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Section 1. Introduction and General Information Q1.1 What is ESO-MIDAS ? Q1.2 What is the ESO-MIDAS distribution policy ? Q1.3 How is the source code of ESO-MIDAS structured ? Q1.4 Which platforms are supported ? Which hardware is required to run ESO-MIDAS ? Q1.5 How much hard disk space does ESO-MIDAS need ? Q1.6 Which software do I need to install and run ESO-MIDAS ? Q1.7 How is the ESO-MIDAS documentation organized ? Section 2. Network sources and resources Q2.1 Where can I get ESO-MIDAS material by FTP ? Q2.2 How do I install ESO-MIDAS ? Q2.3 I don't have FTP access. How do I get ESO-MIDAS ? Q2.4 What other network services are there for ESO-MIDAS ? Q2.5 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere ? Section 3. ESO-MIDAS most common installation problems. Q3.1 Generic installation problems on UNIX systems. Q3.2 Generic installation problems on VMS systems. Q3.3 Installation problems on SunOS 5.3 and 5.4 (Solaris). Q3.4 Installation problems on OSF/1. Q3.5 Installation problems on PC/Linux. Q3.6 Installation problems on HPs. Q3.7 Installation problems on SGs. Q3.8 I do not have Motif, how can I have the MIDAS GUIs ? Q3.9 Why does the command line editing in the monitor not work ? Q3.10 Why do I get "MIDAS version .. on VAX/VMS" if I am on UNIX? Q3.11 Most MIDAS tutorials do not work. The demo data is missing. Section 4. Display and plotting with ESO-MIDAS. to be filled Section 5. The internal ESO-MIDAS system and monitor. to be filled Section 6. General applications in ESO-MIDAS. to be filled Section 7. Data I/O in ESO-MIDAS. Import-Export. Q7.1 Why I cannot access my tape device with INTAPE/FITS command? Q7.2 Out of Synchronism... when accessing a remote tape driver? Q7.3 Can I use MIDAS format files between different platforms? Section 8. Standard reduction and calibration packages in ESO-MIDAS. Q8.1 How are the calibration and demonstration data distributed? Section M. Miscellaneous QM.1 How to perform desktop computations with MIDAS ? QM.2 How do I get on-line help ? QM.3 How can I overplot a contour on an image? QM.4 How can I reinitialize failing graphic and display windows? QM.5 Why do the GUIS appear with missing colors? QM.6 How can I define my own commands and create windows when I start a MIDAS session? QM.7 The cursor rectangle created by, e.g. EXTRACT/CURSOR or GET/CURSOR, does not react to arrow keys. ========================================================================
Q1.1 What is ESO-MIDAS ? Q1.2 Which is the ESO-MIDAS distribution policy ? Q1.3. How is the source code of ESO-MIDAS structured ? Q1.4 Which platforms are supported ? Which hardware is required to run ESO-MIDAS ? Q1.5. How much memory do I need to run ESO-MIDAS ? Q1.6. Which software do I need to install an ESO-MIDAS ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.1. What is ESO-MIDAS ? ESO-MIDAS is the acronym for the European Southern Observatory - Munich Image Data Analysis System which is developed and maintained by the European Southern Observatory. The ESO-MIDAS system provides general tools for image processing and data reductions with emphasis on astronomical applications including imaging and special reduction packages for ESO instrumentation at La Silla. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.2. Which is the ESO-MIDAS distribution policy ? As of the 95NOV release, patch level 2.0, ESO-MIDAS is available under the GNU General Public License. The short statement of the GNU license is included in every MIDAS file; the full text is included as a separate file in the ESO-MIDAS Release. All source code, documentation, as well as binary copies of ESO-MIDAS (already installed and without sources) for specific systems can be retrieved from the ESO-MIDAS anonymous ftp account. Manual pages, installation guides and other documentation are generally released together with the source code and can also be obtained from this ftp account. In some exceptional cases the release of the documentation can be delayed slightly. Only in cases where no possibility exist to retrieve ESO-MIDAS via the network ESO may sent the release on magnetic or optical media. Requests for this service, which must include the format of the medium, can be sent to: European Southern Observatory Data Management Division Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2 D 85748 Garching bei Müchen GERMANY As with the main release, patches, new applications, updates of the documentation, etc. will be made available on the above mentioned anonymous ftp account. They will announced via the various communication channels to the User's community and described in the ESO-MIDAS Web page on Support and Information Services. MIDAS sides are also recommended to check for the existence of new paches in the relevant README file on our anonymous ftp account on a regular basis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.3. How is the source code of ESO-MIDAS structured ? The initial design of MIDAS was made on a DEC/VMS system in the early 80's. However, in the late 80's with the acceptance of UNIX as a standard operating system and the introduction of workstations, the system was largely redesigned and now runs on a wide variety of computers, with either