NEWS  - JMB 990110
The printed MIDAS manual had been updated the last time for 95NOV release
(and available at the Sternwarte for 94NOV), so the
changes after that date are only available via the online help.
  [Actually a new Manual is available since beginning of May '99, but we will not
   print it until we have installed MIDAS 98NOV here - just to avoid confusion.]
This file is the summary of all '.../prim/help/news.alq' files for the releases
92NOV and 94NOV to 98NOV, with the actual stable version 97NOV (patch level 2.1)
installed at the Sternwarte ('...' would be e.g. '/usr/astro/midas99NOV/99NOV').
For additional help mail to 'ocordes' or 'jbraun' ('@astro.uni-bonn.de').

INSTALLATION FAILURE - JMB 990112
The relying on the new library 'glibc' (i.e. 'libc6') caused problems
with our "older" SuSE Linux versions based on 'libc5'.
I hope to install the latest MIDAS release as soon as possible,
mainly to allow 24 bit server use at the StwUB as default (see the note
``Display/Graphics in Midas - KB 980831'' above) and get around the actual
problems with the DAOPHOT II package.

INSTALLATION WITH MINOR ERRORS  - JMB 000920
Finally, we managed to install MIDAS 99NOV including working GUIs.  ;-)
Until now, we found some minor problems:
  1) The MIDAS help does not work with special contexts from command line,
     but only when called within MIDAS by 'create/gui help'.
  2) The linear regression seems give wrong results - one may use the
     appropriate commands from MIDAS 97NOV instead, till this is fixed.
Please use the problem report form to give exact error reports to the
MIDAS staff.

VERSION OVERVIEW - JMB 010402
Currently, we have installed all available Linux versions (four and hopefully
soon five) on our GNU/Linux Debian systems.
It started with 95NOV (pl. 2.2), went smoothly to 96NOV (pl. 2.1) and ended
with 97NOV (pl. 2.1), as 98NOV contained many features which are incompatible
with standard GNU/Linux systems (but the changes are included here, of course).
After some effort, 99NOV (pl. 2.2) worked fine.
In 2000, no release was planned, so the new release will be 01FEB,
which is currently in beta phase.
No binaries are available for the latest pl. 1.2 release, but compilation
worked fine. Unfortunately, no graphics output is possible, while image
display and basic functions are working fine. When these problems are fixed,
it will be installed on all computers of StwUB.
So stay tuned ... and have a first glance on the changes given below ...

SHOW/DESCR - KB 911205
A 3rd parameter has been added to the command SHOW/DESCR - see the HELP for
details.

editing of descriptors - KB 911205
Now you can edit descriptors via `vi' or `Emacs' or ... by using the 
application procedure `dscedit.prg'.
Use `HELP/APP dscedit' to get more info about that procedure.
Choosing your favourite text editor is done via the command SET/MIDAS_SYS.

multiple displays - KB 911220
You now have the possibility to open display windows on different X-terminals
and/or XWorkstations. You must have access right to the other machines,
e.g. an account there, and you or somebody else must have already "opened"
the display, i.e. logged in. For details see the help of CREATE/DISPLAY and
CREATE/GRAPHICS.

perspective view - KB 920103
An application procedure `perspec.prg' has been added for displaying a
perspective view of selected planes of a 3-dim frame. Use HELP/APPL for details.

Midas setup - KB 920107
The application procedure 'showmidas.prg' has been added for displaying the
current setup within Midas, e.g. plot device, logging status, etc.

REBIN/LINEAR - KB 920114
The rebinning has been updated to finally take into account that the world
coordinate value of a pixel refers to the center of that pixel.
Also, all pixels in the result frame outside the original frame are set to 
the value stored in keyword NULL(2).

Checking the termination status of applications - KB 920115
The layout of the keyword APPLIC has been modified to make it possible to check
if the program has terminated correctly or not. Use HELP/KEY APPLIC for
details.

FLIP/IMAGE - KB 920115
The option D - flipping around main diagonal, has been removed. Instead, use
the command TRANSPOSE/IMAGE.

COPY - KB 920116
New commands COPY/LSDK, COPY/LSKD, COPY/LSDD have been added to copy lists
of descriptors/keywords. See the help for details.

CREATE/AUX_WINDOW - KB 920117
New command CREATE/AUX_WINDOW has been added to create an auxiliary zoom window.
See the help for details. Accordingly, the window size parameters in the 
commands GET/CURSOR and VIEW/IMAGE have been removed.

VIEW/IMAGE - KB 920117
Now you can also do column plots and contour plots inside VIEW/IMAGE.

COPY/GRAPHICS - RHW 920122
This new command has been created to improve the naming convention of MIDAS 
commands (see COPY/DISPLAY). It does the same as the SEND/PLOT command,
which will be removed in the future.

Dynamic expansion of command data base - KB 920204
Now it is possible to increase the number of commands and/or qualifiers
used in MIDAS via the command SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM. See the help for details.

COPY/TABLE - MP 922901
The command works now correctly on big tables. (it was giving problems if the
input table was big and containing selected entries)

FIT/ELL2 - RHW 920217
Yet, an another method to fit ellipses. The command is available in the 
`surfphot' context (set/context surfphot). Read the help to get the details. 

long command lines - KB 920217
There exist some "big" MIDAS commands, like PLOT/AXES, which may not fit on
a single MIDAS command line. These commands are also difficult to edit and
usually truncated in the command buffer.
To handle these long commands one can now proceed in 2 parts:
First, each command line with a `+' as 1. char. is just stored in the command
buffer and NOT executed, but may be edited in the ususal way. So, one should
enter very long MIDAS commands as 2 separate lines with the `+' as 1. char. 
in the command buffer. Then, in order to combine these two lines and execute
as one command, use `n+m' where `n' the command no. of the first line and 
`m' the command no. of the second line, e.g. 7+6. 
Note, that only two lines may be combined.

MIDAS command line - KB 920218
The max. size of the command line in MIDAS has been increased to 256 chars.
(from 160 chars. in the 91NOV release).

GROW/IMAGE - KB 920220
An option has been added to enable choice of replicating the base line as lines
or columns of result frame.  See the help for details.

MAGNITUDE/... - KB 920228
All MAGNITUDE commands have now a zoom_window option like the GET/CURSOR
command (with all the added functionality) for selection of subimages. 
See the help for details.

CENTER/... - KB 920304
The CENTER commands have now a zoom_window option like the GET/CURSOR
command (with all the added functionality) for selection of subimages. 
Also, the qualifier UGAUSS has been removed. See the help for details.

