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The 95NOV official release of MIDAS available now!
Dear MIDAS users,
As from today the official 95NOVpl1.0 release of MIDAS is available
on our ftp accounts.
Best of success and enjoy MIDAS!
- ESO-MIDAS group.
MIDAS 95NOV official announcement
---------------------------------
1- What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 95NOV ?
2- Platform availability
3- Source distribution of MIDAS 95NOVpl1.0
4- Binary distribution of MIDAS 95NOVpl1.0
5- MIDAS 95NOV documentation
6- MIDAS under the GNU General Public License
7- MIDAS on a CD-ROM?
8- Technical Support and Network Services
1- What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 95NOV?
------------------------------------------
Many new things have been added in 95NOV. Many other were upgraded
and lot of bugs have been fixed in this release compared to
previous 94NOV release.
The following list is just a summary. A more detailed list can be
obtained, after installation, with the MIDAS command "help [news]"
New commands:
- SET/MIDAS ENVIRONMENT=MidHost. When defined, non-MIDAS commands
are executed as system commands.
- SET/MIDAS PATH=value. Add a new search path for MIDAS procedures
executed with @@ command.
- SET/MIDAS DPATH=value. Add a new search path for MIDAS data
files.
- SET/MIDAS EPATH=value. Add a new search path for MIDAS
executable files.
- FITS files. All MIDAS applications accept images in FITS format
as input.
- INDISK/ASCII. Builds a MIDAS image from an ASCII file on disk.
- Pipes in MIDAS commands are supported (only unix) e.g.:
read/descr lola | $grep CUNIT
- New communication interfaces have being implemented (only unix).
- MIDAS on a pipeline. e.g. "CREATE/DIS ; LOAD sombrero" | inmidas
- TRANSPOSE/CUBE. Rearranges the planes of a cube.
- CENTER/IQE. A 2-dim Gaussian centering command which also
calculates the angle of the major axis with the X-axis.
- INFO/IMAGE. Displays in a user readable format the values of the
internal File Control Block of a binary MIDAS image.
Command upgrades:
- CREATE/CURSOR - DELETE/CURSOR - EXECUTE/TABLE - EXTRACT/TRACE
- GET/LUT - HELP/APPLIC - HELP/CONTRIB - LOAD/IMAGE - LOAD/LUT
- MODIFY/CUTS - FILTER/GAUSS - OUTTAPE/FITS - PRINT/ICAT
- READ/ICAT - SET/FORMAT - SHOW/DISPLAY - STATISTICS/IMAGE
- VIEW/IMAGE
New packages:
- MOS: Multi Object Spectographical package for reduction of FORS
data.
- IRAC2: Software for the reduction of infrared data from IRAC2b
camera on the 2.2m La Silla telescope.
- XECHELLE: Graphical User Interface to the ECHELLE package.
Package upgrades:
- CCD. CCD reduction package
- DO. Data Organizer. Utility to analyse and identify associations
in a database of astronomical observations.
- ECHELLE. Calibration package of echelle spectra.
- LONG: Reduction package for the reduction of one-dimensional
and long-slit spectra.
- IUE: Package to access data from the International Ultraviolet
Explorer satellite.
2- Platform availability.
-------------------------
MIDAS 95NOV 1.0 has been installed and verified on the following
platforms:
- SUN SunOS/4.1.3 - HP HP-UX A.09.01 - PC Linux/1.2.8
- SUN SunOS/5.4 - DEC OSF1/V3.2 - SG IRIX/5.2
- IBM AIX/V2.3
All installations were done with the native C and Fortran compiler
with the exception of SunOS 4.1.3 where also the GNU C compiler
was used.
MIDAS 95NOV will be ported to VMS and Open/VMS systems by an
external site. For those of you interested in MIDAS 95NOV for VMS
and Open/VMS please contact Mr. Jean-Pierre De Cuyper at
"jeanpier@oma.be" or "midas@oma.be".
3- Source distribution.
-----------------------
ESO-MIDAS software and documentation is distributed via the
our ftp services only. Only those sites with no access to Internet
may request ESO-MIDAS on a type and by regular mail, provided an
explicit request has been received, and the site has a User
Agreement.
MIDAS 95NOVpl1.0 is available in source code from our
"midas" ftp account. This account is restricted to MIDAS-sites
with a valid ESO-MIDAS User Agreement. If you fall in this
category and you have never tried this ftp account before (or you
have forgotten the password) please send an e-mail to
"midas@eso.org" quoting your User Agreement and indicating the IP
number of the host from which you plan to ftp MIDAS files.
- Ftp host: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
- Ftp account: "midas". Password: "????????"
- Directory: /95NOV
- Files: README.unix
95NOVpl1.tar.Z
installunix.ps.Z
For a proper installation of MIDAS follow the procedure of the
installation document provided in PostScript and DVI format.
4- Binary distribution.
-----------------------
95NOVpl1.0 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.
