NRAO AIPS++ Users Group Meeting - DRAFT MINUTES Date: 2006-10-11 (Wednesday) Time: 1300 MDT ******************************************************************* NOTE: This is normally the NAWG time, but there is much to discuss about testing the CASA Alpha release so we will have 2 NAUGs this month (again on Oct 25). ******************************************************************* Send additions or corrections for inclusion to smyers 1. NAUG News o general news (Steve) With the shelving of aips++ and the genesis of CASA, I guess we need a new name. Joe wants CHUG (CASA Human User Group, to show we've moved beyond animal testing). I was going to just call it the "NRAO Applications User Group". Maybe this is one of Mark's tasks? o NAUG tasks: * user interface testing and requirements evaluation * task review * priority task implementation (e.g., image analysis) * Cookbook review * Parameter dictionary review It looks like Mark will be handling most of the coordination for the above items (see below). o Steve's Sabbatical Status Summary I will be at the AOC for October and February for NAUG testing (Alpha release, simulator, and ALMA pre-testing). I will be at Los Alamos National Lab from Nov 1, 2006 - Jan 31, 2007 and Mar 1 - May 31, 2007. During this period I will be visiting the AOC fairly often and can make NAUG and NAWG meetings occasionally. 2. CASA Status Report Standard items: o CASA status (Joe) - see main event o release status (Joe) - stable status The Deep Freeze: the last aips++ stable ever! At the end of the month the checkins will be disabled for glish-based aips++ (or something like that). - defect status Defect handling is now totally through JIRA (which other NRAO groups are now using). See http://bugs.aoc.nrao.edu DDTS is discontinued, and the "bug()" function in aips++ will have to be disabled. A new JIRA defect submission task will be implemented in CASA. o use and testing status (Steve, Mark, Joe) - Welcome new NRAO CASA user interface coordinator Mark Claussen Mark will be the users and testers main point of contact for CASA. For example, testing reports will be sent to him. The project principals (Debra, Crystal, Michael) and Steve will meet with Mark this week to sort out interaction issues. He started Oct 1. - user interface (Steve) See UIWG draft document http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/aips++/uiwg/uiwg_report.pdf Joe has an excel sheet tracking the UIWG requirements. He has his own preliminary grades on fulfillment. Mark will be taking that part over. Testing of the interface starts next Monday Oct 16. It looks like our testing reports should go through Mark. It was suggested by Crystal that we stage our testing so that only one person tests at a given time (to avoid finding the same problems and allow for fixes) with a sign-up for specific dates. There was general support for this and Mark said he would think about it. A number of CASA support people will be away next week at ADASS. Joe will make sure that an installation is available at the NAASC in CV (through Darrel?). - task status (Joe) There are 30-ish tasks defined in CASA as of today (see demo). More are on the way. Note that these follow a standard python template building on the toolkit, and thus are user customizable. Part of the NAUG evaluation will be to further refine the task definitions and parameters (which have now been reconciled in a dictionary across tasks). o development targets (Joe) - See also project office page: http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu 3. ALMA Standard items: o ALMA Test status (Joe, Steve) - upcoming test ALMA2006.10-6 (+single dish analysis) Was scheduled for end of Jan or beginning Feb, but conflicts with holography at the ATF. The ALMA external testing is thus tentatively scheduled to start March 5, 2007. NAUG pre-testing will be in February (when Steve is available). Nicole says Bob Garwood and Jim Braatz will be available for pre-testing also. Crystal, John and the NAASC should be cc-ed on correspondence on setting up this test. This test focuses on single dish processing and holography, plus regression for previous tests (in new casapy port). Note that the interface is now part of all ALMA standard tests. o NAASC issues (John, Crystal) - ANASAC hot-button items? There is a "lull" in the ASAC/ANASAC angst cycle, but there is a telecon tomorrow. Hopefully, our testing plans and delivery schedule have now been made clear and accepted. - Note that Tony, Rob, and Antonio are also possibly available for pre-testing. We don't want to overload with too many testers, but the NAASC can coordinate a few testers there. o ALMA development targets (Joe, Steve) - mosaicing and simulator developments (Kumar) Kumar is currently working on porting the simulator to casapy with first goal of ALMA simulation support (eventually EVLA also). Should available in first patch (see below). Mosaicing is working though somewhat slow (need some major/minor cycle tuning etc.), will be remedied after simulator work