Official Announcement of the 99NOVpl2.2 ESO-MIDAS Release

The official 99NOVpl2.2 release of ESO-MIDAS has been released on August 3, 2000 and is available on our ftp accounts.

Below you find the following information concerning this new release:

What's new or upgraded in ESO-MIDAS 99NOV?
Platform availability
Source and binary distribution of ESO-MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2
ESO-MIDAS 99NOV documentation
ESO-MIDAS under the GNU General Public License
ESO-MIDAS on a CD-ROM
Technical Support and Network Services

What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2?

All important enhancements, new developments and bugfixes can be found in the file /midas/99NOV/prim/help/news.alq and displayed in Midas via the command

Midas> help [News]

Here we list the most important ones:

Midas commands in Unix
All Midas commands not using display or graphics windows can also be executed directly from the Unix command line. For details see the help about [Host+Midas].
Verification procedures
The verifications have been expanded a lot. You should always execute them when installing Midas. They are executed via:
Midas> @ vericopy
Midas> @@ veriall
Remark: verification procedures and data are not part of the binary MIDAS deliveries, but they can be installed with a separate package 'verify99NOVpl2.2.tar.gz' available in the CD-ROM and in the ftp account of MIDAS.
context RBS
New context RBS has been implemented. See the help (available after: Midas> set/context RBS) for details.
LABEL/GRAPHICS
For graphics and display windows the command now also accepts screen coordinates. The origin for the screen coordinates is the lower left corner of the display window. In order to be consistent the origin of the mm. coordinates has now been moved from the lower left corner of the coordinates box to the lower left corner of the plot device itself (either paper, graphics or display window).
OVERPLOT/LINE
Similar to LABEL/GRAPHS the command now also accepts screen coordinates. To be consistent the origin for the screen and mm coordinates are as for the LABEL/GRAPH command. Hence, for details see above.
OVERPLOT/SYMBOL
Similar to the previous commands, this command now also accepts screen coordinates. For details see above LABEL/GRAPHIC
Midas command line
The max. length of a single token (atom) in a Midas command line has been increased from 80 to 150 chars. The max. length of the total command line remains at 400 chars. as before.
INFO/IMAGE
New command INFO/IMAGE has been implemented. See the help for details.
FITS extensions
It is now possible to access directly extensions of FITS files in Midas. See the help about [Filenames] for info about syntax, etc.
debugging Midas procedures
The problems with the debugging of Midas procedures (command DEBUG/PROC) have been solved and a few new debugging commands added.
FITS file handling
New options DSCALLOC= and DSCHELP= have been added to the command SET/MIDAS. For files with huge FITS headers (e.g. VIMOS data files) the adequate setting of DSCALLOC will make a big difference in performance.
VMS version of MIDAS
There will also be a VMS version for 99NOV (pl2.2), for details contact Jean-Pierre De Cuyper at system@midasc.oma.be.
GUIs
We finally have also our GUIs working smoothly on Linux systems, since Motif became public software recently.

For details use the command: help [News] or click on [News] topic in the graphical user interface.

Platform availability

MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2 has been installed and verified on the following platforms:

SUN Solaris 2.6	HP HP-UX A.10.20	Intel/Linux 2.0.34
Alpha/OSF1 V4.0A	Alpha/Linux 2.1.120

Source and binary distribution

As you may already know, MIDAS is available under the GNU General Public License since 95NOVpl2.1. Since then we are not requiring anymore the prior MIDAS User Agreement in order to get access to MIDAS sources.

99NOVpl2.0 is also available in binary format for all supported platforms. Binary copies of MIDAS are already compiled and ready to run. Installation is reduced to just the tuning of some configuration files.

Source and binary copies of 99NOVpl2.2 are available in our anonymous ftp account:

Ftp host: ftp://ftphost.hq.eso.org
Ftp account: "ftp"
Ftp Password: <your e-mail address>
Directory: /midaspub/99NOV/sources (ESO-MIDAS sources)
/midaspub/99NOV/intel_linux (PC/Linux 2.0.34) (1)
/midaspub/99NOV/alpha_linux (Alpha/Linux 2.0.34) (1)
/midaspub/99NOV/alpha_osf (Alpha/OSF1 4.0)
/midaspub/99NOV/hp_ux (HP HP-UX A.10.10)
/midaspub/99NOV/solaris (SUN Solaris 2.5.1)
/midaspub/99NOV/ibm_aix (IBM/AIX 4.1 PowerPC)
Files: README.<platform>
99NOVpl2.2.tar.gz

The binary of MIDAS for Linux was done in a RedHat 6.1 (Cartman) kernel 2.2.12-20, with gcc/g77 egcs-2.91.66, and LessTif 0.89.9 with 'g77' so the Fortran library is necessary and not anymore with the 'f2c' (fortran_to_C converter).

For a proper installation of MIDAS sources follow the procedure of the installation document provided in PostScript (installunix.ps.Z) and .html format (installunix.html)

MIDAS is distributed on all platforms with Graphical User Interfaces GUI using the Motif dynamic shared libraries.

