Like all software, version 1.0 is a unique milestone: a point where the developers feel it is complete to a minimal level. In Gnuastro, the goal to achieve for version 1.0 is to have all the necessary tools for optical imaging data reduction: starting from raw images of individual exposures to the final deep image ready for high-level science.
While various software did already exist and were commonly used when Gnuastro was first released in 2016. The existing software are mostly written without following any robust, or even common, coding and usage standards or up-to-date and well-maintained documentation. This makes it very hard to reduce astronomical data without learning those software’s peculiarities through trial and error.
GNU Astronomy Utilities 0.23 manual, July 2024.