Dynamic expansion of keyword data base - KB 920310
Now it is possible to increase the number of global/local keywords. See the
help of the command SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM for details.

../PLOT - RHW 920312
In order to reduce the confusion between graphics commands with qualifier 
PLOT and those with qualifier GRAPHICS, all plot commands with PLOT as a 
qualifier now have the qualifier GRAPHICS. Hence SET/PLOT is now SET/GRAPHICS, 
SHOW/PLOT is SHOW/GRAPH, etc. The ../PLOT will be kept in the system for a 
while; however, users are advised to changes to the new names.

SORT/TABLE - MP 920313
The algorithm has been modified in order to be able to deal with big tables
(of the order of 50 MB)

SET/GRAPHICS - RHW 920316
After the upgrade of the ASTRONET GRAPHIC LIBRARY by Luca Fini also the 
MIDAS graphic package was given a major facelift. A number of new features 
have been implemented and are available via the SET/GRAPH command. For a 
full description see the help of SET/GRAPHICS (SET/PLOT). A summary of 
the main new features are:
    CLEAR=          on/off - clear the graphics before starting a new PLOT
    BCOLOUR=        number - set the background colour;
    XOFFSET=        number - position the plot in x;
    YOFFSET=        number - position the plot in y;
    XSCALE=         number - scale of the plot in x
    YSCALE=         number - scale of the plot in y;
    FONT=           number - set the font type to be used;
The plot mode 3 (PMODE=3) has been taken out. To obtain a nice character 
font one should now use the FONT option. The format of the options XFORMAT 
and YFORMAT have been changed slightly.

PLOT/... - RHW 920316
In all PLOT commands a x- and y-offset parameter has been added. This allows
you to position the plot anywhere on the graphics window/device. The offsets
are added to the scaling parameters in the command parameter list. Also,
as already has been mentioned in the previous news paragraph, a CLEAR option
in the SET/GRAPHIC command allows you to switch off the automatic erase at 
the beginning of each PLOT command. Hence, you can now more easily produce 
multiple plots, using the main plot commands with the proper scale and 
offset parameters.

@% - KB 920317
Just for insiders... the % command for executing `compiled' procedures has
been changed to @%.

CREATE/xCAT - KB 920317
The syntax for using frames from a non-active catalog has been changed to
#xyz_catalog, e.g. #21_special, to use frame with entry no. 21 in catalog
special.cat . 

COPY/TABLE - MP 920319
A new option has been added to the command to give to possibility to convert
a table from/to Transposed/Record mode

FILTER/COSMIC - MP 920320
The command has been updated in order to deal with images containing a 
lot of spikes.

AVERAGE/IMAGES - KB 920327
This command has been redesigned and basically rewritten. It now offers a
similar functionality as AVERAGE/WINDOW with the following `goodies' added:
Lots of different options for getting an average value are provided,
it works on frames of any size and these frames do not have to have perfect
overlap.

COPY/DIMA, ID - KB 920409
The "old" copy commands COPY/DI, COPY/ID for copying descriptors to images and
vice versa have been reinstalled as COPY/DIMA (because of COPY/DISPLAY) and 
COPY/ID. See the help for details.

WRITE/OUT - KB 920413
The char. `\' in the WRITE/OUT command is NOT converted anymore to a blank,
since you can have embedded blanks by enclosing the text in double quotes.
Check your private procedures if you have to modify them.

CENTER/GAUSS - MP 920415
The algorithm used by this command has been updated in order to provide more
stability.
The command is now able to deal with undersampled images.

FIT/... - MP 920415
The package has been heavily tested and should now work correctly on 2-d images
and tables. A new function MOFFAT has been added .

ASSIGN/GRAPHIC, COPY/GRAPHIC - RHW 920504
All postscript printers offer the possibility to print in portrait or in 
landscape mode. In order to get the desired format one has to extend the 
printer name with ``.l'' for landscape or ``.p'' for portrait mode. 
Default (no extension given) is landscape mode.

INQUIRE/KEYWORD - KB 920505
A `flush option' has been added as 3rd parameter to inhibit the possibility
of type-ahead.

INFO/DESCR - KB 920511
A new command INFO/DESCRIPTOR has been implemented. See the HELP for
details.

SET/GRAPHIC - RHW 920520
A new option (what another one??) has been included in the graphics setting.
With the TSIZE (text size) one can size the text characters. Default is 1.0.
The SSIZE option now only takes care of the character sizing. Read the help.

SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM - KB 920529
Several new options have been added to the command. These are mainly things
which you could already do before by knowing which specific keyword to set.
These were more or less undocumented features, not guaranteed to be stable
forever. So, please, use now the relevant options in SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM instead.

OPEN, CLOSE, READ, WRITE/FILE - KB 920601
New commands for handling ASCII files in MIDAS procedures have been added.
See the help for details.

CUTS/IMAGE - KB 920602
The functionality of this command has been expanded, see the help for details.

CREATE/TABLE - MP 920605
It is possible now to specify in the format file the field separator(s) 
which are used in the ascii file from which you want to create a table.
When this keyword is present, the position of the fields in the ascii
file are not required.
See the help for more info

COMPUTE/TABLE - MP 920605
A new version of COMPUTE/TABLE has been implemented: 
--It gives error messages (for instance when the input column doesn't exist)
--It is 3 time faster than the old version
--new functions have been implemented (MIN, MAX, MOD , logical functions)
--It doesn't allocate any temporary file on disk any longer

SELECT/TABLE - MP 920605
A new version of SELECT/TABLE has been implemented:
--It gives error messages (for instance when the input column doesn't exist)
--It is 3 time faster than the old version
--New functions have been implemented for the treatment of characters columns
i.e support of wild cards
--It doesn't allocate any temporary file on disk any longer

MVA context - MP 920609
Many of the commands were not working on the VMS system. The bug has been 
corrected.

STATISTICS/IMAGE - KB 920713
This command has been significantly modified:
1) If working on subframes only the relevant area is mapped, for large frames
   only chunks of the frames are mapped and worked on in a loop
   => STAT/IMA now works for images of any size
2) a new option PLANE has been added to work on the planes of a 3-dim image
   in sequence, see the HELP for details
3) layout of output keys and output descriptors has NOT been changed...
4) bugs with calculations using excess bins have been fixed
5) the 1. mode was actually the 2. mode in some cases... this also has been
   fixed

CROSSREF - KB 920714
Labels for parameters which are defined via the CROSSREF command may now be
abbreviated on the command line - minimum match is used. E.g. if in procedure
blabla.prg:  CROSSREF MINIMUM WEIGHT METHOD      then
Midas > @a blabla meth=minmax wei=2.2 min=0.7    would be o.k.
 
