New STSCI Python package (2.10)

Those who updated Ubuntu from version 9.10 (Karmic Koala) to 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) might have noticed that Python 2.5 is not available in the new default repository. This is a big issue for the users such as the users of the Space Telescope Science Institute Python packages (PyRAF, MultiDrizzle, etc...) or some older google engine apps.

Fortunately a new version of the stsci_python is out today! With full support to Python 2.6 (3.0 will take longer).

http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyraf/stsci_python/current/download

Update (21/06)

Some may have the following error when importing the iraf modules using

from pyraf import iraf
  File "", line 38
    iraf.set(as = 'host$as/')
              ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pyraf/irafimport.py:54: RuntimeWarning: Parent module 'pyraf' not found while handling absolute import
  return _originalImport(name, globals, locals, fromlist, level)

To fix it the trailing slash on the /iraf/iraf/unix/hlib/zzsetenv file on line 38 should be removed. Everything runs smoothly.