Move read_table() and Counter() to a top-level utils directory as they are used both by pcigale and pcigale-plots.

Create a pcigale/utils directory to store various utility functions in preparation for the inclusion of cosmology utility functions. Move pcigale/utils.py to pcigale/utils/io.py, which contains only read_table() and adapt the rest of the code accordingly.

Implement the possibility of specifying a list of bands for which to carry out a Bayesian flux estimate.

Add the sfhdelayedbq module implementing a delayed SFH with a burst/quench. It is described in detail in Ciesla et al. (2017).

Rename ParametersHandler to ParametersManager to be consistent with new managers that will come in the near future.

Correct a bug that was preventing the module restframe_parameters from being listed among the available modules.

Add the new restframe_param module. It replaces most of the functionality provided in the unofficial param module, which has been trimmed down to only computing fluxes in the observed frame and has been renamed fluxes. Unlike param, the restframe_param module is to be called before the redshifting module.

When on a grid, make sure that the models are always computed in the same order to facilitate comparisons between different runs.

Clarify that if the parameters are given through a file, then the pdf_analysis module should not be used.

With the new sanity check of the input parameters, cigale did not handle the fact that the redshift could be given in the parameters file. Now this is handled properly.

The name creation_modules is a bit vague. For more clarity and consistency we rather use sed_modules now

Homogenise savefluxes and pdf_analysis for the variables/analysed_variables keyword in pcigale.ini. We adopt the former as it is more compact and applies correctly to both modules.

Change the vague column_list keyword in pcigale.ini to bands. This will require the user to rebuild their pcigale.ini but that is necessary for the validation anyway so that is the right moment to do so.

Pratical implementation of the validation of the parameters. The patch is quite long as it has a direct effect on the structure of the configuration dictionary. The validation has the advantage of automatically convert the parameters to the right type. Therefore rather than building a dictionary ourselves, we rather use the ready-made dictionary from ConfigObj. Because the names of the sections are not the same, quite a bit of code had to be adapted. Finally, note that the validation file containing the specification of each variable, pcigale.ini.spec, is created while building the pcigale.ini file. Also because it is needed to convert the data to the right type, one cannot run cigale without a correct validation file.

Add the parameters_file keyword to pcigale.ini and adapt the construction of the configuration dictionary while taking into account the fact that parameters_file may or may not be indicated.

Abstract the call to the parameters handler to allow for the creation of different handlers depending on how the parameters are provided, for instance either a systematic grid by giving then in pcigale.ini or through a file with each line providing a the parameters for a different model. The change is transparent to the rest of pcigale so it does not matter which handler is actually used.

If the list of analysed/saved physical properties is left empty in pcigale.ini, savefluxes saved all physical properties. This has been moved to the Configuration class and easily extended to the pdf_analysis module.

When the redshifts are not indicated in pcigale.ini, compute them from the input flux file when the configuration dictionary is returned rather than in the analysis module, which should not have to change the configuration.