Bug#341188: ITP: libwcs -- FITS world coordinate system support library
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
* Package name : libwcs
Version : 4.2
Upstream Author : Mark R. Calabretta <mcalabre@atnf.csiro.au>
* URL : http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/
* License : GPL
Description : FITS world coordinate system support library
Please critique my understanding of library packaging (copy me in
responses). Upstream doesn't (yet!) build a shared library, so it
seems the burden lies on me to implement that support. But wcslib is
used by 2 of my packages (saods9 and sextractor), and seems to provide
a highly specialized, yet readily accessible and well-documented API,
which I can easily see being useful in my own projects.
WCSLIB is a C library, supplied with a full set of Fortran wrappers,
that implements the "World Coordinate System" (WCS) convention in
FITS (Flexible Image Transport System). It also includes a
PGPLOT-based routine, PGSBOX, for drawing general curvilinear
coordinate graticules.
The FITS data format is widely used within the international
astronomical community, from the radio to gamma-ray regimes, for
data interchange and archive, and also increasingly as an online
format. It is described in
"Definition of The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS)",
Hanisch, R.J., Farris, A., Greisen, E.W., et al. 2001, A&A, 376,
359
which formalizes NOST 100-2.0, a document produced by the
NASA/Science Office of Standards and Technology, see
http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov.
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