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Next: Long-Term Requirements Up: Semi-annual report of the NRAO AIPS++ User Group Previous: Immediate Requirements

Requirements for the next release

For the Fall 2001 release (1.6), in order for aips++ to meet its goal of being usable by novices, the following would also need to be achieved:

(1) There must be suitable step-by-step documentation (a.k.a. a "cookbook") with supporting scripts that describe the end-to-end processing of radio continuum data over the most commonly used VLA observing bands (1.3 -> 43 GHz), including polarization. The documentation should have minimal aips++ jargon and design philosophy, and should concentrate on specific calibration and imaging steps (i.e., what you do, not why you do it), and it should be specifically geared toward users of the VLA, providing frequent referrals to equivalent reduction steps in AIPS.

(2) Robustness. At the present time there are still a large number of bug reports and enhancements coming from the NAUG when bringing new datasets through aips++. All major reduction paths must be tested end-to-end against real data without incurring catastrophic failures or critical-path blockages. The NAUG group is adding data from individual members, but we feel a comprehensive "test-plan" might help delineate areas where a wider range of fiducial datasets could be obtained.

(3) Aips++ should have computational times that are competitive with AIPS, and users should not be unduly slowed down by delays in the GUI interface. This may require the combination of different tools within one execution step.

Next: Long-Term Requirements Up: Semi-annual report of the NRAO AIPS++ User Group Previous: Immediate Requirements Contents