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Is There Life after NOD2?As those of you who are based in the UK are no doubt painfully aware, Starlink is in the process of abandoning VMS-based systems. I will not dwell here on the pro's and con's of that decision, except to say that it necessarily precludes the UK's JCMT users from access to the NOD2 software. This may not be a matter for much wailing or gnashing of teeth, but it does raise the question of how to reduce continuum on-the-fly maps.It has never been JCMT policy to port NOD2 to UNIX. Instead, a replacement software package has been written by John Lightfoot, which will in due course form the basis of the SCUBA software. This package is called JCMTDR, which stands for JCMT Data Reduction. It runs under SunOs, Solaris or OSF/1, is compatible with all Starlink software, and also allows access to the dual-beam maximum entropy package DBMEM. Once a single-beam map has been made, you can output this in FITS format, and thence to AIPS or IRAF or whatever your favourite plotting package may be. The last obstacle to JCMT users abandoning VMS altogether has now been overcome, in that there are now GSD file readers (MAKEMAP and GSD_PRINT) for UNIX incorporated into JCMTDR. At the time of writing (January 1995) this has just been completed by Remo Tilanus and Horst Meyerdierks and I have taken it for a test-drive on a Solaris system. I am happy to report that it appears to work fine. Users already familiar with the VMS version of JCMTDR should see little change. By the time you read this, the new version should have been released, along with the equivalent UNIX version of SPECX, with GSD file readers, so that you will be able to wave a final fond farewell to your VAX. A JCMTDR Cookbook has been released which is designed to be an introduction to the package to help you to get started. It lists the commands with a brief description of each, guides you through a simple reduction procedure, and provides details of where to find out more. Canadian, Dutch, UH and other non-UK users of JCMT will be pleased to learn that a stand-alone version of JCMTDR, which will not require all of the Starlink software to be installed with it, is planned for release by Starlink later this year. This has come about at the request of the JCMT Advisory Panel and the Submm/Radio Starlink Software Strategy Group. For your copy of the JCMTDR Cookbook see the JCMT Homepage of the World-Wide-Web (/JCMT/index.html), or e-mail me (dwt@roe.ac.uk) and I'll send you a copy. Derek Ward-Thompson / ROE |