INSTALLATION (Oct99)            spectime            INSTALLATION (Oct99)



              SPECTIME: SPECTRAL EXPOSURE TIME CALCULATOR
              Release Notes and Installation Instructions



SUMMARY
The  SPECTIME  external  package  provides  a  spectral  exposure   time 
calculation  engine, SPTIME, that is driven by database files describing
the various components of a spectroscopic system.  SPTIME  can  be  used
directly  or  with different user interfaces for specific spectrographs.
These include IRAF scripts and a web interface.



RELEASE INFORMATION
The following summary only highlights the major changes.


V2.2: May 15, 2003
    Added a new parameter "minexp" to allow setting the minimum  allowed
    exposure  time.   This is used when the calculation reduces the time
    per integration to avoid saturation, particularly in the  IR.   Note
    that   by  setting  the  minimum  and  maximum  exposure  times  per 
    integration to be the same you can now  fix  the  frame  time.   The
    algorithm  for adjusting times and number of exposures, particularly
    to avoid saturation, had problems  and  has  been  changed.   It  is
    possible  that  certain combinations may still not work as you would
    expect.
    
    A problem with calculating the thermal background was fixed.

V2.1: March 3, 2003
    Shuffle sky subtraction added.  CGIPARSE task included  for  writing
    CGI callable IRAF scripts.

V2.0: August 15, 2001
    Major  revisions  to  the  parameters  and  the  way  parameters are
    handled.  Some highlights are:
        - tables can be either files or numbers
        - all parameters are in the parameter sets
        - IR support includes thermal background


V1.2: June 13, 2001
    Added "units" parameter to  allow  different  dispersion  units,  IR
    bands,  and  added a parameter to the filter table to override order
    overlap message.  The output was changed so that transmisions  of  1
    are not reported.

V1.1: February 11, 2000
    Added  E and R parameters to SPTIME to allow applying a reddening to
    the spectrum.

V1.0: October 20, 1999
    This is the first release.


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
Installation of this external package consists of obtaining  the  files,
creating  a  directory to contain the package, compiling the executables
or installing precompiled executables, and defining the  environment  to
load  and run the package.  In addition a separate database directory is
defined to contain scripts and component files.  The  database  for  the
NOAO  spectrographs  is available as an example or for use.  The package
may be installed for a site or as a personal installation.  If you  need
help  with these installation instructions contact iraf@noao.edu or call
the IRAF HOTLINE at 520-318-8160.

[arch]
    In the following steps you will need to know the  IRAF  architecture
    identifier  for  your IRAF installation.  This identifier is similar
    to the host operating system type.  The identifiers are things  like
    "ssun"  for  Solaris, "alpha" for Dec Alpha, "linux" or "redhat" for
    most Linux systems.  The IRAF  architecture  identifier  is  defined
    when you run IRAF.  Start the CL and then type
    
        cl> show arch
        .ssun
    
    The  is  the value you need to know is without the leading '.'; i.e.
    the IRAF architecture is "ssun" in the above example.

[1-site]
    If you are installing the package for site use  login  as  IRAF  and
    edit the IRAF file defining the packages.
    
        % vi $hlib/extern.pkg
    
    Define  the variables spectime and spectimedb to be the pathnames to
    the spectime package root  directory  and  the  database  directory.
    Pathnames  ust be terminated with '$' (for IRAF logical directories)
    or '/'.  Adde the following to the file (the path is an example).
    
        reset spectime = /local/spectime/ 
        reset spectimedb = /local/spectimedb/
        task  spectime.pkg = spectime$spectime.cl
    
    Near the end of the hlib$extern.pkg file, update the  definition  of
    helpdb so it includes the spectime help database, copying the syntax
    already  used  in  the  string.   Add  this  line  before  the  line 
    containing a closing quote:
    
        ,spectime$lib/helpdb.mip\

[1-personal]
    If  you  are  installing  the package for personal use define a host
    environment variable with the pathname of the  directory  where  the
    package  will  be located (needed in order to build the package from
    the source code).  Note that must end with '/'.  For example:
    
        % setenv spectime /mydir/spectime/
    
    In your login.cl or loginuser.cl file make the following definitions
    somewhere before the "keep" statement.
    
        reset spectime = /mydir/spectime/
        reset mscdb = /mydir/spectimedb/
        task  spectime.pkg = spectime$spectime.cl
        printf ("reset helpdb=%s,spectime$lib/helpdb.mip\nkeep\n",
            envget("helpdb")) | cl
        flpr
    
    If  you  will  be  compiling the package, as opposed to installing a
    binary distribution, then you need  to  define  various  environment
    variables.   The  following  is  for  Unix/csh  which  is  the  main 
    supported environment.
    