Host commands ($, $$) - KB 920715
Sometimes it is necessary to pass a command line "as it is" to the host
operating system (normally MIDAS does expansions + substitutions before passing
the line to the host system).
In that case, use `$$' instead of `$' - see the HELP for details.

Context OPTOPUS - RHW 920717
The default format file for the OPTOPUS input table (command CREATE/OPTOPUS)
has been changed to allow for more flexibility in the object names. The old 
format table is still available and can be found in the include directory
of the OPTOPUS package (see your MIDAS site manager). Also, modifications 
have been done to remove the problems with objects and plate centre around 
0 hours RA. Finally, thanks to Dario Maccagni, a nice tutorial is available 
now.   

VIEW/IMAGE - KB 920720
Quite a lot of new features have been added to this command according to the
suggestions received from users. Also the syntax of VIEW/IMAGE has changed! 
See the help for details.

LOAD/IMAGE - KB 920722
The default calculation of the cut values has been changed from MIN, MAX to
MEAN +- 3*SIGMA of the frame.
Also the parameter `cutvals' has been upgraded so you can choose different 
methods for the cut value calculation. See the help for details.

MIDAS command language - KB 920723
The buffer space for Midas procedures is now adjusted dynamically, so there
is no more fixed limit for the size of Midas procedures.

PRINT/TAB - MP 920723
A new parameter has been added to define the number of character per line
in the output file/device. See the help for more details.

Context SPEC - New command MERGE/SPECTRUM - PB 920820
This command allows to merge two 1D spectra and takes care of the overlapped
parts of the spectra. Both spectra must be previously flux calibrated. The
weight function is a ramp between 0. and 1. There is a possibility to cut the
edges of the spectra.

Context SPEC - New command PLOT/RESIDUAL - PB 920820
This command plots in the graphic window the columns :RESIDUAL versus :WAVE
of the wavelength calibration table line.tbl

Context SPEC - New command CORRELATE/LINE - PB 920820
Compares the position of arc lines in two tables created by SEARCH/LINE and
estimates the shift by cross-correlation. This is used in contexts spec, long
and echelle in the guess option.

Context SPEC - Command REBIN/WAVE  - PB 920820
The command REBIN/WAVE accepts a parameter [start,step,npix] instead of
a reference frame name to specify the ouutput format. The coefficents of the
rebinning are now read by default from the table line.tbl.

Contexts LONG and SPEC - Parameter tolerance in  IDENTIFY/...  - PB 920820
Commands IDENTIFY/LINE, IDENTIFY/LONG, IDENTIFY/RBR involve an additional
parameter tol (Tolerance) which controls the limit of the search window 
which associates the pointed position to the table element.

Contexts LONG and SPEC - Table LINE.tbl renamed  - PB 920820
The default name LINE.tbl of the wavelength calibration table has been
changed to line.tbl, in accordance with the echelle package.

Contexts LONG and SPEC - Double precision columns  - PB 920820
All wavelength related columns in the table line.tbl are now of type R*8.
The column :WAVE of the line catalog should in principle be of the same type.

Contexts LONG and SPEC - SEARCH/LINE in world coordinates  - PB 920820
The table line.tbl generated by command SEARCH/LINE now works in world
coordinates, so that the positions of lines in columns :X and :Y take
into account the start and step values of the input image.

Contexts LONG and SPEC - Tolerance in wavelength units - PB 920820
The calibration tolerance in commands CALIBRATE/RBR and CALIBRATE/LINE
can be given in pixels (as before), or in wavelength units, if preceded
by a minus sign.

Context LONG - New commands SET/LONG and HELP/LONG - PB 920820
The command SET/LONG enables to assign values to keywords of the context long.
The command HELP/LONG provides information about the keywords.

Context ECHELLE - New comand DISPLAY/ECHELLE - PB 920820
This command takes care of all preliminary steps required
before displaying an image, like creating a display window, the look-up
table, a.s.o.

Context ECHELLE - Command ROTATE/ECHELLE - PB 920820
An additional parameter is availbale in command ROTATE/ECHELLE which
provides the default value of the observation time if this value is
not present in descriptor O_TIME(7). If no default value is provided,
the user will be prompted to enter the observation time.

Context ECHELLE - Command DEFINE/HOUGH - PB 920820
  a) The order following threshold can be specified independently for each
order by direct assignment in the intermediate table middummr.tbl. The
threshold is still estimated automatically if no value is proposed.
  b) A method CENTER enables to perform the Hough transform only in the
central part of the order reference frame. This fetaure is useful for
strongly curvated orders.
  c) A minus sign (-) preceding the name of the method avoids the initial
median filtering of the frame.
  d) An order number verification is performed which renumbers the orders
after verification.

Context ECHELLE - Command IDENTIFY/ECHELLE - PB 920820
  a) A new method (TWO-D) is available for the wavelength calibration. This 
method fits from the start a bivariate polynomial to the identified lines. 
Method TWO-D must be used when the disperser is not a grating, which is the 
case with EFOSC.
  b) A diagnosis tool has been implemented in methods PAIR and ANGLE, which
analyses input parameters and identifications in the case the initial
echelle relation is not accurate enough to start the identifications.
The diagnosis proposes replacement values to make the echelle relation
more accurate.
  c) A cross-correlation analysis is performed in mode GUESS to estimate the
shift between two wavelength calibration exposures and correct accordingly
the dispersion coefficients of the reference guess session.

INTAPE/FITS - PJG 920903
The FITS reader was upgraded to decode the new FITS extensions
proposed, namely: Binary Tables (BINTABLE) and Image (IMAGE)
extensions.

OUTTAPE/FITS - PJG 920903
The defaults of MIDAS FITS writter (OUTTAPE) have been changed.
Tables will now be written as Binary Table Extensions by default.
ASCII tables can be generated by using the 'type=B' option for Basic
FITS. When writing to tape, OUTTAPE will now start at the current tape
position and NOT rewind by default. A new rewind flag has been added
(i.e. 'flags=R') which will force a rewind before writing.

Modified Julian Date - PJG 920903
The IAU standard definition of Modified Julian Date as MJD = JD -
240000.5 was adopted (in previous releases the constant 240000.0 was
used).  This change effects the commands: COMPUTE/UT, COMPUTE/ST,
COMPUTE/AIRMASS and COMPUTE/BARY.

