
2007 Oct 7

This message is to announce the availability of the first version of
the mark5access library.  In this initial release detection and decoding
of VLBA, Mark3/4 and Mark5B data formats is possible.  For those that
used an earlier library called vlba_stream (or vlba_util) you will likely
find many improvements, including faster decoding, more reliable header
detection and support on both big and little endian machines, among others.
Please read the short document doc/UserGuide for information on its use.

The API of the public functions in this release is expected to be stable,
but it is not quite feature complete yet.  Support for frame-by-frame
validation is planned in the near future.  Possible longer term features
could include: pulse cal detection, state counting, switched power detection,
support for input via network (i.e. eVLBI), and mark5 module handling 
support (directories and direct reading using the StreamStor API).

This library is meant to be easily extended to other formats (see
doc/DeveloperGuide).  I encourage submission of patches (preferably
with test data and expected output from the decoder program m5d found
in the examples directory) that implement additional formats.

mark5access uses the Gnu autotools, meaning installation is simple:

unpack the tar file

./configure   [ optionally with --prefix=/.../... ]
make
make install

It is likely that some embarrasing bugs exist in this first release.  Please 
send any bug reports to Walter Brisken <wbrisken@nrao.edu>