DEC/VMS or one of the various flavours of UNIX as the operating system. The latest official release 94NOVpl0 has been distributed as 30 Mbytes of source code (11 Mbytes in a tar-compressed file). The number of source code lines is shown in Table 1 for different types of files, where "FORTRAN" and "C" correspond to actual program code, while "prg" refers to high-level MIDAS procedures. Documentation is in for of MIDAS help files. Table 1: Size of source code for different file type in units of 1000 lines: C FORTRAN prg Help ----------------------------------------------------- 413 240 51 50 The size of the source code can also be divided into main MIDAS classes. As a sample, Table 2 shows some main categories, namely "core" MIDAS, graphic users interfaces (gui), system applications (applic), standard reductions (stdred) and general application packages (contrib): Table 2 Size of source code in different directories in Mbytes: Total "core" gui applic stdred contrib ----------------------------------------------- 30.6 14.7 4.6 1.4 3.3 5.7 ESO-MIDAS documentation is not included in this distribution. It is available however in PostScript and DVI format as the second file in the distribution tape, or under the subdirectory "./94NOV/doc" in the FTP account. See also Q ?.? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.4. Which platforms are supported ? Which hardware is required to run ESO-MIDAS ? The next table shows in which platforms 94NOVpl0 has been installed and verified succesfully. The "Size in disk" indicates the size ESO-MIDAS occupies on disk after a complete installation including all packages, source and object files. System Size in disk Remarks ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUN SunOS/4.1.3 120 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries. SUN SunOS/5.3 80 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries. HP HP-UX A.09.01 82 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries. PC Linux/1.0.8 25 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries, only binaries DEC OSF1/V2.0 113 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries. SG IRIX/4.0.5 197 Mbytes Without shared libraries. SG IRIX/5.2 70 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries. DEC ULTRIX/4.3 243 Mbytes Without shared libraries. IBM/AIX 3.2 80 Mbytes With MIDAS shared libraries. VAX/VMS V5.2 114 Mbytes Without shared libraries, without GUIs. The total disk space required for ESO-MIDAS will be less than this figures if you do not install all optional packages. As a reference, on a HP-UX you will need 82 Mbytes for a complete installation but only 36 Mbytes for the installation of only the "core" of MIDAS. In the same machine "applic" requires 4 Mbytes, "stdred" 10 Mbytes, "contrib" 21 Mbytes and GUIs 10 Mbytes. You can reduce the disk space required if you clean ESO-MIDAS directory after installation (Option 9 - Clean MIDAS, in the main menu). You can remove object files, source files, libraries and optional packages that you might have installed but you do not need any more). Again, on a HP-UX system using 82 Mbytes for a complete installation, you can remove 11 Mbytes of object files, 31 Mbytes if you remove object and source files and 37 Mbytes if you remove objects, sources and libraries. Cleaning MIDAS is recomended if you want to distribute copies of MIDAS to different machines. It is however highly recomended to keep a master copy with all files (or at least a backup) for the purpose of installing upgrades and patches. In addition to the disk space required for the installation of ESO-MIDAS, you will need optionally some more disk space for documentation (5 Mbytes in compressed-tar PostScript files), demo files (10 Mbytes in compressed-tar files, 24 Mbytes after the installation) and calibration files (1 Mbytes in a compressed-tar file, Still you will need some more disk space for user data. 50, 100, 200 Mbytes per user of ESO-MIDAS?. This depends in the average number of images per session and in the size of the images, e.g. 20 images of 1000x1000 pixels occupies 4 Mbytes on disk (4 bytes each pixel) will need 100 Mbytes for the initial data and most likely another 100 Mbytes for the reduced data. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.5. How much memory do I need to run ESO-MIDAS ? This question is also difficult to answer with preciseness. It depends in many different factors like which system, which MIDAS application and which images. In SunOS 4.1.3 the MIDAS monitor uses 1.1 Mbytes of memory, 2.6 Mbytes if you open a display window and 2.7 Mbytes for a graphic window. Some applications allocates 1 or 2 times the size of the image, that means 4 Mbytes or 8 Mbytes for an image of 1000x1000 pixels. Resuming... it is recomended a minimun of 16 Mbytes of memory per user of MIDAS and in any case as much as necessary to avoid the system to start swapping (paging in and out blocks of memory to disk). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.6. Which software do I need to install and ESO-MIDAS ? First, you need a C compiler. Both ANSI C and the Traditional C from Kernie&Ritchie can be used for the installation of ESO-MIDAS. If your system does not provide you with a C compiler, or this is licensed and you do not want to pay the license fee, get a copy of the GNU public-domain C compiler "gcc" which is also available for almost all platforms. Second, you need a F77 Fortran compiler. Here again and without a licensed Fortran compiler you can use the Fortran_to_C conversor, which converts ESO-MIDAS Fortran code into C, which then can be compiled with the C compiler. The Fortran_to_C conversor is again public domain software from AT&T Bell Laboratories and is called "f2c". A script called "fc" or "f77", which uses "f2c", reproduces the same behaviour of the Sun Fortran compiler "f77". This option is used with the installation of ESO-MIDAS on PC/Linux where the GNU ANSI C compiler and the Fortran_to_C conversor "f2c" are normally included with the Linux distribution. NOTE: Eventually there will be a GNU public domain Fortran compiler, called "g77". Third you need X11 software. ESO-MIDAS can be installed with both X11 release 4, or X11 release 5, but not yet with X11 release 6. X11 is included with the system in all platforms, but is also public domain software that you can installed yourself if you do not like the one provided by your system. Optionally you need Motif. Both Motif release 1.1 and release 1.2 are supported by ESO-MIDAS. Without Motif software, you still can install most of ESO-MIDAS packages, but not the Graphical User Interfaces GUIs that require the Motif widget-library. Motif, unfortunatelly, is not a public domain software. Many systems do include Motif by default in their distribution like HP/HP-UX, OSF/1 or Solaris 5.4. For other systems you will have to buy a Motif license (e.g. 250 DM for PC/Linux). It is however our policy to distribute the GUIs already compiled and linked with the static Motif library for those systems that do not get Motif in their system distribution, like SunOS 4.1.3 or PC/Linux, so you do not have to buy any Motif license. See also question Q?.? The NAG library, the mathematical library from Numerical Algorithms Group, is used for particular options of some MIDAS commands. If you have a license for the NAG library tell the MIDAS installation script where the library is located, otherwise a dummy NAG library will be created by the installation script to complete the installation without errors, but the options using the NAG routines will return an error. See question Q?.? for more details about which MIDAS commands/options need the NAG library. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 1.7. How is organized the ESO-MIDAS documentation ? The main source of information about MIDAS is the MIDAS Users Guide, Volumes A, B and C (ESO-SDAG, 1993) ( MIDAS User Guide ) . The MIDAS system has been described in various papers. General overviews can be found in Banse et al. (1983) and in Grosbol and Ponz (1990). MIDAS as a development environment is discussed in the document ``MIDAS Environment'' (ESO-IPG, 1993) and by Banse et al. (1991). The performance of MIDAS on different platform is described by Grosbol et al., 1988. The implementation of the table file system is described by Grosbol and Ponz, 1985. For a more complete reference list, see References . Volume A: describes the basic MIDAS system with all general purpose facilities such as MIDAS Control Language, all available commands, data input/output (including plotting and image display), table system (MIDAS Data Base). Site specific features are given in an appendix. Volume B: describes how to use the MIDAS system for astronomical data reduction. Application packages for special types of data or reductions (e.g. long slit and echelle spectra, object search, or crowded field photometry) are discussed assuming intensity calibrated data. A set of appendices gives a detailed description of the reduction of raw data from ESO instruments. Volume C: gives the detailed description for all commands available. This volume is not available to remote users as the complete volume C ias it is accessed via the MIDAS GUI XHelp. It is intended that users will mainly need Volume A for general reference. For specific reduction of raw data and usage of special astronomical packages, Volume B will be more informative. A printed version of the MIDAS help files is available in Volume C. Users are recommended to use the on-line help facility which always gives a full up to date description of the commands available Detailed technical information of software interfaces and designs used in MIDAS is also given in the following documentation: MIDAS Environment; MIDAS IDI-routines; AGL Reference Manual. Users who want to write their own application programs for MIDAS should read the MIDAS Environment document which gives the relevant information and examples. All above documents and further documentation can be obtained by contacting the Science Data Analysis Group (preferable via the HOT-LINE) or via FTP (See also Q?.?) References: - Banse, K., Crane, Ph., Ounnas, Ch., Ponz, D.: 1983, ``MIDAS'' in Proc. of DECUS, Zurich, p. 87 - Banse, K., Grosbol, P.J., Baade, D.: 1991, ``MIDAS as a Development Environment'', in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems I , PASP Conf. Series, Vol. 25, p. 120. - Banse, K., Grosbol, P., Ponz, D., Ounnas, C., Warmels, R., `The MIDAS Image Processing System in Instrumentation for Ground Based Astronomy: Present and Future, L.B. Robinson, ed., New York: Springer Verlag, p. 431. - Grosbol P., Banse, K., Guirao, C, Ponz, J.D., Warmels, R.H.: 1988, ``MIDAS Benchmarks of Workstations'' in ESO Messenger, ESO, Garching, 54 , 59 - Grosbol, P.J., Ponz, J.D.: 1985, Mem. S.A.It., 56, 429 - Grosbol, P.J., Ponz, J.D.: 1990, ``The MIDAS System'' in Acquisition, Processing and Archiving of Astronomical Images,, G. Longo and G. Sedmak (eds.), OAC and FORMEZ, 1990, p.109 - Warmels, R.H.: 1991, ``The ESO-MIDAS System'', in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems I , PASP Conf. Series, Vol. 25, p. 115. ========================================================================
