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IRAF Update (1Sep95)
(from CCS, NOAO Newsletter No. 43, September 1995)

A new IRAF version, V2.10.4, was released in May for SunOS, Sun
Solaris, the DEC Alpha running OSF/1. This was mainly a bug and fix
and platform support release. The DEC Alpha release was a new port.
The Solaris upgrade added support for Solaris 2.4 and the Sunsoft
version 3.0 compilers (Solaris 2.3 is still supported as well).
Updated versions of xgterm and xtimool are available for these and
other platforms in the pub/v2103-beta directory in the IRAF network
archive (iraf.noao.edu). Major revisions to the applications software
are being withheld for the V2.11 release, although most new
applications packages are available now as layered packages. We invite
people to try out this new software and give us feedback.

Now that IRAF V2.10.4 is out, work has resumed on the PC-IRAF project.
IRAF V2.10.4 will be available for PCs running Linux by the time this
Newsletter is distributed, or shortly thereafter.  Ports for Solaris
x86 and BSD will follow.  Testing for the PC ports is being performed
on two separate platforms, a high end Pentium 90 system (PCI/SCSI bus,
32 Mb), and a more modest 486DX2 66 MHz system (IDE/SCSI 16 Mb).  The
IRAF V2.10.4 port to Linux is being done using the Slackware 2.3 Linux
distribution and the version 1.2.11 Linux kernel, using a beta-test
driver for the Adaptec 2940 PCI-based SCSI adaptor, which does not yet
have builtin support in the Linux kernel (a not uncommon situation
with PC UNIX systems).

The IRAF development system is now running the development version of
IRAF V2.11.  However it will be some months yet before it is ready for
release. We will continue to release V2.10.4 on the PC-IRAF platforms
while V2.11 is under development in Tucson and the IRAF TWG sites.

A new version of the FITS image kernel is being developed for IRAF
V2.11 in a collaboration between the STSDAS group at STScI and the
core IRAF group at NOAO. The IRAF FITS kernel will support the FITS
"image" extension and multiextension files. The IRAF kernel will allow
IRAF tasks to read and write images stored in multiextension FITS
files. The FITS tasks in the IRAF DATAIO package have also been
modified to support multiextension FITS files containing images stored
in image extensions.

Frank Valdes has been enhancing the fiber spectral reduction tasks in
preparation for commissioning Hydra on WIYN. The enhancements are to
align the sky lines for better sky subtraction and to use fiber
identification information recorded in the header by the new
WIYN/Hydra software and updates for CTIO/Argus. Lindsey Davis has
completed a new task for WCS-driven image registration.  This task
takes a set of images, each with its own world coordinate system, and
registers them to a reference image (a common problem when analyzing
multi-wavelength data). This task is contained in a new layered
package IMMATCH (now available for user testing). This package
contains tasks for matching various characteristics of images,
including spatial registration, PSF matching, and intensity matching.
Interested users can obtain the package from iraf.noao.edu in the
iraf/extern directory--see the immatch.readme file. Lindsey also added
two new ring median filtering tasks to the IMAGES package.

Mike Fitzpatrick continues to enhance the IRAF Web pages--if you have
not looked at IRAF on the Web lately, you should check it out.Our URL
is http://iraf.noao.edu/. Mike has added capabilities for
automatically searching the archives for such things as finding files
in the FTP archive or searching the help pages, buglog, FAQ, and ADASS
newsgroups, by topic.

IRAF documentation and distributions are now available on CDROM for
those sites wishing to acquire IRAF on this medium.  These initial
CDROM distributions are simply mirror images of portions of the IRAF
archives on iraf.noao.edu.  IRAF distributions on CDROMs are similar
to tape distributions except that the CDROM is randomly accessible.
The documentation CDROM includes what is currently in the iraf/docs
directory but the files are uncompressed so they can be directly read
by a PostScript viewer on any host system.  We plan to produce more
fully featured CDROMs in the future and will be experimenting with
capabilities such as browsable, searchable documentation and IRAF
distributions that can be run directly from the CDROM, e.g., for the
PC-IRAF distributions.  These initial CDROMs are intended mainly as an
alternative to tape or network distributions.

Along with other NOAO staff members from CTIO and KPNO, Doug Tody and
Rob Seaman attended the "New Observing Modes of the Next Century"
conference in Hilo, Hawaii. This conference provided an opportunity
for observatory staff members who are responsible for the new
generation of large optical telescopes to discuss the unique
requirements for using these new facilities efficiently with their
community of observers.  Various queue and remote observing strategies
were the main topics of discussion.  Rob presented a poster paper with
Bruce Bohannan outlining the remote telescope console and automatic
FTP options that have been offered to Kitt Peak observers for the fall
1995 semester.  Rob also presented a poster outlining the features of
the NOAO "Save the Bits" archive, including a site management guide
that is available for other observatories that may be considering
options for archiving initiatives.

Preceding the New Observing Modes conference, Doug and Rob
participated in a workshop on archiving of ground based data chaired
by Dennis Crabtree of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.  Other
working group attendees included representatives from the Gemini
project, ESO, CFHT, Keck, and NED (IPAC). We gave a status report on
our "Save The Bits" project and discussed the work NOAO is doing to
develop a low cost data archiving facility.  The Keck presentation
included mention of their use of the Save the Bits software. Currently
NOAO is investigating several alternative free or inexpensive
relational databases to serve as the database server portion of a
client-server based catalog query/access facility.  The databases
which have been looked at thus far include /rdb, mSQL, and Postgres95.
User interfaces initially planned include a Web interface and a custom
GUI based on the IRAF Widget Server.  The client-server architecture
will allow new or alternative user interfaces to be easily added in
the future as new technologies emerge.  A related effort is underway
to define more carefully the keywords used for data taking and data
reduction at the telescopes; this will eventually affect much of the
IRAF data reduction software.  This work is being coordinated with
Gemini and the CADC. We are collaborating with the ESO/VLT project as
well.

For further information about the IRAF project browse the Web pages at
http://iraf.noao.edu/ or send e-mail to iraf@noao.edu.  The adass.iraf
newsgroups on USENET provide timely information on IRAF developments
and are available for the discussion of IRAF related issues.

Doug Tody, Jeannette Barnes

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