[info-gnuastro] Alpha release (in preparation to 0.2 release)

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

Hi everyone,

Gnuastro is finally ready for the second release (version 0.2). Until
now, 152 commits have been made after the first release and many bugs
have been fixed and new features added. For the full list of changes,
please see the `NEWS' file. The most notable new features for the
second release are:

  - Gnuastro library: you can now use the building blocks of
    Gnuastro's programs in your own C and C++ programming (Python
    wrappers will also be coming with the next releases). In the 0.2
    release (first library release), the main emphasis was on having a
    robust library build, management, and documentation
    infra-structure. Most of the interesting functions are still
    locked up in the programs. But with this infra-structure in place,
    the next releases will greatly improve the quantity and quality of
    the offered library functions.

  - A new program to read and write FITS binary and ASCII tables
    called `Table' with the executable name `asttable'. It can also
    show you the column information of a FITS table. Please see the
    documentation for more on this new program.

An alpha-release (version 0.1.152-9546) has been uploaded prior to the
Gnuastro 0.2 release. Here are the compressed sources and a GPG
detached signature:

  http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-0.1.152-9546.tar.gz (4.2MB)
  http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-0.1.152-9546.tar.gz.sig (455B)

The latest Gnuastro alpha-release can always be downloaded from:
  http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-alpha-latest.tar.gz

We would very much appreciate it if you would share your experiences
in building and checking this alpha-release (with `make check') on
your operating system. In particular if you get any errors, or failed
checks. This way, we can address them for the official 0.2 release. We
are planning to make the 0.2 release in one week (1st of October
2016).

If you find any problems while installing or using Gnuastro, please
let us know through address@hidden' or through the following
online form:
  https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?func=additem&group=gnuastro

More explanations on reporting bugs can be found here:
  http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/manual/html_node/Report-a-bug.html

I am most grateful to Mosè Giordano and Vladimir Markelov for their
great contributions to the code. I would also like to thank Alan Lefor
and Yahya Sefidbakht for their many patient tests during development
and comments and suggestions.

Best regards,
Mohammad Akhlaghi

--
Postdoctoral fellow,
Lyon Observatory, France.