Q2.1 Where can I get ESO-MIDAS material by FTP ? Q2.2 How do I install ESO-MIDAS ? Q2.3 I don't have FTP access. How do I get ESO-MIDAS ? Q2.4 What other network services are there for ESO-MIDAS ? Q2.5 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 2.1. Where can I get ESO-MIDAS material by FTP ? The Internet name for our FTP machine is "ftphost.hq.eso.org" or IP address 134.171.40.2. We provide two different ftp accounts, the standard "anonymous" and the restricted "midas" ftp account. In the "anonymous" ftp account, you can find all public domain information about ESO-MIDAS, such as binaries for PC/Linux, ESO-MIDAS documentation, demo and calibration data, and the archives for the two ESO-MIDAS mailing lists: midas-users and midas-announces. Everything is under the directory /midaspub. The "midas" ftp account provides sources of ESO-MIDAS to only those sites with a valid and signed User Agreement (ESO-MIDAS sites). This account is restricted to those registered hosts provided with a valid password. ESO-MIDAS sites with access to Internet are requested to retrieve the MIDAS source code from this "midas" ftp account. Those ESO-MIDAS sites that does not have registered their hosts, please send us a mail to "midas@eso.org" indicating your User Agreement Number and the IP addresses (e.g. 134.171.85.*) of those hosts from which you plan to ftp the "midas" account. Your IP hosts will be registered and we will send you back a mail for comfirmation with a valid password. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 2.2. How do I install ESO-MIDAS ? There are three different installation procedures for ESO-MIDAS: - From source code on UNIX platforms, follow the document "Installation of MIDAS on UNIX systems". The document is available in PostScript and DVI format in the files installunix.ps.Z and installunix.dvi.Z in our "midas" FTP account in the directory "94NOV". A paper copy of this document is sent together with the tape distribution. - From source code on VMS platforms, just follow the document "Installation of MIDAS on VMS systems". Available in PostScript and DVI format in installvms.ps.Z and installvms.dvi.Z in our "midas" FTP account in the directory "94NOV". A paper copy of this document is sent together with the tape distribution. - Binary distribution of ESO-MIDAS for PC/Linux. The installation of a binary copy of ESO-MIDAS is simpler and faster than the one with sources. The installation notes are found in the file /midaspub/94NOV/linux/README.linux on our anonymous FTP account. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 2.3 I don't have FTP access. How do I get ESO-MIDAS ? If you do not have FTP access, you can request ESO-MIDAS via traditional mail on tape by completing the "ESO-MIDAS Request Form" Material will be shipped only to users with a valid ESO-MIDAS User Agreement. If you still have tapes or a tape mailing box from previous releases, please return them to us. You can obtain the "ESO-MIDAS Request Form" on the last page of our Newsletter "The MIDAS Courier", or send a e-mail to "midas-announce@eso.org" with "get midas-request-form" in the body of your message. If you have a reasonably good email connection you could also try to get all ESO-MIDAS distribution files available on our FTP accounts via our FTPMAIL service. E.g. to get the binary distribution of ESO-MIDAS for PC/Linux, send a mail to "ftpmail@eso.org" with the following commands in the body of the message: open size 2M cd /midaspub/94NOV/linux get README.linux get 94NOVpl0.tar.z Or to get the source distribution: open ftphost@eso.org midas [password] size 2M cd /94NOV get README.unix get 94NOVpl0.tar.Z get installunix.ps.Z In both cases, binary files are "uuencoded" and splitted into max. 2Mbytes emails. It is your job to remove the header of the mails, concatenated them, and run "uudecode" to obtain the original file. Send "help" in the body of a message to "ftpmail@eso.org" for more info about FTPMAIL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 2.4 What other network services are there for ESO-MIDAS ? - WWW (World Wide Web): http://http.hq.eso.org/midas-info/midas.html - The ESO-MIDAS bulletin board: telnet bbhost.hq.eso.org, account "esobb". Also available via anonymous ftp or via WWW. - The MIDAS Courier: Newsletter of the MIDAS User's Community. Distributed by traditional mail, but also available in the WWW and by anonymous FTP account. Editor: rwarmels@eso.org If you are not in the mailing list and want to receive future issues of the Courier, contact the editor. - The