Announcement of the 08SEPpl1.0 ESO-MIDAS Release

ESO-MIDAS Home Page The internal 08SEPpl1.0 release of ESO-MIDAS has been released on Sep. 8, 2008 and is available on the ESO ftp server.

Below you find the following information concerning this new release:

What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 08SEPpl1.0?

All important enhancements, new developments and bugfixes can be found in the file /midas/08SEPpl1.0/prim/help/news.alq and displayed in Midas via the command 

Midas> help [News]

or click on the [News] topic in the Help graphical user interface.

Here we list the most important ones:

  • clean.prg

    New application procedure clean.prg to clean up bad pixels.

  • COPY/TI

    Add option to just copy a single column of the input table.

  • SET/MIDAS

    The support for old Midas descriptor formats (in .bdf files) before 1996 has been dropped. Consequently, SET/MIDAS DSCFORM=... has been removed.

  • SET/MIDAS

    New option F_HEAD=1 or =2 has been added. With F_HEAD=1 or =2 you enable version 1 (old, and the default) or 2 (new) for writing single, real descriptors to FITS header.
    With version 1 these descrs. are written as simple FITS keywords. With the new version, 2, these descrs. are stored into the special FITS keyword ESO-DESCRIPTOR. Like that, they'll remain real descriptors when the FITS file is read in again by Midas, stored as a simple FITS keyword. With version 1 it would be read back in as double.

  • COPY/TBROW

    New command to display a single table row and copy that string to a char. keyword.

  • STATISTICS/IMAGE

    Ojo: the default for the "option" parameter has changed from FFYN to GFYN. This cryptic remark means, that from 08SEP on, the median is computed precisely (via sorting all data) by default. Up to now, the default method used to be an approximation of the exact median obtained from the histogram. With modern computers this speedup in computing the median (at the price of precision) is not necessary anymore.
    For backwards compatibility you can set this parameter to FFYN manually.

Platform availability

MIDAS 08SEPpl1.0 has been installed and verified on the following platforms:

  • Sun Solaris 8

  • Intel/Linux SuSE 11.0
  • Intel/Linux Kubuntu 8.04
  • Intel/Linux Kubuntu 7.10
  • Intel/Linux Fedora 8
  • Intel/Linux Mandriva 2008 Spring
  • Intel/Linux Debian 4.0 Etch
  • Intel/Linux ScientificLinux 5.2
  • Intel/Linux OpenSolaris 5.11

  • AMD 64/Linux SuSE 11.0
  • AMD 64/Linux CentOS
  • AMD 64/Linux Sabayon 3.5
  • AMD 64/Linux Mandriva 2008 Spring

  • PowerPC/Mac OSX 10.4
  • Intel/Mac OSX 10.5

  • EeePC/Linux Mandriva 2008 Spring

  • Intel/Win 2000, Win XP (via cygwin)


In our ftp area, the source version valid for all platforms mentioned above is available.

Source distribution

08SEPpl1.0 is available only as source code.

For a proper installation of MIDAS sources follow the procedure of the installation document provided in PostScript (installunix.ps.Z) and html format ( installunix.html )

ESO-MIDAS is a copyright protected software product of ESO, and provides general tools for image processing and data reduction.

ESO-MIDAS is available under the GNU General Public License. This means that the ESO-MIDAS system is available free of charge and can be freely redistributed on certain conditions.

ESO-MIDAS on a CD-ROM

For the 08SEPpl1.0 release we will also create a CD-ROM which is distributed only on request to institutes which have insufficient network access for downloading the Midas release from the ESO ftpserver.

The CD-ROM will contain the release 08SEPpl1.0 and includes source code, documentation, and verification procedures, as well as calibration files in FITS format and binary format for some architectures (i.e. the ones on our ftp site).

Technical Support and Network Services

Technical support for ESO-MIDAS can be obtained using the ESO-MIDAS Helpdesk by filling out the ESO-MIDAS Problem Report Form.
Enter as user guest (no password) and create a new Midas PR (do not forget to log out in the end).

Please note, that ESO is not in the position to give active support to individual users outside research institutions. Therefore, users who have problems or questions concerning ESO-MIDAS running on their private systems are advised to use the "midas-users" mailing list for obtaining feedback and solutions to their questions from other users.

In case the ESO-MIDAS Problem Report System cannot be used the MIDAS User Support can be contacted via:

  • Electronic mail: midas@eso.org
  • Telefax: +49 89 32006480 (attn.: MIDAS Support)
  • Post:
    Software Development Division - Data Flow System Dept.
    Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2,
    D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen,
    Germany

Other public services:

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