Astro-SIMBAD-Client is Copyright (C) 2005-2012 by Thomas R. Wyant, III DESCRIPTION This module provides an object-oriented interface to SIMBAD 4. The new SOAP queries are supported, with the object carrying default output type and output format, as well as server name on the assumption that mirrors will be forthcoming. There are also methods to submit scripts, both verbatim and from files, and to execute the 'url queries'. Both queries and scripts have hooks for parsing the output. A couple parse routines are included, as well as formats to produce output parsable by the parse routines. The contents of the eg directory provide examples of the use of both. But the primary focus of this package is data acquisition, not parsing or presentation. Also included is 'simbadc', a simple script for using the class interactively. The 'simbadc' script can also be used as a Unix filter, that is, you can redirect commands into it from a file, or pipe them in from another program. INSTALLATION Most Perl users will want to install using their favorite of either 'cpan' or 'cpanp'. For either of these, installing Astro::Coord::ECI gets you everything. ActivePerl users will want to use ActiveState's 'ppi', and install Astro-satpass. If for some reason neither of these works for you, you can download the distribution and expand it using something like tar -xzf Astro-SIMBAD-Client-9.999.tar.gz Users of MSWin32 (and perhaps other operating systems) may need to convert the line endings in the expanded files from Unix to their native system before proceeding. Then, issue one of the following two incantations: perl Makefile.PL make make test sudo make install or perl Build.PL ./Build ./Build test sudo ./Build install You should substitute the appropriate program name for 'make', eg nmake (typically) under MSWin32, or mms or mmk under VMS. See ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe for a copy of nmake for MSWin32 if you need it. Unix users may want to use 'su' rather than 'sudo' for the install. Non-unix users may need to be logged in to an administrative or otherwise privileged accout, and turn on privileges (if applicable) for the install. Of course, since it's pure Perl, you can just expand the kit and drop the .pm files into the Astro/Coord/ECI directory (creating it if necessary) in the appropriate place in your @INC directories. LICENSING INFORMATION This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl 5.10.0. For more details, see the full text of the licenses in the directory LICENSES. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.