CIMA versions

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Version 3.0

• called 'Next': 12 June 2008 - current

• called 'Unusable': 23 June 2006 - current

• called 'Normal': 23 June 2006 - current
• called 'Capable': 25 May 2006 - 23 June 2006

• ALFA rotation window: A new window to control the ALFA rotation has been added. The new window is launched from the pointing window (if ALFA is selected) and replaces the old options for ALFA rotation that were located in the pointing window. The new window can be used both for rotating ALFA once to a fixed angle or for controling the new ALFA sky angle tracking.
• ALFA sky angle tracking: Sky angle tracking has been implemented for ALFA. It is controlled from the new 'ALFA rotation window' and can be used with any observing mode. When enabled, an asynchronous procedure will check how ALFA needs to be oriented to stay at a given sky angle, and regularly send commands to ALFA to move to the proper orientation during an observation. NOTE: it is important that any observer who wants to use ALFA sky angle tracking makes sure that (s)he fully understands the limitations of sky angle tracking! The six outer beams of ALFA will NEVER stay in a fixed position relative to the center beam, even when sky angle tracking is used. They will instead trace out arcs with an approximate diameter of about one arcminute. This is due to the geometry of the projection of the beams onto the sky and can thus not be avoided.
• WAPP mapping modes: The WAPP versions of the RA/Dec and Dec/RA mapping modes have been implemented. Both modes now work with the WAPPs and any receiver, single-pixel as well as ALFA. Some new WAPP-specific options have been added to these two modes. The non-working 'WAPP Hex Map' mode has been removed.
• Basketweaving: A new version of basketweaving has been introduced which runs the basketweaving in true Az/ZA coordinates. There is a new option for basketweaving which specifies whether the old (traditional) mode or the new one should be used.
• Command file observing: Five new commands have been added for command file observers. Two of them, TRACKSKYANGLE and STOPSKYANGLE, are used for controlling the ALFA sky angle tracking. The other three commands are of interest to pulsar observers: ADJUSTPULSARPOWER which adjusts the WAPP power levels for pulsar observations, PULSARCROSSCAL which allows the 'Continuum Calibration Script' to be run from command files and PULSARCATCALOBS which adds a new observing mode for pulsar observations. This new mode is similar to the PULSARCATOBS but also makes an off-source/on-source calibration before taking the data. A 'Reload' button has also been added to the command file window. It allows the observer to reload a command file after making modifications to it without having to reselect it in the file list.
• Pulsar calibration modes: Three WAPP pulsar calibration modes: 'Pulsar Calibration Script', 'Continuum Calibration Script' and 'ALFA Calibration Check' have been modified to use RA/Dec offsets instead of Az/ZA offsets.
• Telescope control: The telescope wrap can now be set from the pointing window. The 'Stop telescope' button has been modified so that the telescope is commanded to the current azimuth and zenith angle instead of going into a hold mode (which requires a release command to restore telescope control). With this change the 'Release telescope' is no longer needed and has thus been removed.
• Sound for remote observers: Terminal beeps have been added for all occasions where CIMA would produce some sort of sound. Terminal bells have also been added for incoming messages from the operator in the chat box. The chat box is also raised on top of all other windows whenever there is an incoming message.
• Other changes to the CIMA windows: The non-working IF-setup for L-band wide that has been shown in the backend window has been removed. The 'Auto' button was moved to the 'Receiver IF/LO Control' window. The setting of 'Auto' is now included when the 'Send L-Wide Setup' button is pressed (it was hardcoded to 'ON' before). The button to launch the WAPP ALFA menu has also been removed from the backend window. The observation status display will now take the blanking time into account when running DPS observations using L-band Wide together with the interim correlator and the radar blanker. This will remove spurious messages warning about a hanging observation.
• Other CIMA programs: The alfabeamwin has been modified to use more accurate coordinates (although Ra/Dec is still shown in current epoch). Several bugs were also corrected. A new parameter showing the current sky rotation rate has been added. The alfamotorwin is updating faster. The old alfaposwin that only provided ALFA positions when the WAPPs were running has been completely removed.

