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We are happy to announce the 1.3 beta release of the Horizon package that includes source code, demonstration applets, sample data, and API documentation. It contains some of the basic classes used for browsing scientific image data. This will be the last major release compatible with Java 1.0.2.
- Current Java 1.0.2-compatible Release
- Horizon 2.0 (Java 1.1-compatible) Releases
- Related Release: NCSA Habanero
- Previous Releases
- Related Release: FITSWCS
Please note that this is beta software. By this we mean that we feel that the software is of sufficient quality to be of some use to users and developers who wish to create new applications compatible with Java 1.0.2. Nevertheless, the package still contains limitations that prevent it from being of production quality (see Release Notes). Developers interested in more details about building applets and applications with Horizon objects are encouraged to peruse the source code for applets in the examples directory in addition to the API documentation included with this package. While you are welcome to make use of these classes now, please note that the API is still under development and may be subject to changes incompatible with this beta release (see important notes about changes for version 2.0 below).
A Note About Version Numbers: We are using a somewhat unconventional version numbering system. Versions earlier than 1.3 are compatible with Java JDK 1.0.2. We do not consider these releases to be of production quality; thus, all such versions have either alpha or beta appended to them.
Current Release
The distributions available here assume that you already have Java JDK
1.0.2 or later already installed. If you do not have have Java
installed you can download it from the
JavaSoft Product Page.
(Alternatively, you can install the package where it is visible from
the Web; you can then run the demos via a Java-capable browser such as
Netscape.)
The Horizon package can be downloaded in several forms:
Tip for downloading: If you click on one of the above distributions, your browser may try to display the file within your browser. Some browsers support "save to disk" clicking to prevent this; for instance, with Netscape, hold the Shift key while clicking on the link. This should pop-up a "Save As.." window.Your comments are greatly appreciated. Please send comments, bug reports, questions, and suggestions to horizon@ncsa.uiuc.edu.If you are unable to download via HTTP, try anonymous FTP at ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu and change into the java/horizon/Latest directory.
The Horizon 2.0 API contains significant differences from that of previous versions, as it takes advantage of the new Java APIs and technologies. A major focus of the upgrade will be to put in more support for integration into the Habanero collaborative environment. In general, we expect the API changes to make it easier for developers to connect Horizon classes together to create new applications.
One of the features of Horizon 2.0 is transparent support for collaboration via Habanero 2.0 which is currently available in alpha form.
Other Current Releases
FITSWCS 2.4
This package is a translation of the WCSLIB C library by Mark
Calabretta into Java. This library implements the FITS World
Coordinate Systems convention, providing position transformations
between a spherical surface and its projection onto a map plane. The
translation of this library was carried out to support the generalized
coordinate classes in ncsa.horizon.coordinates;
however, they can easily be used independently of the Horizon package.
This package is now available for distribution as a gzip-ed tar file. (Other distribution formats coming soon.)
This Java package may also be obtained as part of the WCSLIB distribution (Ver 2.4) by Mark Calabretta which also contains versions implemented in C and FORTRAN. This distribution can be obtained from: For a more detailed description of the FITSWCS java package, refer to the distribution README file as well as the FITSWCS API. For more information on FITS World Coordinate System (WCS) convention, refer to the paper "Representations of Celestial Coordinates in FITS" by Greisen and Calabretta.