Eastern Longitudes - PJG 920903
The IAU standard definition of Longitude as EASTERN longitude was
adopted i.e. La Silla long. = -70:43:55.35. (in previous releases
western longitudes were used).  This change effects the commands:
COMPUTE/UT, COMPUTE/ST, COMPUTE/AIRMASS and COMPUTE/BARY.

RESTORE/NAME - KB 920924
New command RESTORE/NAME (to rename files a la `data0004.bdf' to their original
name as stored in descr. FILENAME) has been implemented. 
See the HELP for details.

FFT/... - KB 921026
The restriction to frames with dimensions equal to powers of 2 has been removed
from the FFT commands.
Also the SPFFT commands (single precision FFT) have been removed, since
tests have shown, that no significant speedup could be achieved to offset the
loss in precision. Please, check your private procedures and update if needed.
  
REPORT/PROBLEM - KB 921027
Now, this command uses the text editor specified via the "SET/MIDAS editor=..."
command (defaulted to `vi' (Unix) or `EDT' (VMS)) to build up your error report.
You also can use an already existing text file instead of editing a report.
See the help for details.

Context IMRES - RH 921101
New context IMRES has been added by R. Hook (ST-ECF) to implement methods
based on L. Lucy's algorithm for image restoration.
 
Version of BDFs - KB 921101
From Nov. 1992 on the char. string representing the internal version of MIDAS
images, tables, etc. has been changed to VERS_006.

ASCII output - KB 931217
The output from any Midas command can now be sent to an ASCII file in a very
similar way to e.g. in Unix. 
In order to send the output of a Midas command to a file `kukiwu' instead of
the terminal, add to the command line the string ">kukiwu" in the end.
If you want the output to go into the file and also to the terminal, add the
string ">kukiwu,terminal".
The output file is created as a new file. If you want to append stuff to an
existing file, add the string ">>kukiwu".
Please, note that there should be no blank between the `>' or `>>' and 
the filename! 

EXECUTE/TABLE - KB 931220
A new command EXECUTE/TABLE has been added. This command executes Midas
commands which are stored in a table row. See the help for details.
 
3D-viewing - KB 932312
A new application procedure `zperspec.prg' implements a perspective display of
a 2-dim image. Use "HELP/APPLIC zperspec" to get the details.

Graphics system - RHW 940105
With the help of Richard van Hees (Department for Space Research, University 
of Groningen, Netherlands), the complete graphics subsystem was redesigned 
and rewritten in C. This work involved the following items:
 - redesign of the graphics keywords in the MIDAS keyword structure;
 - creation of a MIDAS standard graphics library that will be included
   in the new version of the ESO-MIDAS environment document. 
 - conversion the high level MIDAS graphics library from FORTRAN to C;
 - conversion of the MIDAS graphics application code from FORTRAN to C.

In spite of the fact that this work meant a complete overhaul of the graphics 
code, the average MIDAS user will, except for the number of new features
(see below) and big improvement in performance, not notice it (however,
the results of the efforts will hopefully be appreciated),

Although the new system has been tested thoroughly during the months November
and December it still may contain bugs, improper documentation, or other
inconveniencies. Therefore users are kindly asked to report these to me.

Graphics keywords - RHW 940105
Which the upgrade of graphics system most of the graphics keywords have 
changed their name, and/or their meaning, and/or their position. Hence, 
all procedures that do manipulate graphics keywords should be checked and, 
if needed, modified. The new graphics keywords are contained in PLISTAT,
PLRSTAT, PLCSTAT, PLRGRAP, PLCMETA, and PLCDATA. For an overview of these
keywords use the command HELP/KEYWORD PLxxxxx.

New standard graphics library - RHW
Similar to the standard MIDAS libraries for the Standard Interfaces and 
the MIDAS Tables File System, there is now a standard library for MIDAS
Graphics. This library provides a set of interface routines (both in FORTRAN 
and C) that can be used to enable data representation in a reasonable flexible 
way. The documentation will be included in the next version of the MIDAS
Environment document. Copies are already available in my office (room 401).

PLOT/PERSPECTIVE - RvH/RHW 940105
A new version of PLOT/PERSPECTIVE has been installed. It is much FASTER than 
the old one and offers the possibility to draw the grid in the X, y, or both
directions. Since making perspective plot of large areas doesn't make much 
sence (every thing will turn back), the limit is an area of 512x512 pixels.
The meaning of the command parameters have slighly changed. They can now be
understood.

PLOT/TABLE - RvH/RHW 940105
Th plot table command has been upgraded to facilitate the representation of 
3-dimenstion tables. This addition fuctionality was required by the ISO 
software group in the Netherlands how currently are writting and testing 
their (MIDAS) calibration and analysis software for the ISO project.
Take some time, and read the help file for complete information.

PLOT/CONTOUR, PLOT/GRAY, PLOT/VECTOR - RvH/RHW 940105
The limit of 512x512 pixels has finally be lifted. All image sizes can now
be plotted.

TIFF images - KB 940107
Now, images in TIFF format can be converted to MIDAS files via the command 
`@a intiff'. See `HELP/APPLIC intiff' for details.

New Context CCD - RHW 940112
The first version of the new MIDAS CCD package has been released. The package 
allows you to reduce your CCD frames in a very flexible way, either in 
automatic or "manual" mode.  
This release is to be considered as beta test version. 
Therefore, users are urged to report bugs, problems, suggestions, improvements,
or other comments of this nature to me (Rein Warmels, rwarmels@eso.org).

.../AUX_WINDOW command - KB 940113
The names of the commands CREATE/AUX_WINDOW and COPY/AUX have been changed to
CREATE/ZOOM_WINDOW and COPY/ZOOM_WINDOW (no change in the syntax).
Also a new command DELETE/ZOOM_WINDOW has been added. See the HELP for details.

ASCII input - KB 940113
Any suitable Midas command can now obtain its input from an ASCII file in a
very similar way to e.g. in Unix by using the string `<file_name' instead of
a parameter list.
E.g. if the ASCII file `kukiwu' contains 3 lines containing the filenames
lola.bdf, mimi.bdf and petrita.bdf, then
Midas > read/descr <kukiwu
will execute the READ/DESCR command for all the 3 files.
To be more explicit, the command will be executed for each line of the file,
taking as parameters the contents of that line.
Please, note that there should be no blank between the `<' and the filename!

Resizing of windows - KB 940113
You can now resize the display or graphic windows of Midas.
However, after that you have to reload or replot your image in order to 
assure the correctness of future cursor related commands.