• called 'Old': 23 June 2006 - 4 October 2007
• called 'Normal': 7 February 2006 - 23 June 2006
• called 'Evolved': 16 November 2005 - 7 February 2006

• Command file observing window: The command file observing has been completely rewritten and comes with a redesigned user interface. Once loaded into CIMA, the command file is now shown in a color-coded listing where valid lines are shown in blue and black, comments in green and invalid lines in olive. The start line can be selected by left-clicking in the listing and lines can be deactivated/reactivated by right-clicking. A deactivated line is grayed out and will not be executed when the command file is run. It is thus not necessary to edit a command file just to avoid some line(s) that the observer don't want to execute. Once running, the currently executed line is shown with blue background. The 'Abort' and 'Stop' commands can be used to abort a command file immediately or more gracefully after the next observing loop or the current command has finished. There is also a new 'Skip' button that allows the observer to abort the current command and let the execution continue with the next command. If an error is encountered or there is an abort or stop, the line where the termination occurred will be shown in red background and the next line will be set as the new starting line. Except for 'Abort', 'Stop' and 'Skip', no other commands or options are enabled during command file execution. Even the 'Close' button to close the command file window is disabled during execution.
• Command file observing: A number of new commands and observing modes have been added. The syntax of several old commands have also been modified and a few non-working command have been removed. The 'EXEC' command still exist but observers are strongly recommended NOT to use it - with the new commands available, it should not be needed. If other observing modes are needed, contact the CIMA administrator to have them implemented. Pulsar observers using the 'Pulsar Catalog Observing' should now use the general command file window, since pulsar observing commands have been added. Commands can now be executed conditionally by using the new IF condition THEN construction. The condition is typically used to check what to do depending on the current LST, and such constructions use smart wrapping so that observers should not have to worry about checking for LST midnight roll-over. For example, the expression IF lst < 234250 THEN will not evaluate as TRUE when the LST rolls over to 00:00:01. In general all command files have to be modified due to the syntax changes introduced. All command file observers should thus study the new CIMA command file observing page carefully. The following commands have been changed:
  • Removed commands: BATCH and OFF
  • Renamed commands: PARAANGLE ==> SKYANGLE
  • New commands: GOTO, TRACKCURPOS, WAITTRACK, ICORRCONFIG, ALFABEAM, ALFAANGLE, NEWICORRFILE, STARTPULSAR, SETUP, ALFACROSS, FIXEDDRIFT, BASKETWEAVE, SMARTFREQ, PULSARCAL, PULSARCATOBS, WAIT and LOG
  • Commands with new syntax: CAL, RECEIVER and SKYANGLE
• CIMA log window: The CIMA log window has been rewritten to handle the new way of keeping track of what the CIMA executive is doing (see below). The line of buttons at the bottom of the window has thus been changed with several new buttons added. The big log window has also been modified. It now uses a light 'Alice-blue' background instead of black. Error messages are shown on a red background to make them more eye-catching. The bottom row now contains two sets of button separated by the CIMA executive quick status box. The status box is still colored yellow when the executive is idle and green when it is busy. The box now has a fixed width which will prevent resizing the log window, which should provide improved performance to remote observers. The status message is still one word, but it is a bit more informative than the old status box that only knew the words 'Observing', 'Busy' and 'Idle'. To the right of the status box there are two buttons: 'Clear' to clear the log window and 'Filter' which will be used in a future version of CIMA. To the left of the status box there are five buttons: 'Help' to open a help page on the log display window, 'Abort' to tell the executive to abort immediately, 'Stop' to tell the executive to stop what it is doing at a conveniant opportunity (typically between two observing loops), 'Query' to ask what the executive is doing and 'Reset' to force the executive to return to an idle state if it has become confused and thinks it is doing something. The 'Query' button will provide a list of tasks and subtasks currently being executed or an idle message. The 'Reset' button should ONLY be used as a last resort if the executive has become so confused that it does not respond to the 'Abort' command. When the 'Reset' button is pressed, a confirmation window is launched to ensure that the observer really know what (s)he is doing.