Binary copies of 95NOVpl1.0 are available in our anonymous ftp
account. MIDAS in binary format can be distributed freely and does
not require the signature of an ESO-MIDAS User Agreement:
- Ftp host: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
- Ftp account: "ftp". Password: <Your mail address>
- Directories: /midaspub/95NOV/linux (PC Linux/1.2.8)
/midaspub/95NOV/hp_ux (HP HP-UX A.09.01)
/midaspub/95NOV/alpha_osf (DEC OSF1/V3.2)
/midaspub/95NOV/ibm_aix (IBM/AIX 3.2)
/midaspub/95NOV/sg_irix (SG IRIX/5.2)
/midaspub/95NOV/sun_os (SUN SunOS/4.1.3)
/midaspub/95NOV/solaris (SUN SunOS/5.4)
- Files: README.<platform>
95NOVpl1.tar.Z
MIDAS is distributed on all platforms with Graphical User
Interfaces using the Motif dynamic shared libraries.
For those platforms on which Motif is not distributed with the
system (e.g. Linux and SunOS 4.1.3), MIDAS GUIs with the Motif
library statically linked are also available in our anonymous ftp
account:
- Directories: /midaspub/95NOV/linux/gui (PC Linux/1.2.8)
/midaspub/95NOV/sun_os/gui (SUN SunOS/4.1.3)
- Files: README.gui
95NOVpl1_gui.tar.Z
5- MIDAS 95NOV documentation.
-----------------------------
ESO-MIDAS documentation is available in Postscript and DVI format
(eventually also in HTML format) from our "anonymous" and "midas"
ftp account:
- Ftp host: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
In our "midas" account:
- Ftp account: "midas". Password: "????????"
- Directory: /95NOV/doc
In our "anonymous" account:
- Ftp account: "ftp". Password: <Your mail address>
- Directory: /midaspub/95NOV/doc
- Files: README.doc
vol1.ps.z ESO-MIDAS Volume A: System
vol2_ps.tar ESO-MIDAS Volume B: Data Reduction
vol3_ps.tar ESO-MIDAS Volume C: Detailed Command Descrip.
env.ps.z ESO-MIDAS Environment.
agldoc.tar.Z AGL Documentation.
ididoc.ps.Z IDI Documentation.
Printed copies and updates of documentation can also be obtained
by contacting the User Support Group at ESO/Munich.
6- MIDAS under the GNU General Public License
---------------------------------------------
As you know, the ESO-MIDAS system is available, free of charge, to
all non-profit research institutes, whereas other organizations or
companies may be charged a nominal fee to cover distribution. Till
now, institutes interested in using MIDAS must sign a User
Agreement before distribution material can be shipped. MIDAS is
distributed in source code copyrighted by ESO with all rights
reserved. Institutes receiving the MIDAS system are not allowed to
redistribute it to other sites without explicit written permission
from ESO.
Although this distribution policy has helped us significantly in
monitoring the usage of ESO-MIDAS, it has taken away manpower that
we now need for other tasks. In order to reduce this overhead we
currently discussing the possibilities to put ESO-MIDAS under the
GNU General Public License. We hope to conclude these discussions
quickly.
Therefore, we anticipate that version 1.0 of the 95NOV release
(95NOVpl1.0) will be the last MIDAS release that falls under the
conditions layed down in the User Agreement between ESO and the
external institutes. Shortly after we will take steps to include
the GNU License statement in the MIDAS source code. It all goes
well, as from the next patch level, planned for February 1996,
ESO-MIDAS will be available under the GNU General Public License.
More detailed information about this new License policy will be
distributed with the announcement of the first patch level.
7- MIDAS on a CD-ROM
---------------------
Our current plan expects the generation and distribution of
the next patch level of MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 (February 1996) on a
CD-ROM.
Distribution policy for this CD-ROM has not been decided yet
but will be announced in this mailing list in the near future.
The CD-ROM will include:
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOV 2.0 sources
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOV 2.0 binaries for:
- PC/Linux (newest release)
- HP-UX 9000 A.09.01
- Sun/SunOS 4.1.3
- Sun/Solaris 2.4
- Silicon Graphics IRIX 5.3
- Alpha/OSF1 V3.2
- IBM/RS6000 AIX 2.3
- Calibration data for all platforms above.
- Demo data for all platforms above.
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOV 2.0 ready to run from CD-ROM on PC/Linux.
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOV documentation in:
- Postscript format
- DVI format
- HTML format
- Complete Slackware distribution (newest release) for PC/Linux.
- EXSAS, the MIDAS reduction package for the ROSAT project.
8- Technical Support and Network Services:
------------------------------------------
Official user support and documentation services from ESO
are not granted without a prior signed User Agreement.
- Electronic mail: midas@eso.org (Internet)
- Post: Data Management Division - User Support Group.
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2,
D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen
Germany
- Telephone: +49-89-32006456
- Telefax: +49-89-3202362
Other public services:
- Anonymous ftp: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
- WWW : http://http.hq.eso.org/midas-info/midas.html
- mailing lists:
midas-announce (for official announcements)
midas-users (for general discussion).
To subscribe send an e-mail to "midas-announce-request"
or "midas-users-request" with the text "subscribe" in
the body of the mail.
- The ESO-MIDAS Courier: Newsletter of the MIDAS User's
Community. Distributed by traditional mail, but also
available on the WWW and by anonymous FTP account.
Editor: rwarmels@eso.org
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