README

PFITS (A Python FITS iterface employing CFITSIO)

DESCRIPTION
    This package uses the CFITSIO library to interface to FITS files from
    Python.  Particular attention has been paid to supporting ASCII and
    BINARY tables with fixed and variable-length entries.  Data I/O is handled
    through numpy arrays.

ON THE WEB
    There are further instructions, documentation, and a FAQ at:
    http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/~aparsons/aipy/aipy.cgi/PFits


INSTALLATION
    PFITS requires Python >= 2.4 (and < 3.0 for now).  You also need to have
    numpy >= 1.2 installed on your system.

    INSTALL AS ROOT
        > sudo python setup.py install

    INSTALL AS USER
        You'll first install to a directory of your choice:
        $ python setup.py install --install-lib <module_dir> \
            --install-scripts <scripts_dir>
        This puts the python module in <module_dir>, and the command-line
        scripts in <scripts_dir>.  The next thing is to tell python where to
        look for the python module.  This is done by setting the PYTHONPATH
        variable to point to <module_dir>.  In bash, this looks like:
        $ export PYTHONPATH=<module_dir>
        However, you'll have to type this every time you open a terminal.  To
        avoid this, add the export line to the .bashrc file in your home dir.

Enjoy,
Aaron Parsons

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PACKAGE INFO FOR DEVELOPERS
    This version of PFITS uses CFITSIO version 3.14, the code for which is
    stored in src/cfitsio.