Project Horizon is now working to combine those features into a single package of reusable Java code called the Horizon Java Image Data Browser Package. We note that the aim of the Horizon package is not meant to duplicate or replace the role of visualizing tools such as SAOimage or Aipsview or of image processing packages such AIPS, IRAF, and others. Instead, Horizon focuses specifically on data browsing , that stage of data handling before and after processing and analysis with native software tools. For more specific applications, the Horizon classes can be mixed and matched to create new specialized tools. A sample Horizon application for viewing images.
Horizontal lines delimit the three Horizon objects that make up the viewer.
The Horizon package provides a variety of widgets that can be assembled into a variety of applets and applications. As an example, Figure 1 shows a Viewer application made up of three Horizon components, a Viewer Panel and two Control Panels. Control Panels will provide specialized functionality such as zoom control, animation, colormap fiddling, and data transfer. In addition to the GUI components, the Horizon package also provides important classes that work behind the scenes. Also important is the set of classes that support world coordinate systems associated with the data.