FITS ( Flexible Image Transport System ) is an open standard defining a digital file format that serves as the de facto standard for storage, transmission, and processing of astronomical data. It provides support for storing images, multidimensional data in the form of tables.
During the GSoC period, my task was to complete the development of the existing FITS parser. That involved improvising the current FITS parser and developing an external API for communicating with the FITS module.
For a better understanding of the FITS module, the first few weeks( during the community bonding period) were spent in writing Unit tests and completing the documentation for the existing codebase. It helped me in understanding the idealogy and design of the previous fits codebase/module.
During the second phase, our primary concern was to complete the reading part of the FITS module. We replaced the existing code of the FITS module ( HDU, header, card parsing) with a policy-based design