Astro::PAL -- interface to Starlink PAL C library
==========

This module provides an interface layer to the Starlink PAL positional
astronomy library.

An example program, stime, is provided. This simply reports the
current time (modified Julian day and local sidereal time for the JCMT).

Requirements:
-------------

A C compiler is required but the SOFA and PAL source code are included
with the distribution and will be built automatically.

Installation:
-------------

  % perl Build.PL
  % ./Build
  % ./Build test
  % ./Build install

The tests only test part of the build. Some functions remain untested.

See Astro::Coords for a general object-oriented wrapper around Astro::PAL.

Documentation:
--------------

The module provides documentation on how to use the perl interface
to PAL. It does not contain information on how to use
PAL itself.

The basic PAL documentation can be found at

 http://www.starlink.ac.uk/star/docs/sun267.htx/sun267.html

For more information the SLA documentation provides much more
detail:

  http://www.starlink.ac.uk/star/docs/sun67.htx/sun67.html

A description paper for PAL was published in the ADASS XXII
conference proceedings:

  http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ASPC..475..307J

Please consider citing this if you use PAL or this module in your
research.

Copyright
---------

Copyright (C) 2014 Tim Jenness
Copyright (C) 2012 Tim Jenness and the Science and Technology Facilities
Council. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place,Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA

The array handling code was written by Karl Glazebrook.

Version History
---------------

1.00 Initial release

1.01 Fix MANIFEST of distribution to include PAL and SOFA source code.

1.02 Fix floating point comparisons in sun67.t

1.03 Update PAL to v0.1.2. Avoid using the C99 copysign() function
     on Solaris.

1.04 Update PAL to v0.1.3. Use __STDC_VERSION__ test before using
     copysign().

1.05 Update PAL to v0.1.4. Use a private isblank() function and do
     not attempt to use modern POSIX compiler settings.

1.06 Update PAL to v0.5.0
     - Now ships with ERFA v1.1.0 instead of SOFA, clarifying license anomalies.
     Add support for palOap, palOapqk, palRefco, palRefcoq, palRefro,
     palRefv, palRefz, palAop, palAoppa, palAoppat, palAopqk, palAtmdsp

1.07 Fix build dependencies

1.08 Update PAL to v0.9.9 and ERFA to v1.5.0
     Add support for palAltaz, palDcmpf, palEcleq, palFitxy, palInvf,
     palPcd, palPolmo, palPxy, palUnpcd and palXy2xy.
