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IRAF Update (1Jun94)
(from CCS, NOAO Newsletter No. 38, 1 June 1994)

Intensive work continued during this quarter on the development of the
IRAF GUI facilities in preparation for the release of IRAF Version 2.11
later this year.  In previous Newsletters this release has been
referred to as IRAF Version 2.10.3, a patch to IRAF Version 2.10.  Due
to the extensive amount of work done on this version however, it was
decided to release 2.10.3 only internally and to upgrade the status of
the public version to a full release - IRAF 2.11.  IRAF V2.11 will be
made available for all supported platforms, as time permits, with
SunOS, Solaris, and DEC Alpha/OSF being the highest priority for the
initial release (the latter two are new ports).

The GUI development effort during this quarter has concentrated on the
GUI system software, the Ximtool image display server, and the
prototype application GUIs.  New versions of Ximtool and Xgterm (the
graphics terminal emulator) are now available in the pub directory on
iraf.noao.edu.  This software is still under development and is still
considered alpha test software; the software is not fully tested, and
some planned features remain to be implemented.  The new version of
Ximtool is a major new version, however, with lots of new features.
Anyone who downloaded an earlier version will definitely want to update
to the new one.  Much work has also been done on the GUI system
software but this directly affects only developers; anyone interested
in using this software should contact us for more information.

The ADASS USENET news hierarchy mentioned in the last Newsletter is now
entering beta testing, with a dozen or so sites currently connected.
Anyone wishing to help beta-test the network news facility should
contact us (news@iraf.noao.edu) to set up a news feed.  You can also
read and post to the ADASS news groups remotely by using any NNTP based
newsreader to access iraf.noao.edu as an NNTP news server.  Although
this facility is still in beta test with a limited distribution, people
are encouraged to use the new medium for any IRAF related queries or
comments.

A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list for IRAF is now available in
the iraf/v210 directory on iraf.noao.edu.  Users will find this FAQ
list a valuable source of information about IRAF.  If you have a
question about installing, configuring, or using IRAF you may want to
look in this file first before contacting the IRAF Hotline.  We are
always happy to answer questions, but the FAQ may be a faster way for
you to get help, especially during the off-hours.  We will update the
file as new FAQ are identified.

Several new IRAF manuals have become available over the past few
months.  They can be found in the iraf/docs directory on
iraf.noao.edu.  Lindsey Davis has written A Reference Guide to the
IRAF/ DAOPHOT Package (see the file daorefman.ps.Z).  Lisa Wells has
completed two new documents:  Photometry Using IRAF (photom.ps.Z) is a
short overview of the different tasks used in IRAF to do photometry,
and Rectifying and Registering Images Using IRAF (reg.ps.Z) is a
cookbook for image registration.  Several other documents are nearing
completion and will be availabile shortly.

Doug Tody, Jeannette Barnes

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