electronic mailing lists: midas-announce: For official announcement related to ESO-MIDAS, like patches and releases. midas-users: For general discussion about ESO-MIDAS (un-moderated). To subscribe to any mailing list, send a mail to "majordomo@eso.org" with the following command in the body of the message: subscribe midas-announce [your email address] or subscribe midas-users [your email address] - The ESO-MIDAS support: only for ESO-MIDAS sites. Send your Problem Reports to "midas@eso.org". Your mail will be checked by GNATS, our tracking problem report system, and it will be forwarded to the relevant person in the ESO-MIDAS group. If you have already installed MIDAS we recommend you to use the Problem Report Graphical User Interface generated by the feedback button on the XHelp GUI. - Finally the MIDAS Hot-line: +49 89 320 06 456 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 2.5 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere ? Yes. The archives are also available via Majordomo using the "get" command (send "help" in the body of a message to "midas-announce@eso.org" or "midas-users@eso.org" for more info), or via anonymous FTP from ftphost.hq.eso.org in directories /midaspub/midas-announce and /midaspub/midas-users. The archives are broken down by year, month and day, and are stored in files named "midas-users.YYMM" and "midas-announce.YYMMDD". ========================================================================
Q3.1 Generic installation problems on UNIX systems. Q3.2 Generic installation problems on VMS systems. Q3.3 Installation problems on SunOS 5.3 and 5.4 (Solaris). Q3.4 Installation problems on OSF/1. Q3.5 Installation problems on PC/Linux. Q3.6 Installation problems on HPs. Q3.7 Installation problems on SGs. Q3.8 I do not have Motif, how can I have the MIDAS GUIs ? Q3.9 Why does the command line editing in the monitor not work ? Q3.10 Why do I get "MIDAS version .. on VAX/VMS" if I am on UNIX? Q3.11 Most MIDAS tutorials do not work. The demo data is missing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.1. Generic installation problems on UNIX systems. 1- One typical problem when installing a binary distribution of MIDAS is that it may have problems to access the MIDAS shared libraries, e.g.: OSF/1 V3.0: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libmidas.so HP-UX A.09: /lib/dld.sl: Can't open shared library:/libmidas.sl Linux 1.2.8: /prepa.exe: can't find library 'libgmidas.so.3' SunOS 4.1.3: ld.so: libmidas.so.3: not found SunOS 5.4: ld.so.1: /prepa.exe: fatal: libgmidas.so: can't open SG/IRIX 5.2: /prepa.exe: rld: Fatal Error: cannot find 'libmidas.so' You can solve this problem in different ways depending on the platform, but one common one is to include the MIDAS library directory (e.g.: /midas/94NOV/lib) into the system environment variable for shared libraries. This variable is called SHLIB_PATH on HPs and LD_LIBRARY PATH on other platforms. To modify the variable, if it was already defined, just type before running MIDAS: C-Shell: % setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH $LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/midas/94NOV/lib Bourne-Shell: % LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/midas/94NOV/lib; \ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH or if the variable was not defined: C-Shell: % setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH midas/94NOV/lib Bourne-Shell: % LD_LIBRARY_PATH=midas/94NOV/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH You can make this modification permanently to all users, by including its Bourne-Shell form at the beginning of your inmidas,gomidas and helpmidas front-end scripts. 2- MIDAS uses namepipes to comunicate between the monitor and both, the display server and the XHelp Graphical User Interface. Typically you get the following error messages when starting MIDAS: "cannot create server for GUI Xhelp.exe." or "OSX: Could not open Client WRITE channel, error = 2" "OSX: Writing error in 'round_trip', error = -1" Namepipes (like midas_xw00 and xhelp00) are special filenames which, in some cases like Linux, OSF/1 and IBM are not recognized by NFS or AFS. To workaround the problem you can run MIDAS on a NFS filesystem by telling MIDAS to use a local filesystem for the namepipes, e.g. /tmp/midwork. Just define the environment variable MID_WORK, or use the option "-m " in the inmidas script. % setenv MID_WORK /tmp/midwork or % inmidas -m /tmp/midwork -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.2. Generic installation problems on VMS systems. One common problem with MIDAS installation on VMS systems is how to install or reinstall a particular package without installing MIDAS completely. Let's assume as an example the package DAOPHOT, then proceed as follows: - Assign MID_DISK to the disk where MIDAS is located (e.g. DBA2): $ ASSIGN DBA2: MID_DISK: - Assign MIDASHOME and MIDVERS to the directories in MID_DISK where MIDAS is located (e.g. DBA2:[SOFTWARE.MIDAS.94NOV]): $ MIDASHOME :== SOFTWARE $ MDVERS :== 94NOV - Execute the DCL file that defines some MIDAS logical files: $ @ ['MIDASHOME'.'MIDVERS'.MONIT]MIDLOGS.COM - Execute the DCL file that defines libraries and installation procedures: $ @ ['MIDASHOME'.'MIDVERS'.INSTALL.VMS]LIBDEF.COM - Move to the directory of the package you want to install (or reinstall): $ set def ['MIDASHOME'.'MIDVERS'.CONTRIB.DAOPHOT] - Execute the command "make" on each of the following subdirectories: LIBSRC, SRC, ETC and PROC. The order is irrelevant, except for LIBSRC which should be always before SRC (Note: some packages might miss some of these subdirectories) $ set def [.LIBSRC] $ make $ set def [.SRC] $ make $ set def [.ETC] $ make $ set def [.PROC] $ make - Finally and optionally, purge the MIDAS: $ set def ['MIDASHOME'.'MIDVERS'] $ purge [...]