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Next: The File Catalog GUI Up: Getting Started in AIPS++ Previous: Running AIPS++

Subsections

Use of the Tool Manager

The Tool Manager is key to the interactive GUI-based use of AIPS++. To use AIPS++, it helps to have mastered the use of the Tool Manager. For this reason, we suggest that you work through this section especially carefully, performing the suggested examples as you go along.

Views in the Tool Manager

Views of various aspects of AIPS++ can selected using the tab buttons just underneath the top menu. The three principal views are:

Manager: For traversing the hierachy of tools, and for creating new instances of tools. This view (and the associated tab) is always available.
Tools in Use: For interacting with existing tools. This view (and the associated tab) is always available.
Tools, Constructors, or Global Functions: Each tool, constructor, or global function has a view dedicated to it. These are added and removed from the set of tabs as appropriate.

Figure 2: The Tool Manager GUI as it appears when AIPS++ is started. This is the Manager view. As described above, the various tools and functions in AIPS++ are arranged in a modular, hierarchical fashion. The overall structure of AIPS++ from a user point of view can be seen using this view of the Tool Manager GUI.

Figure 3: The Tool Manager GUI with the Tools in Use view displayed Under the Tools in Use view, if you press the button right button to ``Show all tools'', you will see a list of tools with names like dc (default catalog), dv (default viewer), dl (default logger), dm (default measures). dm is an innovative tool which performs varieties of operations related to co-ordinates, time, quantities, and conversions. Any of these tools can be activated by clicking the required tool name and then clicking the Show button in the same window. To see how this works, notice the tool dl (Logger) which was already activated by default. Click the Dismiss button on the Logger window. The Logger window is removed. Now select dl from list of Tools in Use and click Show. The Logger window reappears. This is the standard way in which the GUIs (Graphic User Interfaces) of tools that are not in use can be removed (it helps to reduce the clutter on your screen) and brought back when needed. Note that at the bottom of this view there is a line of buttons. These control which tools are shown, how they are listed, and how often the list is updated.

Now switch back to the Manager view. The top layer of AIPS++, packages, is listed in the left most column. These are known as packages. Currently there are nine packages in AIPS++ (general, utility, display, synthesis, dish, BIMA, NRAO, NFRA, ATNF). In addition, you will see an entry unclassified when a classification is not possible.

Each package contains one or more modules. The list of modules in each package can be seen by clicking on the name of the package in column 1 of the Tool Manager GUI. The list of modules appears in Column 2.

For instance, click on the package synthesis. The following list of modules appears in the second column:

calibrater: : module for calibrating UV data
componentmodels: : module for making source components for use in deconvolution or self-calibration
imager: : module for most imaging needs
simulator: : module for simulating UV and other data
msplot: : module for plotting Visibility data in various ways

Each module can contain tools and global functions:

tools: are collections of related functions that operate on some common data source. To use the functions of a tool, the tool needs to be connected to the data source. This connection is usually called ``creation'' or ``construction'', and is performed using special functions called constructors. Each tool may have one or more types of constructors. Once a tool has been constructed, the user can use functions of the tool to perform the various operations needed for data processing.
Global functions: perform single straightforward operations that cannot be naturally grouped. Invocation of the global function is very straightforward, involving just the arguments of the function.

As an example, the Mathematics module in the utility package contains many tools (including, fftserver, matrix, polyfitter) and global functions (including, gauss1dfitter, mean, moments).

Global functions, tool constructors, and tool functionsperform the actual operations associated with data processing. These functions and constructors have various input arguments (with sensible defaults) and optional outputs. These will be shown once you press the Create or Run buttons.

Finally, the Tool Manager GUI contains a Search entry on the top. This entry can be used to search for the occurrence of any string of characters in the entire AIPS++ system. There is one entry Search String and a button to the right to display the results of the search. The search option is very useful for locating the appropriate modules or functions for a given operation for which you may only know a keyword.

