Astro::SLA -- interface to C or Fortran SLALIB library ========== This module provides an interface layer to the C or Fortran version of the SLALIB library. From the abstract of the SLALIB manual (written by Pat Wallace): "SLALIB is a library used by writers of positional-astronomy applications. Most of the 171 routines are concerned with astronomical position and time, but a number have wider trigonometrical, numerical or general applications." An example program, stime, is provided. This simply reports the current time (modified Julian day and local sidereal time for the JCMT). Requirements: ------------- This module requires either the C or Fortran version of the SLALIB library written by Pat Wallace. This module has been tested with the Starlink Fortran library v2.5 (released 2005), the current Starlink release (kapuahi), and 2008 releases of the C library. It should work fine with older versions (up to 2002). If you are working with orbital elements you need a version of the library released sometime in 2002. Improvements in mid-2005 to the accuracy of the calculations for moving sources (comets and asteroids) means that not all the tests will pass for the orbital elements tests if you are using a relatively old Slalib. You must have either the C version of the library or the Starlink Fortran version of the library in order to build this module. The Fortran version of SLALIB is available from Starlink under the GPL. You can download it from Starlink (http://www.starlink.ac.uk). Please contact Pat Wallace (ptw@tpsoft.demon.co.uk) for details of how to obtain the (proprietary) C SLALIB library. A C compiler is required - this is an XS module. A Fortran compiler (such as gfortran) is required if you are building against the Fortran library [or at least the Fortran runtime libraries]. This module has been tested on linux and Mac OS X but should be fairly portable. For a self-contained reimplementation of the SLA library written in C and based on top of SOFA consider using the Astro::PAL CPAN module. This module has a lot of the commonly used SLA API implemented and uses a similar API. Installation: ------------- - Edit the Build.PL so that the location of the SLA library and include files are correct [see variables $sla_lib and $sla_inc] or else use the $SLA_ROOT environment variable. By default the module attempts to find the Starlink installation and then falls back to assuming the C version is installed. Change the value of $use_fortran if you know you are using an explicit C or Fortran version. It is assumed the C library is available from /usr/local/lib by default. The includes files, slalib.h, should be available in the default path. If they are somewhere else the Build.PL should be edited to reflect this location. For example, change the line my $sla_inc => '', to my $sla_inc => '-I/home/me/include', to pick them up from /home/me/include Then: % perl Build.PL % ./Build % ./Build test % ./Build install The tests only test part of the build. Some functions remain untested. In particular orbital element support will not be very good unless you have a modern installation of SLALIB (sometime from 2002). See Astro::Coords for a general object-oriented wrapper around Astro::PAL. Documentation: -------------- The module provides documentation on how to use the perl interface to SLALIB. It does not contain information on how to use SLALIB itself. For more information on SLALIB see: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/star/docs/sun67.htx/sun67.html Copyright --------- Copyright (C) 2007, 2010, 2012 Tim Jenness and the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Copyright (C) 1998-2005 Tim Jenness and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place,Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA The SLALIB library (C version) is proprietary. Please contact Patrick Wallace (ptw@tpsoft.demon.co.uk) if you would like to obtain a copy. The Starlink SLALIB library (Fortran) is available from Starlink under the GPL. The array handling code was written by Karl Glazebrook. Changes ------- See the ChangeLog file for a full list of changes. Changes for release 1.01: - Understand that modern Fortran SLA requires CNF. - Specify a minimum Module::Build version. - Now understands $STARLINK_DIR and uses it when Starlink::Config is not available. - Now understands $SLA_ROOT environment variable to allow the location of the C sla library to be specified externally through the environment. Changes for release 1.00: - Use Module::Build - Fix slaIntin when using the Fortran library - Minor compiler warnings fixed and removedsome OUTPUT sections that were not needed. Changes for release 0.99: - slaObs can now be called with a constant string (required by Astro::Telescope). - Added slaIntin (for completeness) - The tests have been updated considerably. All the examples from the slalib documentation are now included in the test suite. - Test::More is now required for the tests. - stime has added arguments (-epoch, -h and -man) Changes for release 0.98: - Missed two "Perl_croak + threading errors" Changes for release 0.97: - Addition of a test for cometary ephemerides - A fix to the slaOap function when using the Fortran bindings - Fix for building with a thread-enabled perl, although slalib is not proven to be thread safe. Changes for release 0.96: - Now includes Fortran support - Add slaPertel and slaPertue - Fix slaOap Changes for release 0.95: - Fix bug in slaPlante (it simply didn't work) Changes for release 0.94: - Fix bug in slaPreces and add new test for it. Changes for release (0.93): - New utility 'stime' for printing the current time, MJD and LST - Add ut2lst_tel command (this was in the docs but not present) - Fix bug in slaEg50 (thanks to Chris Phillips) - Fix segmentation violation in certain uses of the slaObs command on linux. - Should now compile cleanly on perl 5.6.0 (now uses PL_na symbols in XS layer) - slightly improved test suite. Changes for release 0.92: - Export all single precision aliases - Export slaDvxv - Fix compiler warnings (thanks to Chris Phillips for a patch). Changes for release 0.91: - Add DR2S, DR2H and slaEcleq to the export list. - Fix argument order of slaEqgal and slaSupgal [patch supplied by Tim Kimball (kimball@stsci.edu)] - Allow use of single precision names as aliases to double precision commands.