JCMT Software Newsletter Issue 1

The World-Wide-Web

The World-Wide-Web (WWW) is becoming increasingly important in the dissemination of information at the JCMT. In view of this a number of software based web pages have now been written. Pages are available on JCMT software1, Starlink2, general software and UNIX support3. These should be the first place to look if you have a problem or want to know about new software. Feel free to comment on the pages and make suggestions of improvements you think should be made (please note that the User Support pages are maintained by jointly by Tim and Frossie since they are telescope independent). Copies of these newsletters will also be available on the web from the JCMT software page.

New JCMT software

Work is ongoing on the movement of the JCMT utilities to UNIX .

Specx 6.7. Specx 6.7 is now available for UNIX . Unfortunately the VMS version is still at v6.6 - this will be rectified as soon as possible. Information on known Specx bugs and fixes can be found on the JCMT software web page. (contact: RPT or TJ).

xsourceplot 0.9b. The xsourceplot package has now been released to UNIX and tries to give the same functionality as the planets program on the VMS machines. Since it is still in the beta testing phase comments on this implementation are welcomed. A final release is expected in the next few weeks. (author: TJ).

jcmtlog. The jcmtlog program has been released as an alternative to journal. It allows comments to be made to the log as the observations are made so that it is now not necessary to take separate notes. An X front-end will be added shortly. (author: RPT).

Other software releases

It is also our intention to keep staff aware of new software releases not directly related to the JCMT. This list will in essence duplicate that found on the Starlink news4 or user support5 web pages and on the minutes of the Computer Services Group meetings. It is felt that this duplication can do no harm and may prove to be useful.

1- Starlink software

In the past month Starlink has released many new packages. The following releases are worth noting:

Starlink Figaro 5. A major update that still includes a bug with GLOBAL.sdf that was present in Figaro 3 (but is not present on AAO Figaro 46). In general this bug is non-fatal but does generate annoying error messages. Contact Frossie if you require more information on the differences between the Starlink and AAO implementations.

The Starlink cookbook for JCMTdr7 has now been officially released.

The Starlink versions of FITSIO and PGPLOT are now at the same release as the JAC versions.

2- General software

bibcard version 1.11. An xwindows tool for entering and manipulating Bibtex bibliographies.

ncftp version 2. An ftp package which allows up-arrow command recall, automatic anonymous login, session recall (so that when you reconnect to a site you end up in the directory you were in last time you were there), a bar graph of the transfer status, commands such as lls and lpwd and automated file transfer sessions.

pgperl. A perl5 PGPLOT module.

tcl extensions

tcl7.5a2 and wish4.1a2 The latest alpha releases of tcl/tk. (includes library support).

version 1.8 Table based widget packer (loads as module in wish4.1).

expect version 5.18. Utility to run external packages by simulating a typist.

SpecTcl version 0.1a. GUI designer.

Sybtcl version 2.3. tcl interface to Sybase.

tclX version 7.4a. Extended tcl. Also includes an up to date version of tclhelp.

xbmbrowser version 5.1. Small program which displays all the xbm/xpm files in a given directory.

xfig version 3. A more recent version of xfig(1), the software for drawing figures, flow charts etc.

xv 3.10a. The latest release of xv, many new features including the ability to read in FITS files.

xvnews version 2.3. An up-to-date version of the XView newsreader that has now replaced the old version in /usr/local.

ytalk version 3.2. This is a much improved version of talk which has xwindows support and the ability to talk to more than one person at once.

Tim Jenness, JCMT Software group

1st December 1995

1 = /user/software/

2 = /user/starlink/

3 = /user/

4 = /news.html

5 = /user/other/

6 = /user/figaro4

7 = /user/software/jcmtdr_cookbook/sc1.html