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
<gisle@ActiveState.com> 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 <gbarr@pobox.com>. 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 <http://www.cpan.org/> 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 <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>, 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
<echever@ipac.caltech.edu> 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
