Preface

ESO-MIDAS ¹is the acronym for the European Southern Observatory - Munich Image Data Analysis System which is developed and maintained by the European Southern Observatory. The official name, ESO-MIDAS, is a registered trademark. In this manual the name MIDAS is used as an abbreviation of ESO-MIDAS. The system is available for both VAX/VMS and UNIX systems. The design of MIDAS has been influenced by the original design of the STARLINK project in the UK (see reference [1]) as well as by the long experience gained from the IHAP system (Image Handling And Processing, see reference [2]), the first (HP based) comprehensive image processing system used at ESO for astronomical data reduction as well as for data acquisition at the telescopes. The process of making MIDAS ``portable'' also benefitted from looking extensively at the other two portable astronomical image processing systems, the Astronomical Image Processing System (AIPS) and the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF), which are used today.

MIDAS comprises two somewhat different sets of programs - the System Primitives (MIDAS programs developed by ESO software staff) to provide the basic functions of the system, and individual application programs (written by or in collaboration with astronomers according to the MIDAS standards defined below). In addition to the application programs MIDAS provides a powerful command language (the MIDAS Command Language, MCL). This command language makes it possible to create MIDAS procedures, series of MIDAS commands which look like programs. The MIDAS system from the user's point of view is described in the MIDAS User Guide which includes three volumes.

This document concentrates on the development of MIDAS application code either in FORTRAN or in C. Hence, if you are not interested in writing a FORTRAN or C program to run within the MIDAS environment, then you have time for a coffee: This document is not for you. However, if you are interested you will find in this document a description of the MIDAS environment with its various data structures and the subroutine/function calls in FORTRAN 77 or C to access these structures. It replaces and supersedes all previous versions of the Environment Document.

Chapter  provides a general introduction and description of the MIDAS system and its data structures. Chapter  gives an overview of the coding standards which should be used when writing a MIDAS application program. Chapter  describes the ``STandard'' Interfaces to images, catalogues, keywords, descriptors, files, text, errors in a language independent way. The detailed descriptions of these interfaces for C and FORTRAN 77 are given in Appendix . Chapter  describes the interfaces to the MIDAS Table File System; the detailed C and FORTRAN 77 interface description is given in Appendix . Chapter  contains the graphics interfaces. Detailed descriptions of the routines, for C and FORTRAN, can be found in Appendix . Chapter  describes the interfaces for connecting to a Midas server (``background Midas''); the detailed C interface description is given in Appendix . Chapter  explains how to integrate and run your application in the MIDAS environment. Appendix  contains a brief description of the standard descriptors and other conventions used for images and tables while Appendix  contains a number of complete examples of MIDAS application programs using the interfaces described in this document.

If you are new to the MIDAS environment, you should read Chapter  and completely, find out what subroutine calls are available in Chapters , and , and then look carefully at the examples in Appendix and the detailed interface descriptions in the Appendices , , and . Our intention was to write this document for you, and we hope you will find it useful.

If you are an experienced MIDAS programmer, then you probably have not bothered reading this far unless you happen to read this kind of stuff for pleasure (?). In any case, Chapters , and should serve as a reference on how to use the ``STandard'' Interfaces, the MIDAS Table File System Interfaces and the Graphics Interfaces. The appendices should provide the information about the exact calling sequences for either FORTRAN 77 or C.

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