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Subsections

Running AIPS++

In this section, we describe how to set up your environment to run AIPS++. This is quite straightforward and only requires a few steps.

Initializing your environment to run AIPS++

Because AIPS++ is run from a Command Line window interpreter/control hub, before starting AIPS++, you are going to need to load some environment variables. This is the most site specific part of using AIPS++. You need to know where your local installations are kept, and what the update policy is. We keep four copies at NRAO-SOC and NRAO-CV, they are /aips++/release, /aips++/stable, /aips++/weekly, and /aips++/daily. The first (release) is the production version that corresponds to the last formal release, and the second (stable) is a regularly updated snapshot of the current development system. If possible, you should use release or stable. The latter two installations (weekly and (daily) are developmental copies and should not be used unless you need to use something specific that is available only there. Of these two, weekly is more stable, but daily gets bug fixes and new features more quickly. Daily is recompiled often, so you may see strange results if the executable you need is either not available or is deleted prior to a re-compilation.

Thus, if the installation you need is kept in e.g., /aips++/release

Initializing your shell to run AIPS++

. /aips++/release/aipsinit.sh       # Bourne/Korn/Bash
source /aips++/release/aipsinit.csh # csh and similar shells

Creating working space

We recommend that you create a separate directory on your disk with plenty of space to work in AIPS++. Unlike AIPS, AIPS++ does not have its own catalog and instead relies upon the file system of your computer to manage the files. Although it is possible to specify full directory paths for file names that need to be read or written by AIPS++, it is most convenient to work in the directory containing the files on which you wish to work. Thus you should create a separate directory to run AIPS++ and move to that directory.

Create a separate directory to run AIPS++

mkdir new_directory_name
cd new_directory_name

Setting X-windows to run AIPS++

AIPS++ can be run from a simple character-based terminal, but you will get better results running it with a windowing interface.

Setting your DISPLAY environment

export DISPLAY; DISPLAY=:0.0       # Bourne/Korn/Bash shell:
setenv DISPLAY :0.0                # csh shell

Running AIPS++

To run AIPS++:

Starting AIPS++

aips++

This does three things: Starts Glish, opens a Logger window where messages are displayed, and opens the Tool Manager GUI. The very first time that you start AIPS++, it may take some time to start up, as some initializing files are being created. Subsequent start ups will be much faster.

Before proceeding any further, there are three things you absolutely must know:

Essential commands

exit    # Exit from Glish
bug()   # Report a bug
ask()   # Ask the local contact or AIPS++ Project Staff
help()  # Get help

Control-c and Control-z will abort and suspend Glish, respectively.

Getting Help

In AIPS++, help is available at various stages, both from the Glish Command Line window and from the GUIs for various applications. Reference material for most things are usually presented through your Web browser.

At the Glish Command Line window, help can be obtained by typing:

Get some help on a module, tool, or function

help('general')       # modules in the general package
help('*name*')        # wild cards are allowed
help('catalog')       # tools and functions of the catalog 
help('catalog.show')  # function show of the Catalog
help('*cat*')         # all occurrences of 'cat' in help

You can also get more detailed information on a specific subject by using your browser.

Help via your Web browser

web()           # Drives to last requested help section
help('Refman:') # Drives to the Refman
help('Glish:')  # Drives to the Glish User Manual

When using GUIs, some help is available for each of the buttons. If you position your mouse pointer over a given button for about a second, a brief help pops up. The GUIs also have Help or Web buttons which steer your Web browser to the appropriate section or provide some additional help. The Help button is usually located at the top right corner of the GUIs.

Fine-tuning up your environment

AIPS++ uses a file called .aipsrc to control how it works. To create a version of this file, or to edit existing values, use the tool setupwizard.

Setting up the AIPS++ environment

include 'setupwizard.g'
setupwizard()

This will start a gui-based wizard for setting values in the .aipsrc file. If you don't have a GUI available for the wizard, then you can create the .aipsrc file by hand. See Appendix B for more details.

Brief overview of AIPS++ windows and GUIs

After starting AIPS++, the window from which you executed the aips++ command is now running the Glish Command Line window. Glish is alive and well when a `-' (or sometimes a `+') prompt appears on the screen. You use the Glish Command Line window to type commands. At this point rearrange the three windows (terminal, Logger GUI, and Tool Manager GUI) any way that suits your convenience.

Figure 1: The Logger window

The Logger window

shown in Figure 1, is something you may watch as action takes place in response to your commands. Most actions are reported to the logger, with only a few exceptions, such as (e.g., Help) that are reported to the Glish CLI window. The Logger window has three frames. From left to right, they are the time, the priority, and the message. In addition, a fourth frame may be activated which displays the module from which the message arose. These frames are toggled on and off from the Options menu in the window. The File menu allows you to:

query: Select a subset of the messages using a query. You will be prompted to fill in the details of the query.
purge: clear the log messages,
print: make a hardcopy of the log messages (you are prompted for the number of messages to print),
script: write commands in the log to a script

Notice that some messages have already been logged in the Logger window after you started AIPS++. These messages tell you that several default tools have already been loaded (e.g., viewer tool `dv', catalog tool `dc').

The Tool Manager GUI

(Figure 2) is central to AIPS++. It is used to control AIPS++ as well as to obtain help on various tools and functions in AIPS++. It is not desirable to resize this (or other AIPS++) windows using the window manager on your workstation. If you do so, you may get strange results in subsequent operations.

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