From wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Fri May 28 14:25:24 1993 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] [nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil "^From:" nil nil nil]) Return-Path: Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu by fits.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.5) id AA17400; Fri, 28 May 93 14:25:23 EDT Received: from Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (4.1/DDN-DLB/1.13) id AA03047; Fri, 28 May 93 14:24:38 EDT Received: from localhost.gsfc.nasa.gov by Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov (911016.SGI/1.35) id AA01788; Fri, 28 May 93 13:08:26 -0400 Message-Id: <9305281822.AA21119@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov> Comment: AAS Working Group for Astronomical Software Originator: wgas@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Errors-To: leb@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: Version: 5.41 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Pence) Sender: wgas@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: The HEASARC FTOOLS software Date: Fri, 28 May 93 13:08:26 -0400 This is a reminder that a large suite of FITS related software, called FTOOLS, is available via anonymous ftp to interested users from the HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, NASA/GSFC). The FTOOLS package currently contains more than 50 programs that allow users to examine or manipulate the contents of FITS format files in many different ways. These programs currently run on VAXes, SUNs and DECstations and the package can be built either as an IRAF package or as a set of completely stand-alone executables which have no IRAF dependencies. In the latter case, we use a suite of user-interface routines provided by the SAO which mimic some of the look and feel of the IRAF user interface. A brief description of the current FTOOLS tasks is given below: General Purpose Utilities: flcol - List column information in a FITS table extension fstruct - List a description of the structure of a FITS file fdump - Dump contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file fimgdmp - Dump contents of a FITS image to an ASCII file ffilecat - Copies keyword values from a list of FITS file to FITS Table fcatdiff - Compares columns of a fits file and reports row differences fcreate - Create a FITS table from ASCII input files fappend - Append a FITS extension onto another FITS file fextract - Copy a FITS extension from a file into a new file fmerge - Merge rows from several FITS tables into one FITS table fproject - Copy specified columns of a FITS table to a new table fselect - Create a new table from selected rows of a table fsaoi - Translate an SAOImage region file to an input file for fselect fsort - Sort a FITS table in place fmemsort - Fast memory sort of a FITS table fcalc - Calculates values for a column using an arithmetic expression fstatistic - Calculate mean, standard deviation, min, and max for a column farith - Perform arithmetic on 2 FITS images fcarith - Preform arithmetic on FITS image with a constant fhisto - Make a histogram of a column in a table fcurve - Make a light curve histogram from a column in a table f2dhisto - Make a 2-D histogram from 2 columns in a table fim2lst - Convert a 2D image to a pixel list (inverse of f2dhisto) fmrgmsk - Merge 2 or more spatial masks fmaskfilt - Filter an event list based on an input mask image findex - Create an index file for a FITS table column fparkey - Copy a parameter value to a FITS header keyword fkeypar - Copy a FITS header keyword to a parameter fpartab - Copy a parameter value to a FITS table element ftabpar - Copy a FITS table element to a parameter value ftabkey - Copy a FITS table element to a FITS header keyword fkeytab - Copy a FITS header keyword to a FITS table element fmodhead - Modify the header keywords in a FITS file fkeyprint - Display keyword(s) in FITS header(s) fburst - Remove bursts of events from time ordered event list fplot - Plot columns in a FITS file using QDP/PLT package *** High Energy Astrophysics specific tasks: maketime - Calculate time intervals (GTIs) from housekeeping (HK) data mgtime - Merge 2 or more time interval (GTI) files fltime - Filter an event list within given time intervals (GTIs) hkexpand - Expand a compressed format housekeeping (HK) data file hkunexpand - Compress an expanded format houskeeping (HK) data file faint - Convert AstroD faint mode data to a bright mode format sec2time - Convert time offset to absolute time time2sec - Convert absolute time to a time offset coord - Convert (X,Y) pixel coordinates to (RA,Dec) hkscale - Scales a FITS houskeeping data file into physical values sisrmg - Generate SIS instrument response matrix gislin - Transform from ADC electronic units to physical coordinates ghkdump - Display GIS housekeeping parameters of the GIS HK file bldarf - Routine to create an xspect "arf" file grppha - Manipulates OGIP standard PHA FITS file gqaplot - GIS quick analysis ftool *** Calibration specific tasks: st2rpsf - reads stw FITS file and writes to CALRPSF format file quzcif - interogates Caldb for location of a dataset dmprmf - Displays OGIP standard Response FITS file *** May not be supported at all sites The FTOOLS software continues to be under active development by a small group of programmers and scientists (some part time) at the HEASARC, and new releases of the software will be made at approximately monthly intervals. The latest public release (version 2.3) of FTOOLS is available via anonymous FTP from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the /software/ftools/release/ directory. Here you will find compressed tar files for DECstations, Suns and VAXs: ftools.dec.v2.3.tar.Z (DECstation) ftools.sun.v2.3.tar.Z (Sparcstations) ftools.vms.v2.3.tar.Z (VAX/VMS computers) In addition there are several compressed postscript documents and a release notice to be found in this directory: develop.ps.Z (developer's guide) install.ps.Z (installation guide) tinyusers.ps.Z (user's guide:without task description) users.ps.Z (user's guide:with task description) ReleaseNotes2.3.txt (ascii notes about this release) Any questions or problems regarding this software should be directed to either of the following: Kent Blackburn: kent@kentaurus.gsfc.nasa.gov William Pence: pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov