Hi all,
A new version of PixInsight has been just released and is now available to all users: 1.8.2.1098 for FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X (10.6 to 10.9), and Windows.
Build 1098 is a bugfix/maintenance release. We encourage you to update all your installations as soon as possible.
How to Install the ReleaseThis version is not available through the update system. You have to download the appropriate installation package(s) for your platform(s) from our Software Distribution system:
https://pixinsight.com/dist/Simply uninstall your current version and install the new one:
FreeBSD and Linux: PixInsight installation packages are gzip-compressed tar archives (.tar.gz). To install one of these archives, extract its full contents on any directory, preferably on one located under your home directory. Then become root and run the installer program from a terminal. For complete information on the PixInsight Linux/UNIX installer program, see this forum post:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=6336.0Mac OS X: Uncompress the .zip archive to get the PixInsight.app application bundle. It can be executed from any location, but we recommend copying it to the standard /Applications folder, and optionally adding it to the Dock.
Windows: We provide standard Windows installation packages. To install one of these packages, first you must
uninstall the version that you have currently installed. Then launch the package executable file and follow the instructions. Once installed, you'll have a new entry on your Start > All Programs menu (or equivalent item on Windows 8), namely PixInsight Platform, where you'll find an option to launch the PixInsight Core application. The installation also includes an uninstall utility.
Main Bug FixesThis version fixes all confirmed bugs in the previous builds, plus a large number of minor bugs and performance issues that we have discovered through exhaustive stress testing. Here is a list with the most important bug fixes:
* Fixed a potential crash when an image icon was double clicked to deiconize it.
* Fixed a potential crash when a dialog was opened from a running thread (which is an invalid operation now not allowed).
* The RealTimePreview interface was not working for images with active 24-bit screen transfer functions.
* Keyboard events were not being delivered correctly to interface windows with interactive plotting areas (such as CurvesTransformation, HistogramTransformation and ColorSaturation).
* JavaScript Runtime: The Settings object was completely broken for global variable access. Global settings can now be accessed normally.
* JavaScript Runtime / PixInsight Class Library: The File.extractSuffix() and File.extractCompleteSuffix() JavaScript methods (and their PCL File::ExtractSuffix() and File::ExtractCompleteSuffix() counterpart member functions) failed for directories containing dot characters. Original bug report:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7229.0* Windows only: Console output for external commands (e.g., the dir command) was corrupted because of incorrect handling of Windows end-of-line character sequences.
* FreeBSD only: The PixInsight Benchmark script was failing because of invalid executable prefixes. Original bug report:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7093.0Main New FeaturesThis is a partial list with the most important new features in PixInsight Core 1.8.2.1098:
* New DrizzleIntegration tool. New versions of StarAlignment, ImageIntegration and the BatchPreprocessing script have also been developed to support the new drizzle integration capabilities. See the announcement threads on PixInsight Forum for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7151.0 /
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7184.0* The printing subsystem is now optional on all platforms. The global Printer object can be disabled with a new
--no-printer argument to the PixInsight Core application. The printer is enabled by default on FreeBSD and Linux, and disabled by default on Windows and Mac OS X. This is a temporary situation while we design and implement a new printing system better adapted to all supported platforms. This should fix a long standing problem with network printers that we have not fixed yet; see for example:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=6994.0* Integration of PCL 2.0.12.675.
* Integration of Qt 4.8.6 (official release).
* Integration of dcraw version 9.21 (revision 1.464, released June 13 2014).
* BatchPreprocessing script version 1.36, with full drizzle and Bayer drizzle support. See:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7184.0* Makefile Generator script version 1.91 (updated for PCL 2.0.12 with specific compiler optimizations).
* PixInsight Benchmark script version 1.01. See the official benchmark site (
http://pixinsight.com/benchmark/) and the following thread for complete information on the PixInsight Benchmark project:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7083.0* The update-devel repository is no longer included in the default set of update repositories. We plan on using this repository again for distribution of development modules, so it will be optional (it can be added manually to the list of active repositories).
* A new TotalGeneralizedVariation process category has been created in preparation to new TGV-based tools that will be released soon.
* The MultiscaleLinearTransform and MultiscaleMedianTransform tools are now also included in the NoiseReduction category for easier access.
* New 'static drizzle targets' option of the ImageIntegration tool. See the following thread for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7222.0* Updated Acknowledgements section to include new development tools and new software and hardware providers.
* New XorShift1024 PCL class. This is an implementation of the xorshift1024* pseudo-random number generation algorithm developed in 2014 by Sebastiano Vigna. For detailed information, see:
http://xorshift.di.unimi.it/ This new random number generator replaces the previous one based on a Mersenne twister algorithm.
* JavaScript Runtime: The Math.random() and Math.randomArray() static methods use now the xorshift1024* random number generator. The same is true for the Vector.setRandom() and Matrix.setRandom() methods.
* JavaScript Runtime: New Math.initRandomGenerator() static method.
* JavaScript Runtime / PCL: New Math.randomSeed32() and Math.randomSeed64() static methods. New pcl::RandomSeed32() and pcl::RandomSeed64() global functions.
* JavaScript Runtime / PCL: The Dialog object constructor takes now an optional parent control argument. This allows creation of top-level windows with a hierarchical organization from scripts. The same is true for the pcl::Dialog class.
* JavaScript Runtime / PCL: New Dialog.open() method. This method allows showing a dialog window without running a separate event loop. This is very useful to provide feedback (such as progress information) during long processes. There is also a new pcl::Dialog::Open() member function with the same purpose.
* JavaScript Runtime / PCL: New Rect.round(), Rect.rounded(), Point.round() and Point.rounded() methods. These methods are useful to control coordinate accuracy in analytical and computational geometry problems. Similar member functions have been implemented in the pcl::Point and pcl::Rect classes.
* JavaScript Runtime: New ByteArray.stringToMBS() and ByteArray.stringToLocal8Bit() static methods for locale-aware string conversions.
* JavaScript Runtime: New numerical conversion methods: String.toBoolean(), String.toFloat(), String.toInt(), String.toInt64(), String.toUInt(), and String.toUInt64(). These methods are useful for database access and data parsing routines. Note that these methods are PixInsight specific extensions that are not part of the ECMA standard.
* JavaScript Runtime: New infallible numerical conversion methods: String.tryToBoolean(), String.tryToFloat(), String.tryToInt(), String.tryToInt64(), String.tryToUInt(), and String.tryToUInt64(). These methods are useful for database access and data parsing routines. Note that these methods are PixInsight specific extensions that are not part of the ECMA standard.
I hope you enjoy this new release. Thank you for your support.