• Email window: The window for sending email comments has been rewritten, partly because it was the only window in CIMA to use a set of very old window library functions that were headed for retirement. A bit of color has been added to the email window. The 'Send' button is now disabled until the observer has specified whether the email is an RFI-report or a CIMA-comment, which should cure the old problem that most CIMA-comments were sent to the RFI people because observers forgot to change the default destination. Also, a copy of the email is sent to the email address provided by the observer, provided that it looks like a valid email address. Closing the email window with the 'Abort' button will erase the email without sending it.
• Log comment window: The window for adding a comment to the CIMA log has been rewritten. It can either be used to insert one-time messages by typing them in the message box and sending them by hitting 'Return' or to insert the same message several times by instead using the 'Add to log' button, which does not clear the message. Comments written to the log will now also be shown in the log display window. Any comment written in the window will be erased automatically without being added to the log when the window is closed.
• Change of pop-up window library: A number of pop-up windows in CIMA has been changed to use the window library already developed for other CIMA applications.
• New busy and abort/stop handling: The way the CIMA executive keeps track of whether it is busy or not has been completely rewritten. Earlier, there was only one level: busy or not busy, which caused several problems: for example, abort commands could abort the current command in a command file but not the execution of the command file itself and the status flag was often flipping between busy and not busy when subtasks were started and stopped, which could cause the executive to accept a new command even if it actually was busy. The new method is to use a stack with tasks and subtasks. Subtasks can thus be added and pulled from the stack without problems and the executive can keep track of a task is a stand-alone thing or part of another task or a command file. The 'Query' button in the log display window will thus produce a dump of this stack. Also, the routine handling unexpected run-time errors will dump the contents of the stack which may help identifying the problem. The handling of abort or stop requests have also been completely rewritten as part of this make-over. The abort and stop commands now works as expected when running command files. The new system also allowed the introduction of a new skip command that is available when running a command file. The skip command aborts the current line and jumps to the next line in a command file.
• Improved busy handling: Several tasks did not set the busy flag properly earlier. This has been corrected in CIMA version 2.1. Also, the earlier versions of CIMA restored the status to idle too early when the WAPPs where stopped or aborted, thus leaving a possibility that the observer could issue a new command before the WAPPs had stopped properly. This has been corrected in version 2.1. The rejection of new command when the executive is busy has been moved from the executive to the CIMA frontend, which will now launch a pop-up error message if the user tries to send a new command while the executive is busy. This allows the frontend to avoid sending command sequences that otherwise may be only partly executed. The problem that CIMA did not warn about the correlator not being configured if the command to configure the interim correlator was rejected has been corrected. CIMA will now ask for a confirmation if the observer tries to exit CIMA while the executive is busy doing something.
• Better support of observation status window: The observation status window introduced in CIMA version 2.0 was not so useful for interim correlator users or pulsar observers, since these modes were not so well supported. This has now been improved so that these modes also are fully supported. Instead of FITS-file name, a generic pulsar file name is given for pulsar observations and the scan number as well as the file size is given for interim correlator observations. Also, more commands like configurations and set-ups have been added. The observation status window now has a new text line which gives a better overview of what is being done.
• More sounds: Both observing procedures and a number of other procedures to configure or set up things now use general routines to start and stop. This means that start and stop will be more unified and that tasks that earlier did not produce any sound when finishing now will do that. Two new sounds have also been added: a 'clink' sound which is used if the observer skips a line in a command file and a 'flush' sound when a task fails due to some error.
• WAPP changes: The problem that CIMA would be hanging if the WAPPs were run in spectral line mode without a previous power adjustment has been fixed. CIMA will now complain if the WAPPs have not been reconfigured after a restart.
