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Last call: Official 98NOVpl2.1 announcement
Dear MIDAS users,
As from today the official 98NOVpl2.1 release of MIDAS is available
on our ftp accounts.
Best of success and enjoy MIDAS!
- ESO-MIDAS group.
MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1 official announcement
--------------------------------------
1- What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 98NOV ?
2- Platform availability
3- Source and binary distribution for MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1
4- MIDAS 98NOV documentation
5- MIDAS under the GNU General Public License
6- MIDAS on a CD-ROM
7- Technical Support and Network Services
1- What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1?
----------------------------------------------
All important enhancements, new developments and bugfixes can be
found
in the file /midas/98NOV/prim/help/news.alq and displayed in Midas
via
the command Midas> help [News]
Here we list the most important ones:
- New command RESAMPLE/IMAGE has been added.
- Computing facilities for double precision images have been added.
- A new command has been added to write several files as different
extensions into a single FITS file.
- In this version we continued our efforts in integrating FITS frames
smoothly into Midas. The handling of FITS files has been upgraded
as
follows:
a) no more temporary copies of the FITS header files are stored on
disk
b) FITS images and tables can be processed like Midas images/tables
for
input
c) FITS images/tables can also be modified, but in order to be
backwards
compatible a flag has to be set before (see the command
SET/MIDAS F_UPDATE=...)
d) by default newly created images/tables are in Midas format, that
can be
changed by setting a flag (via command SET/MIDAS NEWFILES=...,
SET/MIDAS DEFTYPE=... (see below))
At the moment only the prime FITS header and data matrix is
used,
i.e. we do NOT support FITS image extensions, yet.
- SET/MIDAS NEWFILES=fileformat
where `fileformat' is MIDAS (default) or FITS.
New images created by Midas commands (like e.g. compute/image,
create/image) will be created according to that format.
- For FITS images the filetype of new images may be set via
SET/MIDAS DEFTYPE=filetype
current default for `filetype' is ".mt"
It is planned to extend this to Midas tables as well.
- Now you can also work in PseudoColor mode (8 bits per pixel) on
systems which only support 24 bit graphics mode. While this is
rarely
necessary on Unix workstations where 24 bit graphics cards also
offer
8 bit mode, this is needed for many PCs with Linux.
Please, note, that we do NOT support X-servers using only 24 bits
per
pixel, instead they must be installed to use 32 bits per pixel in
addressing (for the color display they also just use 24 bits).
Executing the Midas Xtest program via
$ /midas/98NOV/system/idiserv/src/Xtest.exe T
will give you all the details of your installed X-server.
- New command REBIN/STATISTICS has been added.
- New modes have been added to the command STATISTICS/IMAGE in order
to
compute additional statistical values for images.
Furthermore,it is now possible to calculate statistics only in
given
areas of an image.
- New command LABEL/ANY has been implemented which uses records of an
ASCII file as input for writing text into the display (like
LABEL/DISPLAY).
- The lengths of Midas command strings has been extended from 256
chars
to 400 chars; the length of single tokens is still max. 100 chars.
- The INDISK/FITS command now handles also extensions of FITS files.
- New command CONVERT/COORDS to convert world coords of frames to
pixels and
vice versa. This command does similar things as the application
procedure
getcoord.prg but is executed inside the monitor and therefore much
faster.
- All descriptor related commands (e.g. READ/DESCR, DELETE/DESCR,...)
support
now patterns, e.g.
Midas> read/descr galaxy ESO.DET.*
- A new application procedure fonttxt.prg (executed via @a fonttxt)
has been
added which lets you view any X Font.
- The average option in that command is now also available for images
with
pixels not of type real, e.g. unsigned int.
- The context DAOPHOT works now also with larger images (up to 4100 x
4100
pixels)
2- Platform availability.
-------------------------
MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1 has been installed and verified on the following
platforms:
- SUN Solaris 2.5.1 - HP HP-UX A.10.20 - Intel/Linux 2.0.34
- SUN Solaris 2.6(*) - Alpha/OSF1 V4.0A(**) -
Alpha/Linux/2.1.120(***)
- IBM AIX/V4.1
(*) Binaries from Solaris 2.5.1 can be used on Solaris 2.6
(**) On OSF1 the source distribution requires also the installation
of patch file OSF1patch.98NOVpl2.1.tar.Z
(***)RedHat 5.2 for Alpha Apollo. ONLY the core of MIDAS has been
ported.
