HISTORY

Dec 07: 2.7
	- FITS I/O and astrometry layers updated (same as SWarp and SCAMP)
	- Support for model-fitting

Jul 06: 2.5
        - Support for VOTable catalogs and metadata in output.

Aug 05: 2.4
        - New windowed measurement parameters
        - Better FITS compliancy of output files

May 03: 2.3
	- Autoconf'ed package.
	- Dumpable internal config file
	- Large File Support
	- Support for MEF files

Feb 01: 2.2
	- Mostly bug fixes and experimental stuff added

May 99: 2.1
	- Mostly bug fixes and experimental stuff added

April 98: 2.0
	- New documentation

January 97 - March 98:1.2
	- Rewriting of an important part of the software, in order to
	  prepare the future... Further optimization of many functions:
	  V1.2 is 30 to 500% faster than V1.0.
	- (natural) bicubic spline interpolation added to the background-map
	  processing.
	- Possibility to use another FITS frame for detecting objects,
	  allowing pixel-to-pixel colour measurements.
	- New MAG_AUTO magnitudes, more robust towards contamination by
	  neighbouring sources (MASKing option).
	- New .sex format.
	- New CHECKIMAGE_TYPEs: MINIBACKGROUND (produces small background maps),
				BACKGROUND_RMS (produces noise maps)
				MINIBACK_RMS (produces small noise maps)
				IDENTICAL (useful for converting data types)
	                        -OBJECTS (background and detections removed).
        - Multiple CHECKIMAGE output.
	- New astrometric parameters using the WCS library.
        - Handling of external flag-maps.
        - Handling of images with variable S/N and external noise- or weight-
          maps, with interpolation.
        - Real-time cross-identification with an ASCII catalog.

May 96:	1.1 "DeNIS" version (not distributed officially)
	- Corrects 2 fatal bugs which sometimes appeared with DEC-Alphas
	- Incorporates a new extended FITS output format.
	- Added possibility to measure within multiple apertures.

May 95: Passed 1.0a version: -> FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE!!! <-
	- Now the NNW filename is correct in FITS catalog headers.
	- Corrected a convolution bug with large masks at the bottom of
	  the frame. Added a better-than-nothing normalization of
	  zero-sum masks.
	- Display of the FITS ID limited to 20 characters.
	- New default.nnw enhanced and with a larger seeing range.
	- FWHM parameters slightly tuned for undersampled profiles.
	- The ``sexcopy'' SExTool put in the previous archive wasn't the
	  right one! Replaced.
	- 2 new SExtools released: sexreduce and sexin.

Apr 95: FIRST 1.0 version:
	- Neural-network based star/galaxy classifier implemented. NNW-file
	  for Moffat-like PSFs in the optical, generated from simulations.
	- User's manual updated.
	- FWHM_IMAGE, FWHM_IMAGE and ELONGATION parameters added.
	- many more typical convolution files included in the archive.
	- Comments (beginning with a `#') are now allowed within all the
	  configuration files.
	- 2 SExTools released: sexcat and sexcopy.
	- Alpha VMS version added (thanks to R. Johnstone).

Feb 95: 1.0 beta 5e version:
	- 2 bugs major corrected: background interpolation when very special
	  convolution masks are used, and (fixed) aperture magnitude (improved
	  to sub-pixel integration).
	- Possibility to change preference keywords from the command line.

Dec 94: 1.0 beta 5 version:
	- Major update! Too many changes to mention.
	- Code optimized and much more stable now.
	- New executables for IBM RS6000 and AMIGA added.
	- "II" dropped: call me simply "SExtractor" now.

Sep 94: 1.0 beta 4 version:
	- "clean" distribution with source and makefiles for DEC Alpha,
	  HP/UX, and SUN workstations.
	- SATUR_LEVEL keyword added.
	- FLAGS parameter now reliable and written in decimal in ASCII cat.
	- KRON_RADIUS parameter now reliable.
	- MAG_ISO_ERR and MAG_APER_ERR now give trusty estimates.
	- BACKGROUND parameter now in "raw" units.
	- catalog index numbering starts now from 1.
	- 2 huge fatal bugs corrected in deblending and background estimation
	  procedures.


Jun 94: 1.0 beta 3 version: many bugs corrected thanks to enthousiastic
	testers! First public release.

May 94: 1.0 beta 2 version: reads now all kinds of FITS data. C code
	completely rewritten in ANSI; image bitmaps are now stored in
	floating-point. Now controlled through configuration files.
	User's manual written.

Feb 94: 1.0 beta 1 version of "Sextractor II", still limited to 16 bits FITS
	frames, but pipelined processing allows now frames with size up to
	65534x65534 to be processable on most machines.

Mar 93: final version of "Sextractor I": limited to 16 bits 2048x2048 max. FITS
	frames, specifically oriented toward Schmidt plate data processing.
	Has reduced more than 1.2e10 pixels within 10 months...