The IRAF V2.11 patch, mentioned in recent issues of this Newsletter, has been completed and was in beta testing at NOAO, STScI, and other sites as this article was being prepared. Versions for SunOS, Solaris, Digital Unix, and OpenVMS should be publicly released by the end of August. Versions for PC-IRAF, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, and IBM AIX will follow as soon as possible.
The IRAF V2.11 patch (version V2.11.2) is important for anyone running IRAF, since it will include the modifications necessary to make IRAF Y2K compliant (detailed information is available on our Web page at: http://iraf.noao.edu/projects/y2k). The patch includes not only bug fixes, but support for the new ISO-style FITS date format. Support has been added for Solaris 7 on Sun platforms, as well as for the new version 5 Sun compilers. Other modifications and additions were previewed in the June issue of this Newsletter. A more complete description of the patch will be available by the time it is released.
An "emergency" port of V2.11 was released for RedHat 6.0 in mid-May, since IRAF would not run on this platform at all due to a shared library dynamic linking problem. Support was also added for the new version of GLIBC and for the new EGCS compilers; these enhancements will be available for all PC-IRAF platforms in the next release.
The Mosaic DHS (Data Handling System) has been enhanced to support Mosaic II, a new version of the NOAO CCD Mosaic. This version supports 16 amp readouts, and dynamic reconfiguration of the DHS if the number of amps (subimages) changes during readout. Single CCD readout is also supported.
Work continues on the automated data reduction pipeline facility, to be used initially to reduce Mosaic data. A way was developed to store arbitrary host files as FITS extensions (foreign file extensions), and later restore them to disk. This allows non-FITS data such as PostScript or text files, observing logs, weather pictures, etc., to be archived along with FITS image or tabular data in a FITS-based archive. The Save The Bits (STB) software was revised to support this new extension type, and to automatically transmit Mosaic data to the archive pipeline machine in the Tucson offices. Work is currently underway on the database facilities for the archive, and on the pipeline modules.
The IRAF group has been meeting with representatives of the Gemini Science Operations Group to plan data reduction support for the Gemini instruments. The IRAF group, working with the Gemini staff and the Gemini instrument scientists, will be implementing reduction facilities for Gemini instruments over the next couple of years. We will keep you informed as the projects develop.
For further information about the IRAF project please see the IRAF Web pages at: http://iraf.noao.edu/ or send email to iraf@noao.edu. The adass.iraf newsgroups (available on USENET or via a moderated mailing list, which you can subscribe to by filling out a form on the IRAF Web page) provide timely information on IRAF developments and are available for the discussion of IRAF related issues.
Doug Tody, Jeannette Barnes