Astro::SIMBAD modules --------------------- What is it? ----------- The Astro::SIMBAD module is an objected orientated Perl interface to the SIMBAD astronomical database. SIMBAD provides basic data, cross-identifications and bibliography for astronomical objects outside the solar system. I'd like to point anyone interested in the Astro::SIMBAD module towards the Astro::Catalog module, which does most of what Astro::SIMBAD does, and a whole lot more. It may be more suitable for your needs. Why do it? ---------- Due to the requirements of the eSTAR project for which this module was written I needed a modern object-orientated interface I could use for data mining SIMBAD. This module was the result. Requirements ------------ The module requires the libwww-perl-5.60 package written by Gisle Aas v5.53 or above. This package can be obtained via CPAN at http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libwww-perl Also required is the Net::Domain module, v2.13 or above, by Graham Barr . This module has been included in the base distribution since Perl 5.7.2, but otherwise can be downloaded from CPAN as part of the libnet package, see http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=libnet Provides -------- The package provides the following classes Astro::SIMBAD::Query Astro::SIMBAD::Result Astro::SIMBAD::Result::Object Where can I get it? ------------------- The package is availabe from CPAN and from http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/aa/pages/computing/estar.html Installation ------------ Installation is automated using the ExtUtils::MakeMaker library % perl Makefile.PL % make % make test % make install Authors ------- This module was written by Alasdair Allan , of the University of Exeter Astrophysics Group (http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/) as part of his work for the eSTAR project. As of release V2..0 the module includes patches written by Mark Echeverri to support object-type queries in addition to "list"-type queries. License ------- This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. 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. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place,Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA