0. It costs around 99$, Note: it
> does only support 8 bit (which should be enough in most cases).
> 
> Seems to me to be a simple, objective statement.
> 
> I think it is a good thing if FITS files become more easily accessible to
> the people who do EPO work routinely -- it only helps to get quality imaging
> into their hands, and thus into the broader community.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Bob
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Peter Teuben" <teuben at astro.umd.edu>
> To: "Patrick P Murphy" <pmurphy at nrao.edu>
> Cc: "Don Wells" <dwells at nrao.edu>; <fitsbits at nrao.edu>
> Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 11:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [fitsbits] FITS Liberator (article on space.com)
> 
> 
> >
> > I presume their plugins add a lot more than just reading/writing fits
> files...
> >
> > i love their sentence in their FAQ on the code:
> >
> > Q: Are you planning on releasing the source code?
> >
> > A: In most cases the answer would be that we are not allowed to do this
> due to
> > our contract with Adobe Systems. There is however a possibility to perhaps
> share
> > code if you apply for, and become, an Adobe SDK developer. Note that we
> have
> > used NASA's CFITSIO for the FITS routines and these are public.
> >
> > what a shame of our well spent tax dollars that we have this wonderful
> product
> > locked up.....  they also have a cheap shot at the 8bit only $99
> > photoshop-light.
> >
> > - peter
> >
> > On Fri, 9 Jul 2004, Patrick P Murphy wrote:
> >
> > > On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 10:53:36 -0400 (EDT), Peter Teuben
> > >    <teuben at astro.umd.edu> said:
> > >
> > > > I am hoping a GIMP plugin would also become available.
> > >
> > > My version of the GIMP (1.2.3-16 on RedHat 9) has FITS read/write
> > > capability and I'm fairly certain it came that way (i.e. wasn't a plugin
> > > I had to add).  I haven't exercised it much, but to first order it does
> > > work the way one would expect.
> > >
> > > - Pat
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > fitsbits mailing list
> > fitsbits at listmgr.cv.nrao.edu
> > http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/fitsbits
> >
>