        # Example
        % setenv iraf /iraf/iraf/             # Path to IRAF root (example)
        % source $iraf/unix/hlib/irafuser.csh # Define rest of environment
        % setenv IRAFARCH ssun                # IRAF architecture
    
    where  you  need  to  supply  the  appropriate  path  to  the   IRAF 
    installation  root  in  the  first  step  and  the IRAF architecture
    identifier for your machine in the last step.

[2] Login into IRAF.  Create a directory to contain  the  package  files
    and  the  instrument  database  files.   These  directory  should be
    outside the standard IRAF directory tree.
    
        cl> mkdir spectime$
        cl> mkdir spectimedb$
        cl> cd spectime

[3] The package  and  configuration  database  are  distributed  as  tar
    archives  for  the  sources  and,  as an optional convenience, a tar
    archive  of  the  executables  for  select  host   computers.    The 
    configuration  database  distribution  contains files for NOAO.  For
    other spectrographs and sites this file is not necessary  though  it
    can  be  used  as a template.  Note that IRAF includes a tar reader.
    The tar file(s)  are  most  commonly  obtained  via  anonymous  ftp.
    Below is an example.
    
        cl> ftp iraf.noao.edu (140.252.1.1)
        login: anonymous
        password: [your email address]
        ftp> cd iraf/extern
        ftp> get spectime.readme
        ftp> binary
        ftp> get spectime.tar.Z
        ftp> get noaospectime.tar.Z (optional)
        ftp> get spectime-bin.<arch>.Z  (optional)
        ftp> quit
        cl> !uncompress spectime.tar
        cl> !uncompress spectimedb.tar (optional)
        cl> !uncompress spectime-bin.<arch> (optional)
    
    The  readme  file  contains  these  instructions.  The <arch> in the
    optional  executable  distribution   is   replaced   by   the   IRAF 
    architecture identification for your computer.
    
    Upon  request the tar file(s) may be otained on physical media for a
    service charge.

[4] Extract the source files from the tar archive using 'rtar".
    
        cl> softools
        so> rtar -xrf spectime.tar
        so> bye
    
    On some systems, an error message will appear  ("Copy  'bin.generic'
    to  './bin  fails")  which can be ignored.  Also on VMS systems, the
    various bin.'mach' directories  created  by  rtar  can  be  deleted.
    UNIX  sites should leave the symbolic link 'bin' in the package root
    directory pointing to  'bin.generic'  but  can  delete  any  of  the
    bin.<arch>  directories  that  won't be used.  If there is no binary
    directory for the system you are installing it will be created  when
    the package is compiled later.
    
    If the binary executables have been obtained these are now extracted
    into the appropriate bin.<arch> directory.
    
        # Example of ssun (solaris) installation.
        cl> cd spectime
        cl> rtar -xrf spectime-bin.ssun      # Creates bin.ssun directory
    
    If the database files for NOAO have been obtained extract these.
    
        cl> move spectimedb.tar.Z spectimedb$
        cl> cd spectimedb
        cl> rtar -xf spectimedb.tar
    
    The  various  tar  files  can  be  deleted  once  they   have   been 
    successfully installed.

[5] For  a  source  installation  you  now  have  to  build  the package
    executable(s).  First you configure the package for  the  particular
    architecture.
    
        cl> cd spectime
        cl> mkpkg <arch>            # Substitute sparc, ssun, alpha, etc.
    
    This  will  change the bin link from bin.generic to bin.<arch>.  The
    binary directory will be  created  if  not  present.   If  an  error
    occurs  in  setting  the  architecture  then  you may need to add an
    entry to the file "mkpkg".  Just follow the examples in the file.
    
    To create the executables and move them to the binary directory
    
        cl> mkpkg -p spectime -p tables # build executables
        cl> mkpkg generic           # optionally restore generic setting
    
    Check for errors.  If the executables are not moved  to  the  binary
    directory  then  step [1] to define the path for the package was not
    done correctly.  The last step restores the  package  to  a  generic
    configuration.   This  is  not  necessary  if you will only have one
    architecture for the package.

This should complete the installation.  You can  now  load  the  package
and begin testing and use.
