NRAO AIPS++ Users Group Meeting - MINUTES Date: 2005-06-22 (Wednesday) Time: 1300 MDT Video Hub: SOC-conf (CV should call in to Socorro) Rooms: SOC317/CV311 Send additions or corrections to smyers 1. NAUG News o general news (Steve) It was noted that there is some confusion in the community (and in NRAO) whether aips++ has changed names, presumably to "casa". It has been the position of the ISD team that until the interface changes and the package looks significantly different (due next year) that we retain the admittedly unpopular name "aips++" (since to any user it will look the same and have many of the same quirks). However, it was wryly noted that we could adopt an "interim" name change, perhaps to TINA ("this is not aips++"). 2. AIPS++/ISD Status Report o Developers meeting report (Joe) The June 6-10 face-to-face meeting in Socorro mostly dealt with code infrastructure and system issues, but also included work on single-dish analysis and viewer development. In particular, it was thought that the ATNF Spectral Analysis Package (ASAP), which is an interactive single-dish spectroscopic calibration tool built on Python above the aips++/casa libraries, could be brought into the main codebase and used for ALMA single-dish analysis. It was noted during discussions on this topic that the Japanese, who were to do the requirements for single-dish analysis, will not be able to deliver a requirements document by Jan06 (for an April test), and therefore we should go ahead and use the preliminary requirements based on the aborted GBT Offline Requirements document plus the ATNF ASAP requirements document, which was being drafted independently of the ACA. See the wiki page: http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/bin/view/OFFLINE/DeveloperMeetingJune2005 for details. o Testing (Joe) Discussions are underway with ALMA and EVLA to reduce the testing load currently 2 per project per year, or 4 per year total. It was noted that the current testing schedule has significant impact on our developers, and given our available manpower it would be helpful to free up more devlopment time. One possibility is a single test per project per year, but with more cross-testing (e.g. some "external" ALMA testers participating in the EVLA tests). It was reported that some ALMA testers would like to test using datasets similar to, but not identical with, the prescribed ALMA test data. It was noted that this could be a good thing, providing that our developers' user support load does not become a problem. In particular, this could probably be accommodated if the formal tests were reduced (see above) and/or the prospective informal testers were to visit the AOC for testing. More informal NAUG/NRAO testing should continue to occur during the year as targets are delivered. Standard items: o stable status (Joe) - update to projectoffice page will be available soon (Action: Joe) o defect status (Joe) o development targets (Joe) - update to projectoffice page will be available soon (Action: Joe) 3. ALMA o ALMA CDR3 results (Joe) The CDR phone-interview was conducted by Joe versus the panel on June 9. There are 10 remaining items that Joe needs to resolve and get back to the panel on July 1. My impression is that there were no serious substantive issues, though some hot areas were the framework, ASDM, ACS, ACA, Test4, and the impact of our EVLA work on ALMA manpower. Documents, etc., will be posted to the twiki (Action: Joe) The CDR3 instructions etc. can be found at: http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/bin/view/MNGPUB/CriticalDesignReviewThreeInstructions o ALMA planning It was noted that there is belief "out there" that the ALMA Offline Software group had no overall plan and was just working in disconnected 6-month cycles. This is certainly not true, as there are numerous planning documents, including milestones, and reviews (the ALMA CDRs) of progress toward these goals. For example, see the document: Software Development Plan for Off-line Data Reduction System http://aips2.nrao.edu/projectoffice/alma/offline_plan.pdf Also see other discussions and documents on the ALMA Offline Wiki: http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/bin/view/OFFLINE/WebHome Standard items: o ALMA Test 3 (A2005.1/TST2.0) testing results (Joe, Steve) - a copy of the ALMA Test3 report is on Joe's desk, and should be published in July. Joe will inform the NAUG when its available (Action: Joe) o ALMA Test 4 (A2005.2/TST2.1) deliverables (Joe, Steve) - planning is ongoing for Test4. Most details of development targets and deliverables (scaled back from original plan) were hammered out by Joe and Debra earlier this month. 4. EVLA o Requirements (Steve, Joe) Reprioritization (including timescales) of the EVLA requirements is underway by Dale. He has completed an update to the "e2e" requirements and next will tackle the "Post-processing" requirements doc. There are now Master ALMA+EVLA merged requirements that are used to plan the ISD development and track deliverables. These will be made available on the Project Office and/or TWiki pages (Action: Joe) It looks like we are on track for the key 2007.5 milestones (to prepare for the WIDAR correlator first bits and first science tests). Standard items: o EVLA Test 1 (E2005.1) testing status (Joe, Steve, Sanjay) - see below o EVLA Test 2 (E2005.2) targets (Joe, Steve, Sanjay) - pending possible testing reorganization (see above) o development plan & requirements (Steve, Sanjay) - n/a (Sanjay is at SKA Wide-field Imaging meeting) 5. Main Event - Presentations and Discussion Items o Status of EVLA 2005.1 tests EVLA Test 1 is ongoing, with the aim to (mostly) finish it off this week (Bryan and Frazer will not be available until later though). Status: Ed - (AXAF) testing completed, report available: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/testlogs/2005-06-20-fomalont.txt Walter - (1046) testing proceeding, now trying flanking fields Gustaaf - (AXAF) testing proceeding Steve - (AXAF) testing starting ===== Ed's Main Conclusion: "The wproject imaging in AIPS++ is easy to set-up and pretty fast. I would use this for wide-field imaging in the future. Some of the support (editing, selfcalibration, data averaging) could be improved, and these will be discussed below..." We now have AXAF comparison images from AIPS (courtesy Ed), and from aips++ without w-projection (accidentally courtesy Gustaaf). Ed's timing comparisons showed aips++ w-projection to be roughly 1.8-2.5 times faster (depending on whether averaged or unaveraged data were used). It was thought by Kumar that aips++ and w-projection should be significantly faster than this, and this is currently under investigation. Future Topics o Flagging (ms) implementation document (George) o Tasking interface and framework status and demonstration (Joe) 6. AIPS++ Developments - see latest targets and info at Project Office: http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu/ 7. Upcoming meetings and deadlines: o 2005 Fall EVLA Software PDR (followed by CDRs) o 2005 Oct 15 External ALMA TST2.1 o 2005 Nov 15 EVLA Test E2005.2 The agendas for past NAUG meetings are archived at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/agenda/ The minutes for past NAUG meetings are archived at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/minutes/