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Terminology
The following explain various terms used in this manual.
- Keywords
- -- global variables in the MIDAS monitor. They can
be single numbers or characters or one dimensional arrays
used to
store input, output, or control information for
MIDAS commands.
- Frames
- -- arrays of numbers representing data values
with uniform sampling. They are used for storage of
images or spectra.
- Images
- -- used interchangeably with frames.
- Descriptors
- -- variables associated to frames, tables or masks
describing the contents in them. They are basically the
same as keywords just associated to data files instead
of the monitor.
These descriptors have
names like NAXIS (the dimension of the image array),
CUNIT (the units of the axes), etc.
- Tables
- -- two dimensional arrays organised with rows and
columns. They are used for storage of heterogeneous data contrary to frames
and masks which store homogeneous data. They are typically used for saving
lists of e.g. stellar positions and magnitudes.
See Chapter 5 for a full
description of the table facilities. Many commands
output their results or take their input from tables.
They constitute a simple data base system for MIDAS.
- Catalogues
- -- a list of frames, tables, or masks which can be
used for
input to various commands or merely for reference.
- Procedures
- -- These are lists of MIDAS commands stored in a file
of type filename.prg and which can be executed
by typing @@ filename.
See Chapter 3 for further
details.
- Fit file
- -- a file that contains the function and parameter
values for use in conjunction with the fitting
commands described in
Chapter 8.
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Petra Nass
1999-06-09