STSDAS v3.0 RELEASE SUMMARY


The primary changes incorporated in this release are:

1) The addition of Python-based tasks. Two new tasks, PyDrizzle and
   xytosky, appear in the analysis.dither package. These tasks require
   PyRAF to be installed in order to run them. Both may be run using
   standard IRAF CL task syntax, or within Python scripts using 
   Python syntax. See the release notes for more information.
   PyRAF may be obtained from http://pyraf.stsci.edu
2) CALACS has had many changes and enhancments made. The version 
   distributed, Version 4.1a (26-July-2002), is one that has been
   extensively tested with real ACS data in the STScI calibration
   pipeline.
3) CALNICA (v4.0) incorporates significant changes, particularly
   in its ability to construct temperature-dependant darks to match
   the darks expected for specific observations.
4) A new version of CALSTIS is available and incorporates several 
   changes including time-dependent sensitivity, blaze shift, and
   geometric corrections.
5) A new SYNPHOT task--THERMBACK--is available to compute background
   flux from the optics of infra-red instruments. Support for 
   NICMOS has been added.
6) PyRAF wrappers have been developed to give a PyRAF interface to
   the ST-ECF aXe ACS grism extraction package. The binaries for this
   package have been included with the STSDAS binary distribution
   for Redhat, Solaris, and Mac OS X (this package is not currently
   supported on other platforms. Support for this package is available
   from acsdesk@eso.org and information may be found at 
   http://www.stecf.org/software/aXe and in the help files distributed
   with STSDAS.

The Science Software Group is engaged in an effort to move to doing
most of its software development with Python. This release of
STSDAS/TABLES (v3.0) has new tasks that will require our new
command language for IRAF called PyRAF (see pyraf.stsci.edu).
PyRAF 1.0 is being released at the same time as STSDAS/TABLES v3.0.
Only STSDAS has Python-based tasks in this release. No tasks in
TABLES has Python-based tasks, though this may not be true in
future releases.


New packages or tasks:

analysis.dither.pydrizzle
               .xytosky
hst_calib.acs.axe
         .synphot.thermback

Packages or tasks that have seen significant changes include:

analysis.dither
hst_calib.acs.calacs
         .nicmos.calnica
         .stis.calstis
              .ovac2air
         .synphot

Packages or tasks that have had minor enhancements or bug fixes include:

analysis.fitting.i2gausfit
                .nfit1d
        .isophote.bmodel
contrib.specfit
graphics.stplot.psikern
               .sciaper
hst_calib.ctools.chcalpar
         .fos.calfos
         .hrs.waveoff
         .stis.inttag
              .normspflat
              .tastis
         .synphot.simulators
         .wfpc.calwp2
toolbox.imgtools.mstools.mscombine
                        .mscopy

Changes to libraries:

lib.cvos
lib.synphot

Parameter files that have changed (new parameters or new default values,
excluding parameters indicating version number changes):

analysis.dither.drizzle/drizzle.par - 'dr2gpar','kernel' added
         .acs/calacsdriz.par        - 'wt_scl' added
hst_calib.ctools/ckwfos.par         - many changes (for POA keywords)
                /ckwnicmos.par      - 'tempfile' added
         .hrs/waveoff.par           - 'linetab' default changed
graphics.splot/siaper.par           - 'siaf' default changed 
toolbox.imgtools/mstools/mscopy.par - 'extnames' added 

In addition the following packages have added parameter files

analysis.dither/pydrizzle.par 
               /xytosky.par
               .drizzle/tranback.par
                       /traxy.par
                       /wcs2dr.par                           
hst_calib.acs/calacsdriz.par 
             /axe/*.par
         .ctools/ckwacs1
                /ckwacs2
         .synphot/thermback.par