Hi all,
While I'm writing this, PixInsight 1.6.9.651 installation packages are being uploaded for all supported platforms.
Main Bug Fixes
The new version fixes a number of bugs and problems present in the initial 1.6.9 release. The most important bugs fixed are the following:
- Fixed timeout issues with the updater application on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
- Fixed a bug where the mouse wheel parameters were incorrectly modified by the PixInsight Core application (all platforms).
- Fixed a regression in the SCNR tool where the "Preserve luminance" check box was enabled by default, causing "surprising results".
- Fixed a bug in the DSSImageDownloader script where downloading gzip-compressed FITS images led to crash on Mac OS X, due to 'limitations' (to say it euphemistically) of CFITSIO.
- Fixed a regression in the DarkStructureEnhance script where execution failed due to an incompatibility caused by changes in the Rescale process.
- Fixed a regression in the MakefileGenerator script where the FreeBSD and Linux items where swapped in the Platform combo box.
- Fixed a bug in the AssistedColorCalibration tool by Zbynek Vrastil, where instances saved to XPSM/PSM files where not restored correctly.
- Fixed a number of minor issues with workspace windows on all platforms, especially on Mac OS X. The 64-bit Mac OS X version is somewhat better although some GUI issues still persist.
New Features
In addition, build 651 introduces two important improvements:
- The PixInsight Core application is now fully position-independent on all platforms. This means that once installed, you can move PixInsight Core to a different directory on the local filesystem without problems. The application does no longer store absolute paths to module and script files within the installation directory tree, but relative paths coded in a special format. The translation from the previous format is automatic and transparent the first time build 651 is executed.
This feature is particularly important on Mac OS X, since on this operating system applications are managed as high-level objects (application bundles) that can be handled as regular files, and hence copied and moved to different locations. Now you can copy and move PixInsight application bundles anywhere throughout your filesystem without problems. To make this possible, the application bundles have been renamed on Mac OS X: now we have PixInsight32.app and PixInsight64.app, so an added benefit of this feature is that both applications can be directly copied to the standard /Applications folder (or to any other folder where the user has write access), where they can coexist side-by-side.
- The PixInsight Core application can now handle open events on Mac OS X. PixInsight registers now as an editor for all image file formats it supports with the standard set of file format modules (FITS, TIFF, JPEG, JPEG2000, DSLR raw formats, etc.), plus the file formats owned by the PixInsight paltform: XPSM, PSM (icon files) and XFPC (favorite process collections).
This is an important improvement in the way PixInsight integrates with the Mac OS X desktop. Similar integrations will be implemented for Windows and UNIX/Linux in future versions.
- Improved update repository support. PixInsight repositories can now use metadata specifications to simplify deployment of modules on multiple platforms. The XRI specification will be documented officially following this release.
Happy New Year to everybody!