3- Source and binary distribution for MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1
------------------------------------------------------
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.
98NOVpl2.1 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 98NOVpl2.1 are available in our
anonymous ftp account:
- Ftp host: ftp://ftphost.hq.eso.org
- Ftp account: "ftp". Password: <Your mail address>
- Directories: /midaspub/98NOV/sources (MIDAS sources)
/midaspub/98NOV/intel_linux (PC/Linux 2.0.34)(1)
/midaspub/98NOV/alpha_linux (Alpha/Linux 2.0.34)(1)
/midaspub/98NOV/alpha_osf (Alpha/OSF1 4.0))
/midaspub/98NOV/hp_ux (HP HP-UX A.10.20)
/midaspub/98NOV/solaris (SUN Solaris 2.5.1)
/midaspub/98NOV/ibm_aix (IBM AIX 4.1 PowerPC)
- Files: README.<platform>
98NOVpl2.1.tar.Z
(1) The binary of MIDAS for Linux was done in a RedHat 5.1
distribution with the 'f2c' (fortran_to_C converter) and not with
'g77', no Fortran library is necessary.
For a proper installation of MIDAS from sources follow the
instructions in the README.sources file or the more complete
installation document provided in PostScript (installunix.ps.Z).
MIDAS is distributed on all platforms with Graphical User
Interfaces GUI using the Motif dynamic shared libraries, except for
Linux where all GUIs were linked with LessTif and the library has
been included in the binary distribution.
4- MIDAS 98NOV documentation.
-----------------------------
ESO-MIDAS documentation is available in Postscript and HTML format
from our "anonymous" ftp account:
- Ftp host: ftp://ftphost.hq.eso.org
- Ftp account: "ftp". Password: <Your mail address>
- Directory: /midaspub/98NOV/doc
- Files: README.doc
volume_a.ps.Z Complete Volume A System
volume_b.ps.Z Complete Volume B Data Reduction
env.ps.Z The MIDAS Environment Document 1.3
agldoc.tar.Z AGL documentation in ASCII
ididoc.ps.Z IDI documentation
daophot.ps.Z DAOPHOT documentation
installunix.ps.Z MIDAS installation notes in UNIX systems
installvms.ps.Z MIDAS installation notes in VMS systems
volume_a.html.tar.Z MIDAS Volume A System in HTML format
volume_b.html.tar.Z MIDAS Volume B Data Reduction in HTML
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.
5- 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 of the GNU General Public License as included in
all relevant ESO-MIDAS files follows below. The full GNU
License text is included in the ESO-MIDAS release as separate
text file.
--------------- ooo -----------------
Copyright (C) 1995 European Southern Observatory (ESO)
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 Massachusetts 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
--------------- ooo -----------------
6- ESO-MIDAS on a CD-ROM
------------------------
Our current schedule anticipates the creation and distribution of
the release of MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1 on CD-ROM by end of June
1999, or shortly thereafter. The availability of this CD-ROM will
be announced through the "midas-announce" mailing list.
The ESO-MIDAS CD-ROM will contain the release 98NOVpl2.1 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 98NOVpl2.1 sources
- ESO-MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1 binaries for:
- Intel/Linux 2.0.34 or higher
- Alpha/Linux 2.1.120 or higher
- HP-UX 9000 A.10.20
- Sun/Solaris 2.5.1
- Alpha/OSF1 V4.0a
- Calibration data for all platforms above.
- Demo data for all platforms above.
- ESO-MIDAS 98NOVpl2.1 ready to run from CD-ROM on PC/Linux.
- ESO-MIDAS 98NOV documentation in:
- Postscript format
- HTML format
- Xephem 3.2.2 source and binaries for Intel Linux
- SkyCat 2.4.3. source and binaries for Intel Linux, HP and Solaris
- Guide Star Catalog (GSC)
Research Institutes can order the CD-ROM directly from the ESO-MIDAS
Group http://www.eso.org/dmd/dpg/systems/esomidas/midas-prform.html
or send a mail to midas@eso.org. Others are kindly invited to contact
ESO Education and Public Relations Department at ips@eso.org
7- Technical Support and Network Services:
-------------------------------------------
ESO is not in the position to give active support to individual users
outside research institutions 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 advised to use the "midas-users" mailing list for obtaining
feedback and solutions to their questions from other users.
- Electronic mail: midas@eso.org
- Post: Data Management 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 send an e-mail to "midas-announce-request"
or "midas-users-request" with the text "subscribe" in
the body of the mail.