For instance, type advise in the Search String window and press return. The results can be seen by pressing the Search Results button.
You get the answer synthesis.imager.imager.advise
This implies, that advise is a function of the tool imager which is contained in the module imager of the package synthesis.
The general syntax for representing an "entity" in the AIPS++ hierarchy is thus
- package.module.tool or
- package.module.tool.function or
- package.module.tool.constructor or
- package.module.global function
As a further experiment, type imager for the search string and see the various occurrence of this string displayed in the window. Notice that the same name (e.g. imager) is used for a module, a tool and a constructor. There is no clash in this usage.

An example of the use of the Tool Manager

The concepts introduced above should become more understandable once actually do something, so let's make an imager tool. Tools can be constructed from the Tool Manager GUI by selecting the tool name and then clicking the Create button. This operation generates a view of the tool constructor with various arguments.

Figure 4: Tool manager view of the imager constructor

Making and using an imager tool

Click the Manager tab on the Tool Manager GUI. Then Select the imager tool by sequentially clicking synthesis under package, imager under module and finally imager under Tools.
Click Create. A Constructor GUI appears as shown in Figure 4. On the left hand size this GUI shows that there are two imager constructors, called imager and imagertester.
Click imagertester under the list of imager constructors. The GUI displays the inputs to this constructor. This constructor creates a standard MeasurementSet and connects the imager tool to it. All the default arguments will work just fine for this demonstration. (Note that the other constructor takes the name of a MeasurementSet and so if you have one, you could use that constructor instead. Both constructors lead to an imager tool that is used in exactly the same way.)
type in the tool name you want, by placing the cursor on that window. (or just leave it at its default myimager)
Press the Create button. The imager constructor then starts to run. Afte 10-15 seconds, the view of the constructor will disappear and it will be replaced by a view of the tool functions (figure 5). The tabs at the tool will be updated.

Figure 5: Tool manager view of an imager tool On the left of the view, you will see a scrollable list of the functions of the tool. Selecting one of these functions causes the corresponding tool function arguments to be shown on the right hand side. Input arguments have a white background, output arguments have a grey background and cannot be edited.

For some complicated tools, such as imager, the functions may be grouped. The particular group may be selected using the button labelled 'Function groups' at the top of the list of functions. If you do not find this helpful, you may access all functions at once using the group 'all'.

To use a specific function of the imager tool, do:

Using a tool function

1.: If present, choose the required group of functions by clicking on the 'Function group' button.
2.: Choose the required tool function by clicking it. This operation gives a one line description of the tool function and a list of various input arguments. At any point, you may press the web button to get detailed information on that function.
3.: Enter the various input arguments. Some tool functions may have no arguments. Short popup help on each argument is available by placing the mouse pointer on the argument name. More detailed help can send to your browser using the web button.
4.: Click Go

Try this now for the advise tool functionfound in the helpers function group. This tool functioncalculates maximum cell sizes for the selected data in the associated MeasurementSet. You can also set a field of view to get a recommended number of pixels.

Figure 6: Tool manager view of an imager tool showing the advise function Another good tool function to try is plotvis to plot the visibility data.

At this point you may switch views in a number of ways:

Switching Tool Manager views

Switch to the Manager view using the tabs. Note that a new tab imager:myimager now appears. Switch back to the imager tool using this option.
Dismiss this view of imager:myimager using the the Dismiss button. The tool still exists but this view has been removed from the Tool Manager. The view can be recreated by selecting the tool name myimager in the Tools in Use view and clicking Show.
End the use of this tool (and the view) by pressing the Done button. This will destroy the tool altogether so that it can no longer be used.
Switch to the Tools in Use view using the tabs.

Saving and restoring function arguments

The Save button at the bottom of the GUI, when pressed, saves the current inputs of the currently selected tool function to a default Glish record named lastsave. Similarly Restore fills in the arguments of that function from previously saved values in lastsave. Also when the Go button is pressed the values used for the tool function are automatically saved into lastsave. The Glish record lastsave is written into a file called aips++.inputs.table in your AIPS++ directory. This AIPS++ Table can, in principle, contain many Glish records. The inputs to a function can be saved into a different record by changing the name from lastsave to some other name, say, mysave1. In this case mysave1 is written as another Glish record in the same table aips++.inputs.table (This Table can be browsed from the File Catalog using the View button). Same rules apply for Restore.