Context CCD - RHW 940114
At initilization of the CCD context a MIDAS table (eso_specs.tbl) and a
MIDAS procedure (eso_descr.prg) will be copied into your working directory. 
The MIDAS table contains the specifications of the CCD's currently in use on
La Silla (data taken from the ESO Users Manual 1993). This table is used by 
the LOAD/CCD command that will look into this table for the requested 
telescope/instrument parameters and to be loaded into the CCD keyword 
structure. The MIDAS procedure copies the names of the (default) ESO 
descriptors into the CCD keywords, and is executed when the CCD context is 
enabled. 
Both, MIDAS table and procedure can be simply modified. Read the help 
documentation of LOAD/CCD and INIT/CCD for more information.

Compressed images/tables - KB 940119
Now, Midas supports compressed images or tables (by compressed we mean the
files xyz.bdf.Z created with the Unix `compress' command).
Therefore, this facility is only available for Unix systems not for VMS!!
E.g. use "READ/DESCR itest.bdf.Z" to read the standard descriptors of the
compressed image itest.bdf.

Multiple commands per command line - KB 940119 
As in interactive mode, you can now also write several commands per line in a
Midas procedure.
Please, recall that commands are separated by a semicolon (';'). 
If you want the char. ';' not interpreted as a command separator, write '\;' 
instead.

COMBINE/CCD, MKCAL/CCD - RHW 940125
The exposure types of the input frames are now compared with the exposure
type stored in the keyword `exp'_type, where `exp' is BS, DK, FF, SK, OT
(the first parameter of the command). If a difference is found, i.e. you 
have included frame(s) with wrong (a) exposure type(s) the combining will 
be terminated.

INITIALIZE/DISPLAY - KB 940126
Since Midas does not distinguish anymore between different window managers,
the parameter `window manager flag' in INIT/DISPLAY has been removed. 
Please, consult the help of the command for details.

Midas filenames - KB 940126
Due to popular demand we removed the restrictions on Midas filenames, e.g.
you can use again an image like `quasar01+12.bdf'.
However, if you want to use such an image in a COMPUTE/IMAGE command you have
to enclose the full name in quotes, e.g.:
comp/ima &a = "quasar01+12.bdf"-12

SET/MIDAS=INSERT_MODE - KB 940126
A new option INSERT_MODE has been added to the command SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM
in order start up always in InsertMode when editing a Midas command line.
See the help of SET/MIDAS_SYSTEM for details. This does not apply for the
new GNU line-editor available for UNIX systems.

Graphic windows - KB 940128
Now, also the internal info of the different graphics windows is saved like
for the display windows. That means, that you can create several graphics
windows at a time and switch among them (via ASSIGN/GRAPH) freely without 
losing the coordinate information in these windows. Note, however, that only
parameters concerning the coordinate systems and the plotted data are saved. 
The general graphics parameters like line width (LWIDTH), colours (COLOUR, 
BCOLOUR), plot mode (PMODE) are not saved. 
 
EXECUTE/CATALOG - KB 940128
The command EXECUTE/CATALOG has been updated to be more flexible. Also the
related SETUP commands, like WRITE/SETUP CATALOG, have been updated and
documented completely.

Scanning plots - KB 940204
A new application procedure `scanima.prg' has been implemented.
Via `@a scanima' you can reconstruct a 1-dim frame from a 2-dim image
containing the plot of that frame.
So, e.g., if you just have a plot of a spectrum (hardcopy) do the following:
go to the scanner in the user room, scan it and produce a TIFF file. Then 
read that file into Midas via `@a intiff' and finally rebuild the spectrum 
via `@a scanima'.
Use "HELP/APPLIC scanima" to get detailed information.

Context CCD - RHW 940204
Several commands in the CCD package have been updated. In particular, the
REDUCE/CCD command now takes care of several error conditions during the 
reduction pipeline. Also, a new table (eso_specs.tbl) containing the ESO 
specific CCD parameters will be created in the working directory when the 
CCD package is initialized.

ASSIGN/GRAPH - RHW 940208
The FILE/NOFILE option in the command ASSIGN/GRA has been eliminated.
Now, plot (meta) files, with the extension .plt, will always be created.

New naming convention for plot files - RHW 940208
In order to avoid conflicts in the names of plot files the naming convention 
of plot files has been revised. Now, for each assigned device the graphics 
system generates a plotfile with a name that starts with name of the 
assigned device (e.g. graph_wnd0, ps4ipg1, etc.), followed by MIDAS unit 
number, and with the extension ".plt" (e.g. graph_wnd00.plt, ps4ipg100.plt). 
Although this may look complicated, you will hard notice the change since 
in most cases the names of the plot files are not used. 

Postscript devices - RHW 940208
Three new devices called postscript (default = landscape), postscript.l (for 
landscape), and postscript.p (for portrait) have been included. Assigning 
the graphic output to one of these devices (e.g. ASSIGN/GRA postcript) will 
generate a postscript file postscript.ps. These new "devices" ease the 
inclusion of encapsulated postscript graphics in your papers and documents.

CREATE/RANDOM_IMAGE - PB 940224
The default of the "seed" parameter (integer number used as root of the
pseudo-random series) has been changed from 0 to the current time. Therefore
the command now creates by default uncorrelated noise images.

CREATE/STAR - RHW 940301
The command can now create (squared) frames that are larger or smaller than 
the previously fixed size of 64 * 64 pixels. Also, start and step values of 
the output frame can be given as input. Read the new version of the help
documentation.

FILTER/MEDIAN - KB 940317
A new option ("Z") has been added to the MEDIAN/FILTER command. With that 
option pixels are only replaced by the median value, if the difference of
pixel and median is larger than: a+b*SQRT(median), (a, b constant factors).
See the help of FILTER/MEDIAN for details.

TRANSLATE/SHOW - KB 940411
An option 'X' has been added to the command TRANSLATE/SHOW to check a procedure
for incomplete MIDAS command/qualifiers which could lead to ambiguous
commands under certain conditions. See the help for details.

STATISTICS/IMAGE - KB 940616
The area-option CURSOR (2nd parameter of the command) has been enhanced. 
Now you can enter CURSOR (as before) or CURSOR,cmax to have the command stop 
after max.  `cmax' cursor inputs. 
Also, an option has been added to force the precise calculation of the median, 
by default an approximation of the median is calculated (much faster).
See the help for details.

BLINK/CHANNEL - KB 940704
This command has been updated, so that you can have delay times as short as
you want and the info in the alpha memory is updated as well.
Furthermore, in X11 you can now stop the blinking by clicking the Exit button
of the mouse (with the mouse inside the display window!).

COPY/DISPLAY - KB 940803
The parameter `prflag' (5th par.) of this command has been extended. Instead of
just PRINT or NOPRINT, it now holds  PRINT,file_spec  where `file_spec'
determines if you always produce PostScript files with the same name or not.
See the help for details.
 
CCD Context - RHW 941014
The CCD context nows contains 6 addiotinal commands created to expose failures
on the CCD which may not have catastrophic effects but which may compromise 
observations. The tests are done on catalogues of bias, dark and low count 
flat frames and will for example give the hot and cold and pixels locations, 
the linearity and transfer curves, the shutter pattern, and the charge transferefficiency. The commands are called TESTB/CCD, TESTD/CCD, TESTF/CCD, TESTT/CCD,
TESTS/CCD, and TESTC/CCD.

Image format conversion - KB 941012
An application procedure `outima.prg' has been implemented, which supports the
conversion of Midas images to some of the widely used image formats, like e.g.
TIFF, GIF, jPEG, etc. Use HELP/APPLIC outima  for detailed information.

GET/GCURSOR - RHW 941017
A bug was discovered in the 94MAY version in the x position given by the 
graphics cursor when applied to a one or two dimensional plot. The pixel 
number in the x directin was one too high and hence the world coordinate 
was off by one step unit. The bug has been corrected.

Context ASTROMET - RHW 941018
A new context ASTROMET for astrometry has been implemented. The context 
contains four commands, originaly written by Richard West and modified by 
Olivier Hainaut to make use of the MIDAS table file system.
To enable the context use SET/CONTEXT ASTROM. The commands implemented are
ASTROM/POS1, ASTROM/TRAN, ASTROM/EDIT, ASTROM/COMP. Curently, the only 
source of documentation are the help files. More documentation will be 
provided later (if time allows).

New MIDAS line-editor: GNU readline - CG 941028
Starting with 94NOV, MIDAS uses, by default and only for UNIX systems, a 
public domain line-editor from the GNU project called "readline". This new
line-editor, widely supported in many platforms, enhances the line editing
capabilities of MIDAS, like a history stack of commands, Emacs or Vi editing
functions, command and filename completion functions, and a communication
channel to the MIDAS GUI Xhelp for a help-on-line function. Just, to start:
   Self-insert                 CTR-L  -> clear-screen
   CTR-E -> end-of-line        CTR-A  -> beginning-of-line
   CTR-U -> unix-line-discard  CTR-K  -> kill-line
   TAB   -> complete           TABs   -> possible-completions
   CTR-X -> (also F1) on-line-help through the GUI HELP
The old line-editor is still available. To use it just set the environment 
variable TERMWIN to "yes". See also the MIDAS installation document.

INTAPE/FITS with data decompression on-the-fly - CG 941028
94NOV provides, only on UNIX systems, decompression on-the-fly for the 
INTAPE/FITS command.  Compressed data fits-files, by default those with 
extensions .z and .Z, are decompressed automatically on-the-fly (pipeline) 
when accessed. See also the MIDAS installation document.

RENAME/... - KB 941104
The RENAME/IMAGE, /TABLE, /FIT commands have been updated and include now
an overwrite_confirmation_flag, so that you can avoid the accidental
deletion /overwritingof files. See the help of these commands for details.

RESTORE/NAME - KB 941104
The RESTORE/NAME command has been updated and includes now
an overwrite_confirmation_flag, so that you can avoid the accidental
deletion/overwriting of files. 
Also, the name of the descriptor to be used in case that descr. FILENAME does 
not exist can be given as a parameter. See the help for details.

Context ECHELLE - PB 941110
New commands have been introduced in the echelle context:

 PLOT/SPECTRUM enables to plot a rebinned spectrum in wavelength
               space and to compare order overlaps.
 DEFINE/SKY    allows to define the limits of 1 or 2 sky windows
 EXTRACT/SKY   extracts the sky windows and provides an option to
               filter particle hits.

The wavelength calibration command IDENTIFY/ECHELLE accepts an 
additional option controlled by the session keyword WLCOPT, which
value can be 1D or 2D. This keyword controls the method used to
compute the coefficients of the single order coefficients: in 1D
mode the coefficients are computed independently for each order,
in 2D mode the coefficients are derived from a global 2D solution.
The default value of WLCOPT is 1D. 

The default value of the wavelength calibration polynomial degree
(session keyword DC) has been increased to 4. The default value
of order definition polynomial (session keyword DEFPOL) has been
increased to 4,5.

The command ROTATE/ECHELLE now accepts single file names as input
(previously only catalog names).

New options -P and -help for inmidas - CG. 11.11.94
The inmidas script includes now a new -P option that, like previous -p option, 
runs a MIDAS session in PARALLEL mode but it provides automatically the first
<unit> (in the range from 00 to 99) available. This option is particularly
interesting to execute inmidas in a script without having to provide a
<unit> in the command-line.
The -help option will print out a summary of all inmidas options

CREATE/GRAPH - KB 941117
Now, when you create graphics windows not more than the necessary plot colors 
are allocated. Only, once you create a display window will a full color LUT be
attached to the Midas session.

LABEL/DISPLAY - KB 941117
A color option has been added, i.e you can have text strings in any of the
plot colors of Midas. See the Help for details.

CALIBRATE/LONG - PB 941118
The command CALIBRATE/LONG now allows to process spectra of negative 
wavelength steps. Next neighbour verification on the line catalog
has been relaxed if the limits of the catalog are reached.

COMPUTE/KEYWORD - KB 941124
The operation keya ** keyb (keya to the power of keyb, like e.g. 3**2) has
been added.

CREATE/GUI FILTERS - CL 950127
This application allows to display the transmission of all ESO filters 
and the quantum efficiency of the ESO CCDs. It is also possible to simulate 
the throughput of some ESO instruments (EMMI, EFOSC1, EFOSC2, SUSI) taking 
into account all observational parameters (standard star, sky and airmass 
compensation, filters, grism, fresh or old aluminium coating and CCD detector).
To enable the application use CREA/GUI FILTER. Currently, the only source 
of documentation is the interactive help. More documentation will be 
provided later.

CREATE/GUI IRSPEC - CL 950127
A Graphical User Interface for the context Irspec was developed, in order to 
provide a quick and easy way to reduce infrarred data. The main features are:
- It has interfaces to all the commands of the existent context Irspec.
- Some commands were grouped in the interface and default values are
  provided for most of the parameters, so that the user can reduce very 
  quickly the data.
- There is a file management feature that allows to keep sets of input
  frames names in ASCII files.
To enable the application use CREA/GUI IRSPEC.

