LSL - The LWA Software Library

DESCRIPTION
	This package contains a collection of tools for reading, format shifting, 
	and analyzing LWA data.  It also contains the majority of the lwa_user
	library developed by NRL.  The lwa_user modules includes (and their 
	respective names in the LSL package are):
		lwa_user.astro_array	(lsl.astro_array)
		lwa_user.astro			(lsl.astro)
		lwa_user.catalog		(lsl.catalog)
		lwa_user.mathutil		(lsl.misc.mathutil)
		lwa_user.nec_util		(lsl.sim.nec_util)
		lwa_user.skymap		(lsl.skymap)
		lwa_user.transform		(lsl.transform)

REQUIREMENTS
	python >= 2.6 and python < 3.0
	swig >= 1.3
	numpy >= 1.2
	scipy >= 0.7
	pyfits >= 2.1
	pyephem >= 3.7.3
	aipy >= 0.9.1
	*matplotlib >= 0.98.3
	(* required for some of the scripts)

	In addition, the libnova C library is required.  This is an astronomical
	calculation and ephemeris library.  The lsl.libnova python module is built 
	as a SWIG wrapper around the libnova library, and this provides the basis 
	of the astronomical code contained in the package.  If you are using binary 
	packages, be sure to install the libnova-dev version, as the library header 
	include files are required for the build.  Some issues have arisen with the 
	system version of swig for some platforms: this default version is too old 
	to correctly generate wrapper code for python 2.6.  Use libnova version 
	0.13.0 or later; version 0.12 is known to contain errors. (The lsl wrapper 
	code will correct for these errors if an older version of libnova is used.)

	The libnova C library can be found at:
		http://http://libnova.sourceforge.net/

BUILD
	The LSL package is installed as a regular Python package using distutils.  
	Unzip and untar the source distribution. Setup the python interpreter you 
	wish to use for running the package applications and switch to the root of 
	the source distribution tree.

	A setup configuration script is required to run the build process.  A sample 
	config file may be found in the root directory of the source distribution as 
	'setup.cfg'.  This file must be edited to specify the location of the 
	libnova library files if that location is not in '/usr/local'.  Edit the 
	following lines:
		***********************************************************************
		[DEFAULT]
		
		# The libnova_prefix value should point to the platform installation of
		# the libnova libraries and header files
		
		libnova_prefix = /usr/local
		***********************************************************************
	and change to to the location where libnova is installed on your machine:
		***********************************************************************
		[DEFAULT]
		
		# The libnova_prefix value should point to the platform installation of
		# the libnova libraries and header files
		
		libnova_prefix = /Software/libnova/0.13.0
		***********************************************************************

	The setup process will expect to find the libnova library C header files in 
	'<libnova_prefix>/include/libnova' and the share library object file in 
	'<libnova_prefix>/lib'.  Do not modify any of the lines in the [build_ext] 
	section of the config file.

	To build the LSL package, run:
		'python setup.py build'

TESTING
	To test the as-build LSL package, run:
		'python setup.py test'

INSTALL
	Install LSL by running:
		'python setup.py install [--prefix=<prefix>|--user]'

	If the '--prefix' option is not provided, then the installation 
	tree root directory is the same as for the python interpreter used to run 
	setup.py.  For instance, if the python interpreter is in 
	`/usr/local/bin/python', then <prefix> will be set to '/usr/local'.
	Otherwise, the explicit <prefix> value is taken from the command line
	option.  The package will install files in the following locations:
		<prefix>/bin
		<prefix>/lib/python2.6/site-packages
		<prefix>/share/doc
		<prefix>/share/install
	If an alternate <prefix> value is provided, you should set the PATH
	environment to include directory '<prefix>/bin' and the PYTHONPATH
	environment to include directory '<prefix>/lib/python2.6/site-packages'.

	If the '--user' option is provided, then then installation tree root 
	directory will be in the current user's home directory.	

UNIT TESTS
	Unit tests for the package may be found in the 'lsl/tests' sub-directory 
	in the package source distribution tree.  To run the complete suite of 
	package unit tests:
		'python test_lsl.py'.
	The tests may also be run from an interactive python session after LSL has 
	been successfully installed via: 
		'import lsl; lsl.test()'

DOCUMENTATION
	See doc/README for documentation information.

RELEASE NOTES
	Version 0.3
		New setuptools-based build system
		New, improved documentation
		Added post-acquisition beam forming module
		Added in modules for writing simulated data to the S60, TBW, TBN, and 
		DRX raw data formats
		Added a module for simulated basic test signals in TBW, TBN, and DRX
		data
		Moved the lwa_user script `astrostatus.py' into the scripts directory
		Fixed the FITS IDI writer
		Fixed a couple of bugs dealing with incorrect chunking of data in 
		scripts/tbwSpectra.py and scripts/tbnSpectra.py

	Version 0.2
		Added in other modules from the lwa_user library developed by NRL

	Version 0.1
		Initial version