*.* -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.3. Installation problems on SunOS 5.3 and 5.4 (Solaris). - Before you start the MIDAS installation and if you want to use the the SUN C compiler, make sure your "path" environment variable contains at least the following directories: % set path=(/opt/SUNWspro/bin /usr/bin /usr/ccs/bin .) - Before you start the MIDAS installation and if you use the GNU C compiler, then set your "path" should contain: % set path=(/opt/cygnus/bin /opt/SUNWspro/bin /usr/ccs/bin /usr/bin .) and in the "./local/make_options" file the SLIB definition should be: SLIB=-lsocket -lnsl -lgcc -R$(MIDASHOME)/$(MIDVERS)/lib and /usr/lib/libgcc.a must be a soft link to /opt/cygnus/lib/libgcc.a - Before you start the MIDAS installation, and for those users of MIDAS the LD_LIBRARY_PATH should contains at least: % setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH \ /usr/dt/lib:/usr/openwin/lib:/opt/SUNWspro/lib:/usr/ccs/lib - Users of MIDAS need "/usr/openwin/lib" and "/usr/dt/lib" (or equivalent directories for X11 and Motif) in theirs LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment, otherwise they will get errors like "libX11.so.n.n: can't open file". - On SunOS 5.3 the Motif library is not included, thus MIDAS GUIs can not be compiled. On SunOS 5.4 the Motif library is included and located in /usr/dt/lib directory. - The line editor may not work for MIDAS in an openwindows environment if you run it in a cmdtool window, but it should work in a shelltool window. - You may find problems with INTAPE/FITS to read more than one file from a DAT tape. The INTAPE/FITS may finish with an "End Of Data" after reading the first file. The problem is simply solved by using the BSD behavior for DAT tapes, that is, using devicenames with letter 'b' in the component of the name (e.g. /dev/rmt/0bn instead of /dev/rmt/0n) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.4. Installation problems on OSF/1. If during the MIDAS installation you get this error: Midas 001> @ ascii_bin ........ OSY_SPAWN: Child killed by a signal Could not execute /usr/util/midas/94nov/prim/exec/crfram.exe This is due to a bug in the f77 version 3.11-0. The bug has been already solved in 3.11-4. If you can not get the f77 release 3.11-4, you will have to remake the MIDAS installation without using the MIDAS shared libraries. To do so, put in comments the SH_CMD and SH_EXT entries in your ./local/make_options file. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.5. Installation problems on Linux. - The binary version of MIDAS for PC/Linux requires the following X11R5 shared libraries libraries: libX11.so.3.1.0 libXt.so.3.1.0 On a Slackware distribution of Linux you will get these libraries by selecting the package "oldlibs: Shared X libraries from XFree86 2.1.1 (X11R5)". - If you want to recompile MIDAS sources on your PC/Linux, you will need also X11R5 include files and static libraries. These are available in our anonymous ftp account in "ftphost.hq.eso.org" in "/midaspub/94NOV/linux/X11R5.tar.z". To install them, as superuser, type: # cd / # zcat X11R5.tar.z | tar xvf - To compile MIDAS, and after executing option "5 - preinstall MIDAS" add the following entries to your "./94NOV/local/make_options" file: X11INC=-I/usr/X11R5/include X11_LIBPATH=-L/usr/X11R5/lib After that you can continue with the option "6 - install MIDAS" in the installation menu. - The binary distribution of MIDAS requires Motif 1.2 (run kit) for the Graphical User interfaces. If you do not have Motif 1.2 (and do not want to buy one licence) you can retrieve the binary copy of MIDAS GUIs with statically linked Motif libraries. They are available in our anonymous ftp "ftphost.hq.eso.org" under "/midaspub/94NOV/linux/gui" directory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.6. Installation problems on HPs. - The default installation of MIDAS for HPs uses the options "-O" and "+z" for the C compiler. They are used to optimize the C code and to generate position independent code for shared libraries. Here you could get "Warning" messages because these two options are not supported by the HP-UX C compiler when is provided as part of the standard HP-UX system. They are supported by the C compiler sold as an optional separated pruduct. In this case, and after executing the "5 - preinstall MIDAS" option, you will have to remove in the "./94NOV/local/make_options" file the lines "C_OPT=-O" and those ones starting with "SH_". - One typical problem with MIDAS on HP is the terminal setup, e.g.: - The key '@' cannot be typed in the command line, it removes the already typed line. - The key 'BACKSPACE' has no influence at all in the MIDAS command-line. These problems are most times solved with the following configuration in you .login file: # set up the terminal eval `tset -s -Q -m ':?vt100' ` stty erase "^H" kill "^U" intr "^C" eof "^D" susp "^Z" \ hupcl ixon ixoff tostop tabs ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.7. Installation problems on SGs If in compilation time you get the following error: Compiler error line 3764 of reduce.f: Too many names. Try the '-Nn#' option (# currently = 8191) *** Error code 1 (bu21) You could solve it by executing the following: % cd /94NOV/contrib/pepsys/src % make reduce.f % f77 -c -Nn15000 reduce.f % make ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.8. I do not have Motif, how could I run MIDAS GUIs ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question 3.9. The MIDAS monitor does not have line editing capabilities. You might have the TERMWIN environment variable set to "no", or if you are using 93NOV or 94MAY release of MIDAS you are probably using the inmidas or gomidas script from 94NOV, which undefines the TERMWIN variable. With 94MAY and 93NOV you need the TERMWIN variable set to "yes" in order to use the "TermWindows" line editor. This was done automatically in "inmidas" and "gomidas" scripts. If TERMWIN is defined by the user to "no" the line editor is disable. With 94NOV, the "inmidas" and "gomidas" scripts, by default, do not touch the TERMWIN variable. If it is undefined or pre-defined by the user to "no", MIDAS uses the new line editor "readline" from GNU. If it is defined to "yes" MIDAS uses the old line editor "TermWindows". If you want to use the same "inmidas" and "gomidas" scripts for different versions of MIDAS (93NOV, 94MAY and 94NOV), use those provided in 94NOV and remove the comment character in lines 267-268-269: if [ -z "$TERMWIN" -a "$MIDVERS" != "94NOV" ]; then TERMWIN=yes; export TERMWIN fi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 3.10. Why do I get "MIDAS version 94NOV on VAX/VMS" if I am on UNIX ? You did forget to execute (or failed) the option "Select: 8 - setup MIDAS" in the main cofig menu. This could also happens if a patch file applied to you version of MIDAS updated the ./monit/syskeys.datorg or ./monit/syskeys.unix files. In this case the option "Select: 8 - setup MIDAS" should be re-executed AFTER the re-installation or update of MIDAS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 3.11. Most MIDAS tutorials do not work. The demo data is missing. The demo data used in most of the MIDAS tutorials are not included in the distribution source or binary files. They are however available under the subdirectory "demo" in our "ftp" account, or as an extra file in the distribution tape. In both cases a README file should explain clearly how to install this data. The important thing is that MIDAS will look for demo data in the directory $MIDASHOME/demo. If you have installed your demo directory somewhere else you will have to make a soft link to cheat convince MIDAS of the contrary. ========================================================================
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Q7.1 Why I cannot access my tape device with INTAPE/FITS command? Q7.2 Problems accessing the remote-tape server. Q7.3 Can I use MIDAS format files between different platforms? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 7.1. Why I cannot access my tape device with INTAPE/FITS command? If the error message you get is "Function not available: open", you might have installed an old "/94NOV/incl/devcap.dat" file. Just removed it and try again. The "devcap.dat" was necessary for the 93NOV release and older. With 94MAY was included a new "generic" driver for tape devices which allows access to most common tape devices (DAT/DDS, Exabyte, 1/2 inch Magtapes) by using a semi-standard UNIX interface called "mtio". The "generic" driver has proved to be good enough for most platforms and it does not require the tape configuration file "devcap.dat" anymore, but if it exists it will be used. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 7.2. Out of Synchronism... when accessing a remote tape driver? Check that client and server are using the same release of MIDAS. The implementation of the client-server tape service in 93NOV and older is incompatible with 94MAY and newer. If you have the need of having two two of these releases of MIDAS together (e.g. 93NOV and 94NOV), then use 94NOV for the tape server, and copy the executables "intape.exe" and "outtape.exe" from 94NOV to 93NOV (in directory / /prim/exec). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question 7.3 Can I use MIDAS format files between different platforms? The MIDAS .bdf, .tbl and .fit formats use the local number representation of the machine on which it is installed in order to get optimal performance. There are several different standards used by vendors. The two general issues are byte order (i.e. big or little endian; Intel PC's and DEC machines use little while most others use big endians) and number format for both interger and real numbers (e.g. ones or twos complement, IEEE or VAX; virtual all vendors use twos complement and IEEE by now). On UNIX systems, MIDAS format files are interchangeable between platforms using the same byte order (i.e. between PC/Linux, Ultrix and OSF/1 for little endian architectures, and SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, Irix and AIX for big endian architectures) As an example, the reason for the problem using SPARC .bdf files on a PC Linux system is the byte-order which is opposite. Although we have never seen the problem, there could also be different alignment requirements for different system. For exact this reason the FITS format was defined several years ago as a machine independent exchange format. You would need to use the OUTTAPE/FITS command to create a FITS formatted of your files. The FITS files can then be transfered to your PC Linux system either by ftp (use binary option) or tar. The FITS files are then converted back to .bdf format by the INDISK (or INTAPE). The 95NOV version of MIDAS can also read FITS files without an explicit conversion. ========================================================================
QM.1 How to perform desktop computations with MIDAS ? QM.2 How do I get on-line help ? QM.3 How can I overplot a contour on an image? QM.4 How can I reinitialize failing graphic and display windows? QM.5 Why do the GUIS appear with missing colors? QM.6 How can I define my own commands and create windows when I start a MIDAS session? QM.7 The cursor rectangle created by, e.g. EXTRACT/CURSOR or GET/CURSOR, does not react to arrow keys. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.1. How to perform desktop computations with MIDAS ? Use command COMPUTE/IMAGE, which can be abbreviated to comp, like in: Midas...> comp tan(45.) - ln(2.718282) + (1.E-01)**2. + log10(10.) 1.010000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.2. How do I get on-line help ? The XHelp GUI can be created with the command CREATE/GUI help or directly from the shell with the helpmidas command. GUIs require MOTIF libraries to be installed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.3. How can I overplot a contour on an image ? The command ASSIGN/GRAPH DISPLAY will set the display window as a plotting device. In order to accord the bounds of the image to the bounds of the plot, use PLOT/AXES [<,<:>,>] followed by PLOT/CONTOUR command. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.4. How can I reinitialize failing graphic and display windows? Use the command RESET/DISPLAY. Killing the idiserver could have resulted from interrupting interactive comands with a CTRL-C. Try to avoid it next time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.5. Why do the GUIs appear with missing colors ? Color demanding Midas applications like the display window or external applications such as xv reserve for themselves a large number of colors of the Xterminal. The Midas GUIs should be created before such applications. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.6. How can I define my own commands and create windows when I start a Midas session? Include definitions in your login.prg procedure which can be located in your working directory or in the MIDWORK directory. Such a file could include definitions like: CREATE/COMMAND RK READ/KEYWORD CREATE/COMMAND CD CHANGE/DIRECTORY CREATE/DISPLAY LOAD/LUT heat ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question M.7. The cursor rectangle created by, e.g. EXTRACT/CURSOR or GET/CURSOR, does not react to arrow keys. This is more rather a problem of the keyboard input focus policy of your window manager than a problem of MIDAS: Before a window could get any input from the keyword (like arrow keys) this must be selected. Most window managers support (by default) a keyboard input focus policy of explicit selection. This means when a window is selected to get keyboard input, it continues to get keyboard input until another window is explicitly selected. The client window with the keyboard input focus has the active window appearance with a visually distinct window frame. This focus policy of explicit selection means, for MIDAS commands like EXTRACT/CURSOR and GET/CURSOR, that in order to use the arrow keys the MIDAS display window must be selected first, and you do so not by moving the cursor inside the window, but by pressing button 1 in the title area of the window. The other keyboard focus policy, that we here at ESO use by default and is available in most window managers, is the the pointer one. When set to pointer, the keyboard focus policy is to have the keyboard focus set to the client window that contains the pointer. The window selection is done automatically by moving the mouse pointer to the window we want to activate. With the pointer focus policy, MIDAS commands like EXTRACT/CURSOR reacts immediately to the arrow keys as soon as the mouse pointer is inside the display window. To change from explicit selection to pointer focus policy, you will have to change the resources of your window manager. For the Motif Window Manager (mwm) is "Mwm*keyboardFocusPolicy: pointer", for the Virtual Window Manager (fvwm) the pointer focus policy is the default unless "ClickToFocus" is set in you "system.fvwmrc", for the OPEN LOOK (openwindows) window manager (olwm & olvwm) the resource is "OpenWindows.SetInput: followmouse" in your .Xdefaults file. ========================================================================