SET/MIDAS ENVIRONMENT=MidHost - KB 941206
For the option ENVIRONMENT the mode "MidHost" (Midas + Host) has been added. 
In that mode all commands which are not recognized by Midas are passed on to
the host system. Thus you can avoid the `$' in front of many Unix commands like 
"more", "ls", ... (works also for VMS).
The terminating char. of the Midas prompt string changes from `>' to `:' to
indicate that you're in the `MidHost' mode.

SET/MIDAS PATH=value - KB 941219
A new option PATH=value has been added to the SET/MIDAS command to specify a
search path for Midas procedures executed with @@ command.
Value = string of directory(ies) used in locating the Midas procedures for the 
@@ command (if not in the current directory). This is similar to the PATH 
variable in Unix. See the HELP of SET/MIDAS for details.

FITS files - KB 950101
Now, all Midas applications also accept images in FITS format as input.

VIEW/IMAGE - KB 950101
As a consequence of the above the syntax of the VIEW/IMAGE command has changed
such that the 4th parameter `file_format' has been removed.

LOAD/LUT, GET/LUT - KB 950106
Both commands have now also an option to load and retrieve LUTs in ASCII format
with each line of the ASCII file containing the red, green and blue component
of the LUT separated by blanks (the line no. is the index). See the HELP for
details.

LUT Editor - KB 950110
A fancy (public domain) LUT Editor has been integrated into Midas. Execute the 
"contrib" procedure lutedit via "@c lutedit" to edit a Midas LUT. For a short
description of its usage execute "@c lutedit HELP".

HELP/CONTRIB - KB 950113
A new qualifier CONTRIB has been added to the Help command. It works like the
HELP/APPLIC command, i.e. it lists help text for procedure stored in 
/midas/version/contrib/proc.
E.g. "HELP/CONTRIB " displays all current procedures in the contrib area (not
connected to a specific context). 
HELP/CONTRIB lutedit     shows how to start the LUT editor.

Context CCD - RHW 950123
For the most time consuming commands to test the CCD quality (commands 
TESTB/CCD, TESTF/CCD and TESTT/CCD) and extra option has been included. 
In the command, as the first parameter, the user can now indicate the 
subtest to be executed. 

EXTRACT/TRACE - KB 950125
The EXTRACT/TRACE (and also /RTRACE, /CTRACE) commands have been updated and
include also the zoom window option. I.e. you zoom up a subwindow of the 
display window, show it in the zoom window and use the cursor(s) in the zoom
window to specify the trace. See the HELP for details.

EXECUTE/TABLE - KB 950221
The EXECUTE/TABLE command has been reworked to be more flexible (also
the syntax has changed!), see the HELP for details.

SET/MIDAS DPATH=value - KB 950224
A new option DPATH=value has been added to the SET/MIDAS command to specify a
search path for Midas data files.
Value = string of directory(ies) used in locating Midas data files (if not in 
the current directory). This is similar to the PATH variable in Unix. 
See the HELP of SET/MIDAS for details.

SET/MIDAS EPATH=value - KB 950301
And now also the option EPATH=value has been added to the SET/MIDAS command to 
specify a search path for Midas executables (program modules).
Value = string of directory(ies) used in locating Midas executables (if not in 
the current directory). This is similar to the PATH variable in Unix. 
See the HELP of SET/MIDAS for details.
 
INDISK/ASCII - KB 950302
New command INDISK/ASCII has been added. Similar to INDISK/FITS it builds a 
Midas image from an ASCII file on disk. See the HELP for details.

CENTER/IQE - KB/PG 950322
A 2-dim Gaussian centering command which also calculates the angle of the
major axis with the X-axis has been written by P. Grosbol and implemented in
Midas. See the help for details (IQE = ImageQualityEstimate).

MODIFY/GCURSOR - RHW 950328
In order avoid doing destructive operations on the input data the command
line now includes the output frame as the second parameter. See the help 
for details.

Context CCD - RHW 950328
Pipeline processing in the CCD package is now exclusively based on the 
Data Organizer (DO) Association Table. The so-called reduction table 
is not needed anymore. As a result of this, mainly the combine command 
(COMBINE/CCD) has been upgraded. The upgrade made the command MKCAL/CCD 
obsolete, and hence has been removed. 
For more details please read the help file and the new version of the 
user manual (Chapter 3 in Volume B of the MIDAS user's Guide).  

Graphics - RHW 950330
On request of a number of users, a plot mode (PMODE=0) has been implemented
that does not write any additional legend around the graph (except for the 
axes and the axes labels). The old PMODE=0 (only data, no axes or text) is 
still available, now via PMODE=-1. 
To summarize: PMODE = -1  data only, no axes and labels
                    =  0  data and axes only
                    =  1  data, axes plus simple legend on top of graph
                    =  2  data, axes and full legend aside

Context CCD - RHW 950419
The commands ILLCOR/CCD and SKYCOR/CCD for creating the illumination 
frames from flats and blank sky frame have been upgraded and can now 
be used in combination with the association table (see above). Similarly, 
the commands ILLFLAT/CCD and SKYFLAT/CCD for creating illumination
corrected (sky) flats have been modified. To remind the users, when 
reducing science frame(s) with the illumination correction option 
switched on, the illumination frame(s) must be available before the 
reduction is started.

subframes in Midas - KB 950510
Now you can use subframes (specified via `name[x1,y1,z1:x2,y2,z2]') in all
Midas commands. E.g. 
Midas> fft/freq itest[<,<:@128,@128]
will do an FFT on the lower left 128x128 window of frame `itest.bdf' only.
Midas> compute/image lola[@10,@33:@50,@33] = 1.1
will only update part of line no. 33 of 2-dim frame `lola.bdf'.
For more details see the help for topic [Filenames].

Pipes in Midas - KB 950525
We now support pipes (symbol `|' as in Unix) to connect Midas and Host commands
as well as Host and Midas commands. E.g.
Midas> read/descr lola | $grep CUNIT
will just display the contents of the descriptor CUNIT of image `lola.bdf'.
And
Midas> $pwd | write/keyw inputc
will store the current directory in char. keyword `inputc'.
For more details see the help for topic [Host+Midas].

vertical LUT - KB 950531
An application procedure `vertlut.prg' has been implemented to add a vertical
LUT with tick marks and intensities to a displayed image in order to get a nice
hardcopy (COPY/DISPLAY command). Use "HELP/APPLIC vertlut" or the Applications
menu of XHelp and click on `vertlut' to get detailed information.

LOAD/IMAGE - KB 950627
We now support loading of single or more planes of a 3-dim image. See the Help
of LOAD/IMAGE for details.

