A brief conceptual/historical account of my software

• Ariel 5

  After some student's experience with programming on the University Univac 1100, my first exposure with astronomical analysis software was at MSSL with the Ariel 5 data analysis system (a basic system for reduction and analysis of the Experiment C data of such X-ray astronomy satellite, running on an IBM 360 mainframe. For my research [see references 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 20 and 21 ) I had to add some ad-hoc programs of my own, both on such system and on the (handier for graphics) MSSL PDP 11-70 system. I also exported/re-wrote those part of the (post-reduction) software which were necessary to analyse the preprocessed data I brought with me in Milan. In this context I was also exposed to my first experiences with data fitting (see here for history and concepts of my fitting (mainly but not only spectral fitting) programs).

• IUE

  After this I went back to the analysis of IUE ultraviolet data (which I started with my thesis, see references 2, 3, 4, although with no software effort and very limited computer usage) and wanted to establish a comprehensive analysis system at IFCTR. See here for history and concepts of such IUE analysis system, which was actively used until 1995 (see references 10-14, 16-18, 23, 25, 60-62, 77-78, 87, 89-90, 99-100, 117, 122, 128-130, 135 and 198, ). This system was used together with ESO IHAP (and later MIDAS) packages

• Exosat

  Having gained such experience, I started planning the Exosat data analysis system for IFCTR. Such system (whose history and concepts are reported elsewhere in more detail) was at the end a merger of software developed at and for IFCTR with part of the Interactive Analysis developed while at the Exosat Observatory.
  There I also developed ad-hoc software for the CMA calibrations (see references 22, 35-41 and 48 ) and also, re-using some of such software, designed and developed for P.Giommi the earliest (HP) version of the Exosat Result Data Base (see reference 46, plus unpublished notes in my archive).
  The Exosat data analysis s/w was extensively used in Milan until 1994 (see references 30-34, 43-45, 49-51, 55-60, 63, 65, 72-73, 76, 78, 86-88, 99-101, 107, 117, 122 and 134 )

• Graphics

  In the same context and places I also developed (gaining on previous experiences in the Ariel 5 and IUE contexts) some general purpose graphics software (see history and concepts).

• System

  Some contingent arrangements of the local computing facilities and the need of the Exosat analysis system (namely the fact that such system was split between the IBM mainframe and the HP-1000 mini, and that the mainframe was relocated some half a km apart) required to gain some early network and system experience, namely to manage a RSCS RJE link between the two machines, and to write some associated software, which is described in Report R3 (reference 75)
  More or less at the same time I started also following the system management of our HP 1000 system first, and of our VAX and Sun systems later (and later of the Ultrix and Alpha systems supplied by ASI for the SAX mission to replace the VAX). The related work was at the time described in a number of reports R13 to R18 (111-116), R20 (131) and R21 (201), while it is presently described in the institute system web pages.

  Two main ideas (and packages) are worth noting :

  • one is the so-called UNIQ interface (ref. 115), a set of aliases and scripts which make Unix and VAX VMS look alike and more friendly for users (the Unix part of it is still installed on our systems).
  • and the so-called Real Programmer Tool (ref. 114), a set of scripts to mantain software packages written (mainly) in Fortran, which I still use extensively, and which implements my habits described with my opinions.

• Zebra

  A relatively minor set of software activities was relative to the Zebra GamTel project (references 91 and 91bis ) and involved the implementation of some data pre-reduction software on the IBM mainframe (see report S12 67) , the development of some off-line code for the analysis of calibration data (see report S17 74) , the support to the development of the instrument commanding s/w (in C on a putd system; see report S23 95), the development of the gain control (on-line analysis of calibration data, Fortran code on a PC; see report S24 96).

• SAX

  A great deal of my activities for the SAX project (references 153, 123, 146, 150 and 163 ) although not exclusively (references 53, 68, 71, 79-81, 93, 105-106, 108, 118-119, 125, 145, 147-148, 176-177 and 199-200 ) were dedicated to the design and development (see reports S14-15 69-70, S22 94, S35-36 126-127, S37-38 132-133, S40-42 137-139, S46 143 and S49 151 ) of the XAS X-ray Astronomy Software package whose main references are the paper 154, and the online user manual 164.
  The above software has been and is being used for the production of several scientific results, listed in the publication list since entry 155 onwards.

  Although we do not provide here a dedicated page for the history and concepts of XAS, we refer to pre-existing information in the user manual, in the programmer manual and in the XAS home page. In particular there is an historical account. We provide however a conceptual summary with references.

• EPIC/XMM

  While I've been involved since the beginning in the project of the EPIC instrument onboard XMM (references 97, 121 and 152) my activities have not (unfortunately) concerned the development of any general purpose X-ray analysis software (since the task for that was not intended to be assigned to the EPIC consortium by ESA) but to collateral activities (references 110, 136, 140 and 149 ), however there are two relevant areas in which I provided software, also building on my XAS experience, namely
  • the data (readout mode) simulation software EPOS (see report S45 142) used for optimizing mission science (see report S44 141 and paper J38 144)

  • the EGSE Science Console software (references 156, 194-95) including the definition of the data format and the supply of a small and compact library to deal with FITS files (reports S51-52 157-158), used for the analysis of ground calibrations (references 165 and 192-93).
    The library later became the general purpose SIMPLIFITS library (described in its own web page).

  The activities for the XMM LSS Survey (incorporating also the guaranteed time XMDS survey) are described below together with VIRMOS.

• VIRMOS

  My involvement in the main stream of in VIRMOS (operational and analysis) software has been only informal.
  I had instead a deeper involvement in the VIRMOS MMU (Mask Manufacturing Unit) (references 211 and 237-238 ; see also the local MMU page ), in particular in the definition of the MHS software (finally implemented by Giancarlo Conti in Visual Basic) and related activities (see reports S61-64 226-229 and S65 231).
  A further stream of activities concerns VIRMOS related databases (both the VVDS and LSS projects) for which activities is in progress and existing web pages, originally restricted, are now in large part accessible for what concerns the LSS Master Catalogue whose help pages contain substantial technical material (see here and here)