• Receiver changes: The possibility to use the radar blanker has been added to the ALFA WAPP confiuration menu. The selection of a sky angle, i.e. an offset from the parallactic angle, in the pointing menu is no longer blocking the executive. ALFA is now reporting to the log when it has reached its new angle each time it is rotated and not only when it has been rotated through a blocking call. The possibility to select filter banks have been added for ALFA and the 430 MHz Gregorian receiver.
• Pulsar mode changes: The non-working 'Setup IFLO' button has been removed from the WAPP pulsar menu. The 'Pulsar Catalog Observing' button has also been removed since this specialised version of command file observing has been merged into the general command file observing system. Pulsar observers using 'Pulsar Catalog Observing' should consult the CIMA command file observing page to find out how to modify their observing scripts. When used for ALFA observations, the new 'PULSARCATOBS' command should bring a performance boast since it will rotate ALFA and move the telescope at the same time.
• Observing mode changes: A wait for on-source has been added for standard ON observations with the WAPPs. The 'Dec/Ra' mapping mode now accepts the option to adjust the power before starting the mapping. Some non-working options in the 'Doppler update' menu for basketweaving have been replaced as well as non-working options for power adjustments in 'Ra/Dec' and 'Dec/RA' mapping. New options for Doppler corrections have also been added to 'Ra/Dec' and 'Dec/RA' mapping, while non-supported ones have been removed. The 'Fixed Azimuth Drift Map' now uses the standard routine for adjusting the power levels. It also takes two new options for a velocity and a velocity frame. The dual position switching and the run correlator modes using the interim correlator have been corrected to work with correlator cycle times (integration times) different from 1 second. Other interim correlator modes that don't support non-1-second cycle times have got warning messages added. The missing ALFA beam 6 has been added to 'ALFA Beam Check' and 'ALFA Calibration Check'.
• Observing menu changes: The spectral line observing menu now has the same six buttons both when the WAPPs and when the interim correlator is used. The two buttons 'Move data' and 'New FITS-file' have been merged to one button called 'New file'. A 'Stop' button has been added and there is now also an 'Adjust power' button for the interim correlator.
• Power adjustments: There is now an 'Adjust Correlator Power' button in the back-end menu (replacing the old 'Adjust Power' button for WAPP since 'Adjust Power' is available from the observing menu). The difference between 'Adjust Power' and 'Adjust Correlator Power' is that the latter only adjusts the correlator power levels while the former also adjusts the power for IF1 and IF2.
• Other changes to the menus: The menu called 'User Preferences' has been renamed 'Utilities' since that is a more appropriate name. A button to restart the log display window was added to the 'Utilities' menu while the last sound options were removed. Also, a button to restart the WAPPs have been added in this menu. The old button for asynchronous ephemeris tracking has been removed from the pointing menu. The button called 'End' is now called 'Stop'.
• Additions to the log: The azimuth and zenith angle is written to the log-file when a Tsys is made. The WAPP power levels will be added to the log when the WAPP power is adjusted. The name and size of the interim correlator data files are now written to the log whenever interim correlator data is moved to a new file. The CIMA preferences are also listed to the log-file.
• Version selection menu: The versions in the selection menu shown with the '--X' or '--V' options are now sorted in version order with the latest version coming first. Test versions are separated from the official versions by an empty line. A news box has also been added to the selection menu.
• Internal changes: Apart from already mentioned internal changes, there has also been a large number of other internal changes of various kinds: procedures have been cleaned up, duplicate procedures have been removed, procedures have been moved to more appropriate files, special code has been replaced by calls to standardized libraries, code that could cause problems have been modified etc. Time-outs have been added to all commands waiting for some action to happen to avoid having tasks hanging indefinitely. The number of variables sent over to the executive when configuring the IF/LO-path and the back-end has been reduced to only those that are actually needed.
• New alarm watch-dog: A new alarm watch-dog has been added. This program is not intended for the observers but for the telescope operators. So far it will monitor ALFA and sound a loud audio alarm as soon as it finds some problem with the receiver.

