Fwd: SLgtk 0.5.9 and Vwhere 1.2.2 released

[Michael Noble <mnoble space mit edu>]

From: "Michael S. Noble" <mnoble space mit edu>
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.0 (Linux)

Announcement
============

Version 0.5.9 of SLgtk is now available at

	http://space.mit.edu/CXC/software/slang/modules/slgtk

Release highlights are given in the CHANGELOG excerpt below.


Description
===========

The SLgtk package binds the Gtk2 and GtkExtra widget sets to the S-Lang
scripting language (www.s-lang.org).  SLgtk wraps more than 2200 functions
from Gtk2 and its constituent libraries, includes over 4000 lines of
sample code in 40+ working guilets, and bundles a code generator (SLIRP)
which can be useful for building additional S-Lang modules.

SLgtk also includes a visual version of the powerful S-Lang "where"
command, extensions to and performance enhancements for several GtkExtra
widgets, and a pixbuf loader for the FITS image file format widely used
within astronomy.

Regards,

-Michael S. Noble

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 0.5.8 (06/16/04):

  1.  Added orientation and paper size options to print dialog

  2.  Support passing multiple callback args to callback funcs registered via
      gtk_idle_add(), _quit_add(), _timeout_add(), and _container_foreach()

  3.  SLgtk GtkPlot widget wrapper enhancements:

	. if line color is specified to _gtk_[o]plot() then that color will
	  be used for the symbol as well

	. generic plots now connected with straight line, unless npoints(plot)
	  is very large; in this case connecting symbols adds litte, so for
	  performance and memory conservation line drawing is turned off

	. added _gtk_plot_set_vlpsize() to customize the (v)ery (l)arge
	  (p)lot size cutoff value (default: 500k points)

	. added _gtk_plot_print() convenience function to simplify plot
	  printing, optionally using the print dialog (see docs)

	. now possible to generate plots without X display, via bundled
	  Debian xvfb-run script (modified to run on multiple platforms)

	. experimental _gtk_plot_image() function: plot descriptor can now
	  be generated directly from image pixel array, which supports, eg,
	  overlaying scatterplots directly onto FITS/RGB images (see demo)

  4.  New slgtk-demo example: plot overlaid onto image, with printing

  5.  GtkPlot widget enhancements (not yet fed back to GtkExtra SourceForge):
	. avoid symbol drawing loop when symbol=NONE or (symbol=DOT and 
	  symbol_color = line_color), which can double or triple rendering
	  performance for common plots

  6.  Minor tweaks to improve autoload()-ability and multiple evalfile()s

  7.  GtkExtra package now separately loadable via require("gtkextra");

  8.  Bundle latest SLIRP version (1.0.5, see SLIRP CHANGELOG for details)