done. - see schedule at http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu 4. EVLA Standard items: o EVLA test plans (Joe, Steve) - next EVLA test EVLA2006.06-3 (+Antenna Pointing Calibration) This test was delayed from June to now start Nov 27 in order to allow more calibration targets to be tested (was originally Sanjay's antenna pointing calibration only). Focused on calibration (plus regression of previous tests), and the interface. Ed and Michael are coordinating with Joe on the exact testing targets. Items (from CASA wiki) include: * Round trip data flow (ASDM->MS->UVFITS) * Calibration (GM) o Available solve calibration types o Available apply calibration types o Interpolation o Smoothing o (new) calibration of weights o (new) pointing calibration o (new) full polarization BPOLY, GSPLINE See: https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/Software/AlphaRelease2006 o EVLA development plan & requirements (Steve) - next test will focus on VLA datasets, but with simulator should start to include EVLA standard-mode simulations. Also would be good to include RFI in VLA data and EVLA sims. - see schedule at http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu 5. Main Event - Presentations and Discussion Items *************************************************************** - Joe McMullin : CASA release status and demo See: http://casa.nrao.edu/demo5.shtml Some notes: ----------- Get parenthesis completion through "autocall 2" IPython command. An AIPS-like interface that Joe has developed in python. Eventually Darrel will incorporate these ideas in the full interface. Using python does mean that one could nominally tailor such an interface for different look and feels though! Joe noted that after "12 years and millions of dollars" we have finally produced something that looks like AIPS ;-P All parameters are currently global (working on task scoping of params, not yet included). They are reconciled across tasks (as per UIWG requirements) and so this shouldn't be a big problem. But user beware! Parameters save and restore currently task specific, so is more like TPUT/TGET, e.g. save 'taskname' which makes file taskname.saved, or specifically save 'taskname', 'thisfile.saved' This is just a python script, so restore via Python command, e.g. execfile 'taskname.saved' Frazer requested a more AIPS-like command like restore 'taskname' or restore 'taskname', 'thisfile.saved' might be more intuitive for users not used to Python. Note that a global SAVE/GET emulation is on the way also. qtviewer (using qt, not matplotlib) is coming along with basic features available for testing. There is a nice and functional table browser but there are currently some stability issues with the java, so this will be patched in later. There will be a 2-week patch/update cycle through the end of the year as new features and tasks are added. Mark will evaluate whether this cycle is working, though Joe notes that faster than 2 weeks (except for critical bug-fixing patches) would be difficult. For the Alpha release: https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/Software/AlphaRelease2006 Still coming: * logger (basic logging info dump currently available) * more qtviewer functionality Also needed: * Complete interface tests for all tools * Initial task cookbook complete; user ref man updated * All regression tests migrated to tool/task scripts * Parameter setting shell for tools * Distribution mechanisms There was much discussion on 64-bit machine support. It was generally though that most power users would have these machines soon (if not now) and thus NRAO should have a priority to start getting these for our own use and testing. Boyd said there were some issues with MacOS support but he was working on it. Crystal noted that she had been getting a number of requests for CASA/aips++ on 64-bit machines. It was also noted that the new 64-bit machine at the AOC bought by Brian and Gustaaf for us was being heavily used. See the CASA wiki: https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/Software/CASA ----------- Previous (2006-09-27) demo: http://casa.nrao.edu/demo4.shtml (Accessible under "Getting Started" link from CASA page.) *************************************************************** Future Topics o Flagging (ms) implementation plan (George) o suggestions welcome 6. AIPS++ Developments - see latest targets and info at Project Office: http://projectoffice.aips2.nrao.edu/ 7. Upcoming meetings and deadlines: o 2006 Oct 15-18 ADASS (Tucson, AZ) o 2006 Oct 16 CASA Alpha release 0.0 o 2006 Oct 30 First CASA Alpha update/patch 0.1 o 2006 Nov 13 Second CASA Alpha update/patch 0.2 o 2006 Nov 27 EVLA Test starts with update 0.3 o 2007 Feb 1 ALMA pre-testing starts o 2007 Mar 5 ALMA external test starts The agendas for past NAUG meetings are archived at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/naug/agenda/ The minutes for past NAUG meetings are archived at: http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~smyers/naug/minutes/