Hi all,
A new version of PixInsight has been just released and is now available to all users: 1.8.3.1123 for FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X (10.8 and later), and Windows.
Build 1123 is a maintenance release intended to stabilize the platform in preparation to important new modules and scripts that we plan to release during the next months. 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 on your /Applications folder. Starting from version 1.8.3, there are important changes in the way PixInsight is distributed on Mac OS X. Please see the following forum post for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7670.0Windows: 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.
Main Bug FixesThis version fixes most confirmed bugs in the previous builds, plus a number of minor bugs and performance issues that we have discovered through exhaustive stress testing. Here is a partial list with the most important bug fixes:
* Core Application: Fixed several issues with projects generated by previous versions (1.8.2 and older).
* Core Application: Top-level windows were refusing to be resized programmatically to cover more than 2/3 of the screen height. This was causing many problems with large tool and script windows. This has been fixed so a window can now be resized arbitrarily from C++ (PCL) and JavaScript (PJSR) code, even beyond the available screen dimensions.
* Core Application: Fixed some screen flickering problems with tool windows on Windows 8.
* TIFF support module: TIFF files larger than 2 GiB could not be read/written on Windows. This regression has been fixed. See the original bug report:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7765.0Main New FeaturesThis is a partial list with the most important new features in PixInsight Core 1.8.3.1123:
* New sealed projects feature. See this forum thread for more information:
http://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php?topic=7768.0* New FILE > Load Empty Project menu item. See the above forum link for more information.
* Improved project robustness. Projects are now much more tolerant to errors of many types. See the above forum link for more information.
* Improved project data storage management. Projects are now more efficient and robust to store data as inline blocks (in the XML project file) or external files (on the project data folder).
* All executables, modules and dynamic libraries (not just the core application) are now digitally signed with our corporate code signing certificates on Windows and Mac OS X. This is an important security improvement. However, please note that if your computer is infected by viruses and other malwares, altered signed files may prevent you from running PixInsight on your machine.
* View properties are now shown in real time on the View Explorer window. This is useful to inspect data properties associated with views, such as statistics, histograms and data generated dynamically by processes and scripts.
* Improved real-time generation of tree views on explorer windows, especially the View Explorer window.
I hope you enjoy this new release. Thank you for your continued support.
