Any recommendations on development software?

[Stephen Lowe]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has recommendations on development software
for working with VOTables, XML Schema or FITS files. Particular areas
we're interested in here are:

XML Binders --- the Caltech group used Breeze to create and distribute a
Java class hierarchy (JAVOT) for manipulating VOTable data, reading and
creating VOTable files. Are there features that recommend Breeze over
alternatives, such as Sun's JAXB?

Are any of the participants working with a C++ binder and class library?

FITS file libraries --- we're trying the Java package nom.tam.fits. Any
other suggestions?

Just to give some context, to support our demo system we're writing some
translators to reformat FITS headers from several example archives into
VOTables. We're presently using Java, nom.tam.fits and JAVOT, though
we're early enough in development to change if we want. We're making
some very provisional object definitions, such as a WCSXFORM object to
encapsulate the pixel-to-sky coordinate transformation, so we may need
to experiment with with modifications to the VOTable schema, which is
why we're interested in the XML binder.

Thanks for any advice,
Steve