• called 'Historic': 23 June 2006 - 30 January 2007
• called 'Old': 7 February 2006 - 23 June 2006
• called 'Normal': 19 September 2005 - 7 February 2006
• called 'Expanded': 28 June 2005 - 19 September 2005

• Start-up sequence: The start-up sequence has been modified from the earlier way of starting up everything and then asking the user who (s)he is, to start by asking who the user is and which the project is before launching everything else. This will make sure that all log messages from an observing session go into the log-file for that project. The log display is the first part of the CIMA frontend that is opened, while the CIMA main menu and any other frontend windows appear once the 'executive' has reported that it is ready. The option to change user while running a CIMA session has been removed. While filling in the session set-up window, the 'Accept' button to start CIMA will be kept disabled until all fields have been properly filled in and the observing mode (pulsar or spectral line) has been selected. Once all information has been provided, CIMA will check if there exists a project directory for the specified project. If it does, the project-ID will stay black and the 'Accept' button (as well as the 'Preferences' button) will be enabled. If it doesn't exist, the behaviour depends on whether it is an on-line of an off-line session. If it is an off-line session, the project-ID will turn red to indicate that there is no valid directory. The 'Accept' button will be enabled and the home directory will be used instead. However, for an on-line session, the background color of the project-ID field will turn red and the 'Accept' button will remain disabled until a valid project-ID has been entered.
• Preferences: A new preference window has been added. This window is available from the 'User Preferences' menu but also from the session set-up window once valid entries have been given. When starting a CIMA session for a project for the first time, the preference window will be launched automatically after the session set-up window is closed to force the user to select preferences before launching the rest of CIMA. The preference window supports middle-mouse button pop-up help (and observers are encouraged to use this facility to get help on the various options in the window). Current preference options include several options dealing with the CIMA look, which windows to be launched automatically, whether error messages should generate audio alarms and whether log-files should be written also for off-line sessions. The preferences are stored in a preference file located in the project directory. A certain project will thus use the same preference file both when running on-line or off-line sessions, while different projects each will have their own independent preference file. The preference file should not be edited.
• Remote sessions: The start-up sequence for remote observers have been rewritten as the software has been moved into the CIMA structure. The window design has changed a bit and they now support the middle-mouse button pop-up help. The log of the chat sessions have been modified to be a single log-file (instead of two duplicate files) and to have proper timestamps attached to all chat messages. It has also been moved from '/home/obs/aoui/remote' to '/share/cima/Logs/Chat'. Observing sounds (fanfares and dog barks) have been disabled for remote observers, since there is no point in bothering the operators with them.
• Logging: Messages from the CIMA frontend will now be added to the log-file as well. Earlier they were only shown in the log window. Also commands typed in manually in 'User Preferences' will now be logged to the log-file. The project-ID is now added to all lines in the logs written to '/share/cima/Logs/Obs_logs'. The log display window is now a resizable window. The date has been removed from the log display window and the time stamps have been changed from being UTC to AST (which is what has always been used in the log-files). Loop number messages have been added to several observing modes that can run in loops. The start and stop messages of all observing modes have been standardized; they will all contain the characteristic word 'pattern'. Start messages will say 'Starting pattern: name of obsmode'; stop messages will be similar with the word 'Starting' replaced by one of 'Finished', 'Ended', 'Aborted' or 'Failed'.
• Changes to observing modes: A new option 'Add extra cal' has been added to the 'Fixed Azimuth Drift Map'. Setting this option to 'yes' will ensure that the data taken is 'sandwiched' between calibrations. It adds an extra cal at the beginning or the end of the observing sequence depending on the cal-mode (provided that the cal-mode is not set to 'nocal'). For example, running cals at loop-end and selecting the extra cal will add an extra cal before the first data is taken. NOTE to command file observers: the call sequence for 'fixed_driftmap' has been changed with the addition of this new parameter. Also, the two parameters 'caltype' and 'calsecs' have been swapped to reflect the order they are presented in the menu. The new parameter should be inserted between those two parameters. A new option 'Loops per FITS-file' has been added to the 'Basketweave Scanning'. This option allows the user to specify how many loops (the word 'loop' is replacing the word 'cycle') of data should be written to each WAPP FITS-file. Setting this parameter to '0' will put all data in the current FITS-file. NOTE to command file observers: the call sequence for 'basketweave' has been changed with the addition of this new parameter. The new parameter is added at the end of the parameter list. The built-in 5-second time delay in 'Drift Chase Map' has been removed and time offset representing the expected time when the drift is going to start has been added when calculating the ALFA rotation angle. A bug in selecting the length of the cal has been fixed for the 'ALFA Cross Map' mode. An incorrect call for power adjustments in 'Run Correlator' for the WAPPs has been fixed.