Note that Save and Go buttons do not save the entire environment of AIPS++. Each action only saves the inputs of only that tool function which is executed. Thus the saved records in aips++.inputs.table can be of different length.

The Spanner or Wrench

For each of the parameters of a function, the Spanner (or Wrench) button offers the various options by which parameters can be assigned or used.

Original: Returns the original value the argument had when you opened the function. Useful if you typed something wrong and wanted to go back to the original value.
Default and Clear are self explanatory.
Copy: Copies the variable (whatever it is - a number, a string, an array) to the Clipboard (see below). Useful if the function has an output which you may want to use somewhere. Or if you want to transfer an argument from one function to another.
Paste does the reverse of copy.
Unset: Sometimes not assigning anything to a variable is sensible.
Set: The reverse of unset: sets the value back to a default value.
View: This option comes up depending on the context. If the argument is an image name (e.g. an output image in CLEAN), then view brings up the Viewer tool. Or if it is a Table, it will bring up the Table Browser.
Tool: This option comes up depending on the context. If the argument is a table name then Tool constructs an appropriate tool (e.g. ms for a MeasurementSet, image for an Image, etc., and then uses the toolmanager to display the GUI.
Manage: This option comes up depending on the context. For a region, the regionmanager is started. The regionmanager allows one to specify an area in an image (e.g. blc, trc) or a polygon.
From catalog Opens up the File Catalog GUI from which a file name can be picked.
From ms Opens up a context-sensitive graphical tool to select items such as antennas or baselines.
From image Opens up the viewer to select either a point, region, or statistics.
Save Saves a record to the recordmanager. The recordmanager allows you to keep copies of useful records from session to session, and independently of the inputs system. Use drcm.gui() to see the GUI for the recordmanager.
Restore Restores a record from the recordmanager.

The `clipboard`

The clipboard is just a clipboard. Any Glish variable (A filename, an array, a string of characters, a number, a set of variables) can be copied to the clipboard and pasted back to the same or some other place. For instance under the button Inputs, near the top of a tool view, the option Copy to Clipboard will copy all the inputs of the function to the Clipboard. They can be pasted back using Paste option under the same button. Under the Commands button, which is next to it, the option copy to clipboard will copy an equivalent Glish command string to the Clipboard. This string, when typed on the Command Line window will execute the function just like pressing the Go button on the GUI. This string can, for example, be copied on to the Command Line window using

Pasting from the clipboard

x := dcb.paste()    # Set x to the value in the clipboard
eval(dcb.paste())   # Evaulate the contents of the clipboard

where eval is a very useful Glish function that evaluates the supplied string and returns the result.

dcb is in fact a tool (defaultclipboard) which has two functions copy and paste. It belongs to the module tasking in the package Utility. In principle, it is available under the Tools in Use view, but you will hardly ever need to use it from there.

Similarly variables can copied to the clipboard: copied into a Glish variable by using:

Copying to the clipboard

dcb.copy(x)                   # Copy the glish variable x
dcb.copy(dm.source('3C273'))  # Copy the position of 3C273

The arguments status button

At the right end of each entry is an indicator of the status of the value. The states are:

Green tick: The value is valid. Execution can start.
Red cross: The value is invalid. Execution cannot start until this value is changed.
No entry sign: No entry is allowed (i.e. output only field.

The `scripter`

Each function that is executed by the Tool Manager has an equivalent Glish command string which could be used from the Glish prompt or in a Glish script to achieve the same result. A tool scripter is available to record all equivalent Glish commands for a Tool Manager interactive session. It can be enabled using the option Write to Scripter under the Commands button in the Tool Manager. This will start recording all subsequent commands to the scripter (actually the defaultscripter: see the Tools in Use view of the Tool Manager).

scripter can save the accumulated Glish commands to a file, in addition to other capabilities. This file can be used as a Glish script, and can be edited and executed. This is a good starting point for generating customized Glish scripts. A given script can be executed from Glish using the command include 'myscript.g'. A utility is available to edit the script before execution as dc.edit('myscript.g').

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