ESO-MIDAS Documentation

ESO-MIDAS documentation is available in Postscript and HTML format in our "anonymous" ftp account:

Ftp host:	ftp://ftphost.hq.eso.org
Ftp account:	"ftp"
Ftp Password:	<your mail address>
Directory:	/midaspub/98NOV/doc	(doc of 98NOV still valid!)
Files:	volume_a.ps.Z volume_b.ps.Z env.ps.z agldoc.tar.Z midas-faq.doc.Z ididoc.ps.Z daophot.ps.Z installunix.ps.Z installvms.ps.Z volume_a.html.tar.Z volume_b.html.tar.Z	ESO-MIDAS Volume A: System ESO-MIDAS Volume B: Data Reduction ESO-MIDAS Environment AGL Documentation ESO-MIDAS Frequent Asked Questions IDI Documentation DAOPHOT documentation MIDAS installation notes in UNIX systems MIDAS installation notes in VMS systems MIDAS Volume A: System, in HTML format MIDAS Volume B: Data Reduction

In particular cases printed copies and updates of documentation can also be obtained from ESO. If you absolutely need hardcopies of the documentation please contact the User Support Group at ESO/Munich.

ESO-MIDAS under the GNU General Public License

ESO-MIDAS is a copyright protected software product of the European Southern Observatory, and provides general tools for image processing and data reduction.

As of the 95NOV release,patch level 2.0, ESO-MIDAS is available under the GNU General Public License. This means that the ESO-MIDAS system is available free of charge and can be freely redistributed on certain conditions. As a consequence of this distribution policy User Agreements between research institutes and ESO will not apply as of ESO-MIDAS release 95NOVpl2.0 and will not be prolongated when they expire.

A short statement if the GNU General Public License as included in all relevant ESO-MIDAS files and follows below. The full GNU License text is included in the ESO-MIDAS release as separate text file.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetss Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Correspondence concerning ESO-MIDAS should be addressed as follows:

Internet e-mail: midas@eso.org Postal address: European Southern Observatory Data Management Division - User Support Group Karl-Schwarzschild-Stra_e 2 D 85748 Garching bei Munchen GERMANY

ESO-MIDAS on a CD-ROM

Our current schedule anticipates the creation and distribution of the release of MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2 on CD-ROM in August/September 2000. The availability of this CD-ROM will be announced through the "midas-announce" mailing list.

The ESO-MIDAS CD-ROM will contain the release 99NOVpl2.2 and will include source code, binaries, documentation, and verification procedures. The complete list of what is on the CD-ROM is given below.

ESO-MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2 sources
ESO-MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2 binaries for: - PC/Linux 2.2.34 or higher - Alpha/Linux 2.1.120 or higher - HP-UX 9000 A.10.20 - Sun/Solaris 2.5 or higher - Alpha/OSF1 V4.0
Calibration data for all platforms above.
Demo data for all platforms above.
ESO-MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2 ready to run from CD-ROM on PC/Linux.
ESO-MIDAS 99NOV documentation in: - Postscript format - HTML format
Xephem 3.2.2 source and binaries for Intel Linux
The CD also includes, apart from the standard packages, the reduction recipes (implemented as MIDAS procedures) needed for the basic reduction of FORS1, FORS2 and UVES data. For each of those pipelines, the package includes a README file, the set of midas procedures and a set of master calibration frames. The user manuals are still in a draft form and have not been approved officially by the Instrument Scientists.

Research Institutes can order the CD-ROM directly from the ESO-MIDAS Group by filling out the ESO-MIDAS Problem Reporting Form (category distribution), or just by sending an email to midas@eso.org. Others are kindly invited to contact ESO Education and Public Relations Department at ips@eso.org or use their Order Form.

Technical Support and Network Services

Technical support for ESO-MIDAS can be obtained using the ESO-MIDAS Helpdesk by filling out the ESO-MIDAS Problem Reporting Form

Please note, that ESO is not in the position to give active support to individual users outside research institutions neither to support ESO-MIDAS installations on PC/Linux systems. Also, as of the 95NOV release we have reduced the support for VMS and OpenVMS systems. Therefore, users who have problems or questions concerning ESO-MIDAS running on these systems are adviced to use the "midas-users" mailing list for obtaining feedback and solutions to their questions from other users.

In case the ESO-MIDAS Problem Report System cannot be used the MIDAS User Support can be contacted via:

Electronic mail: midas@eso.org
Telefax: +49 89 32006480 (attn.: MIDAS Support)
Post: Data Management and Operations Division - User Support Group
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2,
D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen,
Germany

Other public services:

Anonymous ftp: ftp://ftphost.hq.eso.org
WWW: http://www.eso.org/esomidas
Mailing lists: midas-announce (for official announcements)
midas-users (for general discussion)

To subscribe to these mailing lists, send a mail to majordomo@eso.org with the following command in the body of your email message: "subscribe midas-announce <email>", or "subscribe midas-users <email>", where <email> should be your e-mail address.

For your questions, comments, problems, etc, related to ESO-MIDAS, please use the ESO-MIDAS Problem Report Form.

Electronic mail:	midas@eso.org
Telefax:	+49 89 32006480 (attn.: MIDAS Support)
Post:	Data Management and Operations Division - User Support Group Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen, Germany

Anonymous ftp:	ftp://ftphost.hq.eso.org
WWW:	http://www.eso.org/esomidas
Mailing lists:	midas-announce (for official announcements) midas-users (for general discussion)

Official Announcement of the 99NOVpl2.2 ESO-MIDAS Release

What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2?

Midas commands in Unix

Verification procedures

context RBS

LABEL/GRAPHICS

OVERPLOT/LINE

OVERPLOT/SYMBOL

Midas command line

INFO/IMAGE

FITS extensions

debugging Midas procedures

FITS file handling