From gmoellen@cv3.cv.nrao.edu Fri Mar  9 08:50:04 2001
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 18:53:28 -0700 (MST)
From: George Moellenbrock <gmoellen@cv3.cv.nrao.edu>
To: AIPS++ Core Testing Group <akemball@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU>,
     dshepher@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU, efomalon@cv3.cv.nrao.edu,
     gtaylor@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU, gvanmoor@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU,
     jbenson@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU, jhibbard@cv3.cv.nrao.edu,
     julvesta@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU, tcornwel@zia.aoc.NRAO.EDU,
     Steven T. Myers <smyers@cv3.cv.nrao.edu>
Subject: New Features in aips++


Hi all,

I thought you'd be interested in a few features of the "user-convenience"
variety which I've added this week:

1. calibrater.plotcal() 

o By setting the new argument multiplot=T, you can get one antenna per
plot, and a little box will come up and ask you when you want to see the
next plot.  At the moment, you can't abort cycling thru the whole list of
plots, so you might still want to limit how many there are using the
antennas argument.

o You can now choose plottype='1/AMP' to get a plot of the inverse Gain
amplitude vs. Time.  This is useful for comparing with old AIPS since the
conventions for storing the solutions are different. It can also make poor
solutions that are lower than most more obvious.

o I've cleaned up the the plot a fair amount.  The legend is now to the
right of the plotting surface and it will always all fit.  If you can't
read it, make the window larger, or choose fewer antennas and/or spectral
windows.

o Coming soon:  multiple plots per page


2. ms.summary()

o This function, the results of which you see at the outset of, e.g.,
msplot, has been enhanced to provide more info about the antennas in the
observation, in particular, the mapping of antenna (and spw and field) IDs
(required in arguments of many functions) to the more familiar names. This
function is useful for obtaining all of the ID values you need to select
different fields, spectral windows, antennas, etc.

To run this function use the ms tool as follows:

- myms:=ms('<your_ms_file_name>');
- myms.summary()

  or

- myms.summary(verbose=T)

The verbose mode provides are more complete listing, including antenna
positions, etc. 

o Coming soon:  LISTR 'SCAN' type listing; availability as a global
function?; printout option 

Cheers,
George