CCfits
2.5
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This section comments on some of the design decisions for CCfits. We note the role of cfitsio in CCfits as the underlying "engine," the use of the C++ standard library. We also explain some of the choices made for standard library containers in the implementation - all of which is hidden from the user [as it should be].
Most importantly, the library wraps rather than replaces the use of cfitsio library; it does not perform direct disk I/O. The scheme is designed to retain the well-developed facilities of cfitsio (in particular, the extended file syntax), and make them available to C++ programmers in an OO framework. Some efficiency is lost over a 'pure' C++ FITS library, since the internal C implementation of many functions requires processing if blocks or switch statements that could be recoded in C++ using templates. However, we believe that the current version strikes a resonable compromise between developer time, utility and efficiency.
The implementation of CCfits uses the C++ Standard Library containers and algorithms [also referred to as the Standard Template Library, (STL)] and exception handling. Here is a summary of the rationale behind the implementation decisions made.
HDUs are contained within a FITS object using a std::multimap<string, HDU*> object.
Scalar column data [one entry per cell] are implemented using std::vector<T> objects.
Vector column data [multiple and either fixed or variable numbers of entries per cell] are implemented using std::vector<std::valarray <T> > objects. The std::valarray template is intended for optimized numeric processing. valarrays are have the following desirable features:
They provide std::valarray<T> apply(T f(const T&)) operation, to apply a function f to each element
They provide slicing operations [see the "Getting Started" section for a simple example].