first attempt at a proper packaging for XVista

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

  Prompted by Tom's recent problems to build the XVista image-processing
code on his new Mandrake 9.0 system, I _finally_ did something I've 
been considering for a long time: put the XVista code into a standard
GNU format, using the "autoconf" and "automake" tools Chris mentioned
recently.  I'd done this for other programs used by the TASS pipeline
(such as "match" and "photom"), but never for code which used the 
X Window system.  

  It took a full day, but I _think_ I managed to get it right; or mostly
right, anyway.  Chris wrote:

> To learn much more you need to get the tools 
>   Autoconf, Automake, Autoheader, and Libtool
> Print and read the user manuals.  These tools have been around a
> while so the user manuals have been through a number of edit cycles
> and are actually good

  Well, they aren't bad, but it still took me many hours to figure
out exactly how to ensure that various files linked properly.  
Sigh.  And getting the man pages to be included in the distribution
wasn't fun, either.

  Anyway, if a few brave souls want to help me out, they might grab
the code and see if it works.  Look at

        http://spiff.rit.edu/tass/xvista/

to find the xvista-0.1.tar.gz file.  The idea is simple:

             - download the file
             - un-gzip and un-tar
             - go into the "xvista-0.1" dir
             - type "./configure"
             - type "make"
              
and all should compile and link.  That's the theory, anyway.

  Please read the notes in the INSTALL file.  You will see that 
the programs which display FITS images will work properly only
for X Windows displays which are 8 bits deep.  Most people probably
work with 16-bit or 24-bit displays; they would have to modify their
desktop, either via a nice tool ("Choose 256 colors") or by
editing the /etc/X11/XF86Config file directly.

  Assuming that you _are_ running under an 8-bit display, and
that the code did build properly, you can verify that things are
working by typing this while you are in the xvista-0.1 directory.

       % export SYM_TABLE=~/.sym
       % ./propinit
       % ./pstar nrow=500 ncol=500 rms=50 field=100,5000,500,3
              (a list of 100 stars will be printed to the screen)       
              (and a file called "pstar.fts" will be created)
       % ./tv pstar.fts 
              (a window should appear with 100 stars scattered at random)
              (try moving the cursor to a star and pressing the 'r' key)
              (you may have to press 'r' twice ...)

  If you try this, please let me know what happens.  There are man
pages in the "man1" subdirectory; read the "intro" page as a start.

                              Michael Richmond