PixInsight 1.8.0 RC4 "Ripley" Released

[Juan Conejero]

What the hell has radioactive symbol common with Automatic screen transfer :-) ?

Well, it's actually a joke. Our STF AutoStretch routine works so well that we have been saying "that's an atomic feature" for a long time. On the other hand, we have a nice word play: automatic = atomic (thanks Georg for pointing this out, although I know you don't like this icon either). Finally, this icon is the standard for burning operations, and we could say that STF is like burning or "giving exposure to" the image. That's it, basically

[Harry page]

What the hell has radioactive symbol common with Automatic screen transfer :-) ?

Well, it's actually a joke. Our STF AutoStretch routine works so well that we have been saying "that's an atomic feature" for a long time. On the other hand, we have a nice word play: automatic = atomic (thanks Georg for pointing this out, although I know you don't like this icon either). Finally, this icon is the standard for burning operations, and we could say that STF is like burning or "giving exposure to" the image. That's it, basically

Ah I see a joke ,

Give a few years and I am sure I will " Get it "

Harry

[naavis]

A layers tool requires a considerable amount of time, which would be mostly my own development time. I'm not sure if this is where I should invest my time and resources now. We definitely will release a layers tool, but probably not before some of the above.

Alright, thanks! Oh, what about a fade tool, like in Photoshop? I find myself often wanting to lessen the effect of the previously applied process without actually running the process again and fiddling with the parameters. This can be achieved with PixelMath, but it'd be great if there was a direct tool!

[Carlos Milovic]

Yes, I think that we need something like a "constant mask", so every maskeable process would have its "amount" parameter. It could be an additional mask to the currently selected one.

[jbozeman]

What happened to "Utilities" under Scripts? I use Masked Stretch and Dark Structure Enhance and now I cannot find them.

John

[RoStm]

Hi,

I tried out the new console log file functionality having weired results.

Typing  the command "log -f=C:\logfile.txt" in PI's command line then there occurs a PCL Exception with File I/O Error message.
Choosing a different disk then C: and typing for example "log -f=E:\logfile.txt" then there is  the log file actually created  but only including three lines not as expected  all the console text output.

Is it me or is it a bug?

Regards,
Rolf Stadelmaier

[pfile]

Yes, I think that we need something like a "constant mask", so every maskeable process would have its "amount" parameter. It could be an additional mask to the currently selected one.

yeah i think that would be great. sometimes i have to make masks like this using PM.

another weird thing about masks - the state of whether or not the mask is enabled/disabled stays the same after selecting a new mask. i suppose it's open to interpretation whether or not they should be tied, but usually when someone selects a new mask they probably want to use it. as it stands now if the mask is disabled, after choosing a new mask it's still disabled.

[Alejandro Tombolini]

What happened to "Utilities" under Scripts? I use Masked Stretch and Dark Structure Enhance and now I cannot find them.
John

Hi John, it should be there!, Scirpt>Utilities. Anyway check in Process Explorer>Scripts>Utilities
What system are you using? The screenshot is under linux.
Saludos. Alejandro.

[sreilly]

In regards to my post of not installing version 1.8 I did another un-install and reinstall and all went as it should have the first time. No idea why the hicup but at least it is now working.

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Rolf,

Typing  the command "log -f=C:\logfile.txt" in PI's command line then there occurs a PCL Exception with File I/O Error message.

That happens because you probably don't have enough privileges to write to the "C:\" root folder. The error message is rather confusing: The system cannot find the specified file, but this is quite frequent on Windows.

Choosing a different disk then C: and typing for example "log -f=E:\logfile.txt" then there is  the log file actually created  but only including three lines not as expected  all the console text output.

The log file works well, but you cannot read its contents until you close it. For performance reasons, the log file is buffered. In other words, the log data are stored in memory and only sent to the file occasionally while the file remains open. When the file is closed, all the pending data are committed and actually written to disk.

You can close the log file with the --close argument:

log --close

Alternatively, you can force writing of all pending log file data without closing the file:

log --flush

[RoStm]

Ah yes, I see!

Juan, thank you for enlighten it and the additional information.

Rolf

[IanL]

With regard to the new UI, some (hopefully) constructive feedback.

The toolbar icons are different but look quite stylish.  I guess it's a pain if you are used to the old ones, but on the other hand I can imagine it is pretty hard to come up with one set of icons that look completely at home on three different platforms.

That said, on Windows, there are two issues that don't look so good and it would be nice if they could be fixed in the next RC:

a) The menu titles are all in CAPS.  It really spoils the look of what is otherwise a professional-looking interface.  Can we please have the standard non-caps menu titles back?

b) The default spacing of the menu bar items is way to wide on Windows; it's a usability issue for us Windows types, since spacing and size of menu bar items it pretty standard across most mainstream applications.  This one I have been able to fix myself by editing the win.qss file (hopefully no adverse impact on functionality!).  Settings I have used below:

/*
 * QMenuBar
 */

QMenuBar {
   background: #F0F0F0;
   border: 0;
   padding: 2px;
   padding-top: 2px;
   padding-bottom: 2px;
}

QMenuBar::item {
   spacing: 2px;
   margin: 0 3px 0 6px;
   padding: 2px 4px;
   color: black;
   background: transparent;
}

Thanks for listening!

[Alejandro Tombolini]

Hi IanL, in Preference you have the option to disable CAPS, uncheck it and apply global or F6.
I am using Linux but it should be there also in windows
Saludos, Alejandro.

[IanL]

Thanks Alejandro, completely missed that one even though I did have a look in preferences.

[red-shift]

Hi everybody,

.........

* Full support for SSL/TLS connections in the update system. The default update repository is now https://pixinsight.com/update/. This is a very important security improvement for authentication of update repositories and packages.

I cannot access the above update repository - HTTP Error 403.  I spent hours yesterday, trying to find the CSS that would enable me to change the Toolbar colours and couldn't.  I assume it might be in the update repository?  Or am I completely screwed up? 

Charles

I'm having the same problem. I uninstalled RC3 before installing RC4.