Hi all,
Today we have released a new version of PixInsight: 1.7.4. This is a transitional version to stabilize the platform in preparation to more important releases that we'll see in 2012.
Along with lots of bug fixes and stability improvements, PixInsight 1.7.4 introduces the following main features:
Improved Mac OS X / Cocoa 64-bit version
With this release we have made big efforts to achieve a fully stable 64-bit version of PixInsight for the Mac. Most of the previous problems should now be fixed. This has been possible thanks to the new Qt 4.8.0 version, which---at last---fixes most of the bugs that have been serious obstacles until now. Not all Qt bugs have been fixed, but we have managed to work around almost all remaining problems with our own platform-specific code.
As far as we have tested it, only two problems remain to be fixed in the 64-bit version of PixInsight for Mac OS X:
- The application loses the keyboard focus sporadically. Despite this sounds somewhat 'dramatic', it is actually a very minor problem in practice. Sometimes the keyboard ceases to work on image windows (e.g. using the space bar key to activate the pan mode) and on the Process Console window (command line). Fortunately, when this happens all tool windows continue working normally, so you can always use the keyboard to enter numeric parameter values, file paths, etc. If this happens, open the Process Explorer, extend it and click on the documentation browser's URL field. This simple action usually fixes the problem.
- Moving items---especially icons---around the workspace is a bit slow (performance issue). The same happens with the readout preview when you click on an image.
Other than these issues, the 64-bit version seems to work extremely well on Mac OS X, at least with our machines. In addition, the new version should show some love to OS X Lion.
The current 32-bit (Carbon-based) version of PixInsight could be the last one if we manage to fix all of these problems completely in the next release. As Mac OS X is a native 64-bit operating system (since 10.6 Snow Leopard), the only reason to maintain a 32-bit version has been persistence of problems in the 64-bit version. So if PixInsight/Cocoa becomes fully stable, we can say good-bye (and thanks) to PixInsight/Carbon very soon. Everything indicates that this will be the case for PixInsight 1.8.0.
New GUI Features
New Copy View Zoom function. When two views have the same geometry, you can drag one of the view selectors to the other one to copy the current zoom factor and scroll position. This is very useful to compare images and previews.
New Fast View Navigation function. Press the right mouse button and keep it pressed while you move the cursor over the view selectors of an image window. This selects the view under the cursor without additional clicks.
New Quick View Select function. When you are dragging a process icon, a process instance or a view selector, simply hit the Shift key to bring the image under the cursor to the top of the windows stack on the current workspace.
The Escape key now works as the Pause/Abort button. You can hit Esc in the middle of a long process to pause and cancel it.
Improved AutoHide windows. AutoHide windows (Process Explorer, etc.) now are hidden automatically when you move the cursor outside them. Clicking on the workspace or on a tool window is no longer necessary to hide the Process Explorer.
Script Editor's syntax highlighting updated to match the latest version of the PIDoc document definition language.
New Compile PIDoc Document menu action available on Script Editor. You no longer have to run the PIDoc compiler script while you are authoring documentation; a simple menu selection does the work.
New Default Favorite Process Collection
The previous default favorite process collection was seriously outdated. We have defined a new one with the following processes:
ATrousWaveletTransform
BackgroundNeutralization
ColorCalibration
CurvesTransformation
Deconvolution
DynamicBackgroundExtraction
DynamicCrop
FastRotation
HDRMultiscaleTransform
HistogramTransformation
MorphologicalTransformation
MultiscaleMedianTransform
PixelMath
ProcessContainer
Resample
RGBWorkingSpace
SampleFormatConversion
ScreenTransferFunction
StarMask
Statistics
The ACDNR process has been excluded because it will be declared obsolete, probably in the next version. Unless you have defined your ownn favorite process collections, we encourage you to test the new default one by right-clicking on one item of the Process Explorer window and selecting 'Set Default Favorite Process Collection'.
New Standard GradientDomain Module
With this version we have included Georg Viehoever's GradientDomain module in the set of standard modules distributed with the PixInsight Core application. All existing projects and process icons of these processes will continue working normally.
We hope you like it. Happy new year to everybody!