• Observation status window: There is a new observation status window that displays what is happening (i.e. what the 'executive' is doing). This window contains the following information: name of source, name of task being performed (e.g. 'Standard On/Off observation'), description of current activity (e.g. 'Taking OFF-scan'), loop and part, counter or count down timer for current activity, total elapsed time for the task, name and size of current WAPP FITS-file (if applicable) and current time given in UTC, AST and LST. This window so far gives the best support to WAPP spectral line observations. Interim correlator and pulsar observations are not so well supported yet.
• Closing-down sequence: The closing down sequence have been improved to reduce the risk of leaving any CIMA processes running (like the chat-windows). If this still fails, the 'emergency' script '/home/cima/bin/clear_cima' can be used to clear up everything.
• Changes to the user interface: The receiver selection window now goes away automatically when a receiver is selected. Several windows (start-up, remote observing, chatting) have been redesigned. The CIMA default color theme has also been changed from 'bisque' to 'steel'. Users who prefer the old color can select 'bisque' in the preferences. The executive log is now starting iconified and the datataker status window can be disabled in the preferences. A new sound (a bong) has been added to signal when a command file observation has been finished. Buttons for opening the new preference window and the new observation status window have been added to 'User Preferences' while the buttons to change user and the non-working buttons to change sounds have been removed. Error messages have been added for non-allowed WAPP modes when ALFA is selected.
• Rxview: the stand-alone 'rxview' program to show a graphical representation of the IF/LO set-up has been moved from '/home/aoui/bin' to '/home/cima/bin'. Both versions will be available until version 2.0 has become the default version of CIMA.
• Error handling: Error handling has been improved with the addition of an error sound (a cowbell) whenever a 'red' error message is printed. Since 'red' error messages sometimes flood the log, there is also a possibility in the preferences to disable this sound alert. There is a new 'hanging'-alarm; an error message and an audio alarm will be given once a minute if an observation seems to be hanging. Software errors encountered by the 'executive' are better explained; instead of just showing the cryptic message 'script run by executive aborted', there will also be a second line explaining what the error is. Several bugs have been removed from the 'executive' that earlier could leave the 'frontend' reporting that the 'executive' still was 'busy' after something was aborted or an error had occurred.
• Off-line sessions: It has only been possible to run one CIMA off-line session on a computer, which sometimes has been a problem when a user has left a CIMA off-line session open thereby preventing other users from running CIMA on the same computer. Version 2.0 allows several off-line sessions to run independently on the same computer. However, there still is a restriction that a single user only can have one CIMA session running at a time. Proper error messages for this has been included. Simulations of observations have been improved to make simulated sessions more realistic.
• Internal changes: Several important internal changes have been made: the Tcl/Tk utility libraries developed by Jeff Hagen and Mikael Lerner have been merged, the software for remote observing including chatting as well as all sound files have been moved into the CIMA software structure. Mailbox-files (in /tmp) are now set up per user instead of per computer. Version 2.0 uses Tcl/Tk 8.4.10 for on-line sessions instead of 8.3.0 which is used in earlier version of CIMA. New library functions for handling menus and radiobuttons with automatic updating when variables change have been added. Variable initializations that have been spread out in various procedures have been collected into proper initialization procedures.

• called 'Ancient': 7 February 2006 - 25 May 2006
• called 'Stable': 19 September 2005 - 7 February 2006
• called 'Normal': 27 May 2005 - 19 September 2005
• called 'Test': 24 May 2005 - 28 June 2005

• called 'Older': 27 May 2005 - 19 September 2005
• called 'Normal': 10 May 2005 - 27 May 2005
• called 'New': 25 April 2005 - 10 May 2005

• called 'Test': 18 April 2005 - 10 May 2005

• called 'Improved': 18 April 2005 - 10 May 2005

• called 'Original': 10 May 2005 - 8 May 2006
• called 'Normal': 18 April 2005 - 10 May 2005

All Lerner's more or less ALFA-related software from /home/aoui/alfa has been incorporated into this version including the new alfabeamwin realtime ALFA beam position display that replaces the old, inofficial alfaposwin that only worked when data was coming from the WAPPs.

Version x.x.xx

This page is administered by Mikael Lerner ( lerner (a) naic . edu ) and was last updated on 12 June 2008.