CREATE/CURSOR, DELETE/CURSOR - KB 950704
Besides the zoom window one can now create/delete a cursor window which is also
connected to a display window. Once a cursor window exists all subsequent
cursor redings from the display window will show an area of 9x9 pixels around 
the cursor #0 (i.e. the mouse) zoomed up by a factor of 20 in that cursor 
window.

INFO/IMAGE - KB 950712
This new command displays in a user readable format the values of the internal
File Control Block of a binary Midas image. See the help of the command for a
detailed description.

Internal File Version - KB 950712
From today on all Midas files have internal version VERS_007. In this version
6 integer values (at byte no. 52 of the file) have been filled with vital
image information: 
value[0] = Naxis, value[1,2,3] = Npix[0,1,2],
value[4] = data format as D_R4_FORMAT, D_UI2_FORMAT, ...
value[5] = byte no. of first pixel of image (counting begins at 0, like in C)

This ensures that binary Midas images can be easily imported into other
visualization systems like IDL, PV-Wave, AVS, ...
An example stand alone program (readima.c) for accessing a Midas image can be 
found in the directory /midas/`version'/prim/general/src .

Furthermore, the creation time of a frame is now saved also in seconds as a 
long integer value.

FILTER/GAUSS - KB 950718
New defaults have been chosen for this command. Parameter 3 which is
`radx,rady' is now defaulted to 9,9 and param. 4 which is `gauss_specs' is
defaulted to 9,3,9,3 .

PRINT/ICAT - KB 950718
The format of the PRINT/ICAT (or READ/ICAT) command has changed slightly.
So, for all Midas hackers who use ASCII files as interfaces to their software:
please, check it out.

Communication interfaces - KB 950724
The communication interfaces have been updated:
New routines XCXINI, XCZINI have been added to also start a background Midas
session. The routine XCZCLO has been removed (use XCXCLO instead). Also the
error codes for the routines have been reviewed. See the Environment doc. for 
a detailed description.

STATISTICS/IMAGE - KB 950726
An 8th parameter has been added to the STATISTICS/IMAGE command. This optional
parameter holds a user defined format for displaying the minimum, maximum, 
mean and standard deviation; default is "E15.6". See the Help for details.

Mosaicing CCDs - RHW 950802
Time to change the initials! Four commands have been created to support 
mosaicing capabilities of CCDs. The commmand are:
    CREATE/MOSAIC to create a mosaic from number of subsimages;
    SHIFT/MOSAIC  to determine the x/y positional offsets of the subimages; 
    ALIGN/MOSAIC  to align the subimages in the mosaic;
    MATCH/MOSAIC  to align the subimages and to match their intensities.
Currently, the intensity matching is based on the median intensities in the 
overlap regions between the adjacent subrasters. The limitation here is that
the matching is done sequentially, rather than minimizing the background
offset errors by using all overlapping regions. That code is planned for 
implementation.

Midas on a pipeline - CG 950810
Commands can be given to the MIDAS monitor through the UNIX pipeline "|" and
the input redirection "<". E.g.:  
   echo "CREATE/DIS ; LOAD sombrero" | inmidas 
The EOF is interpreted as "BYE" command forcing MIDAS to exit.

SHOW/DISPLAY - KB 950912
This command has been enhanced. See the help for details.

STATISTICS/IMAGE - KB 950913
In addition to the smallest (first) mode, now also the overall mode (maximum
of the histogram) is calculated in the command.

SET/FORMAT - KB 950915
The SET/FORMAT command has been upgraded so that you can give separate formats
for real and double variables. Default format for double data is "E15.5" to be
backward compatible with the real format which was also used for double 
precision before. See the help for details.
 
TRANSPOSE/CUBE - KB 950927
This new command rearranges the planes of a cube. See the Help text of 
TRANSPOSE/CUBE for details.

MODIFY/CUTS - KB 951004
This command has been updated significantly and uses now the graphics cursor 
to specify new cut values via the plotted histogram of the displayed image. 
Also, the syntax of this command has changed. See the Help text of MODIFY/CUTS
for details.
 
COMPUTE/XYPLANE - KB 951013
It is now possible to do arithmetic on the planes of a cube via the commands
COMPUTE/XYPLANE, COMPUTE/XZPLANE and COMPUTE/ZYPLANE.
See the Help text of these commands for details.

OUTTAPE/FITS - PG 951012
Simple MIDAS descriptors (i.e. names shorter than 9 chars, single value
or less than 68 chars.) will now be written out as prime FITS keywords
and not hidden on HISTORY cards.

SET/CONTEXT IUE - DP 951020
The new version of the IUE package under MIDAS 95NOV supports reading GO 
files from disk.

AVERAGE/IMAGE - KB 951123
This command has been expanded to also work on the planes of a data cube.
See the help of AVERAGE/IMAGE for details.

OUTDISK/FITS - KB 951211
A new command for converting Midas images, tables or fitfiles to FITS files
on disk has been added.
See the help of OUTDISK/FITS for details.

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE - CG 960112
As of the 95NOV release, patch level pl2.0, ESO-MIDAS is available under the 
GNU General Public License. This means that the ESO-MIDAS system is available, 
free of charge and can freely redistributed on certain conditions. As a 
consequence of this distribution policy User Agreements between research 
institutes and ESO will not apply as of ESO-MIDAS release 95NOVpl2.0 and will
not be prolongated when they expire

WCS - KB 960115
A first implementation of a `true' (non-linear) World Coordinate System in
Midas has been done based on the WCSLIB library of Mark Calabretta as used
in the AIPS project.
The FITS keywords which are needed in order to recognize the usage of a WCS
have to follow the standard as described in the paper: "Representation of
Celestial Coordinates in FITS" by Eric Greisen + Mark Calabretta.

The first command in Midas using the WCS is GET/CURSOR.

For more info about the WCS installation, use the Midas command: HELP [WCS]

MODIFY/AREA - KB 960126
Also for degree=0, we now use a circular area as it is specified in the
Help (was rectangle before...).

READ/DESCR - KB 960202
A file input option for specifying all the descriptors to be displayed has 
been added. See the Help text of READ/DESCR for details.

Compressed files - KB 960209
Besides images/tables compressed via `compress', Midas supports now also
compressed images/tables via `gzip', e.g. to read the gzipped table kukiwu
use: READ/TABLE kukiwu.tbl.gz 
For more info about the support of compressed files, use the Midas command: 
HELP [Compression]

COMPUTE/KEYWORD - KB 960530
A new function M$VALUE has been implemented for the COMPUTE/KEYWORD command.
With M$VALUE you access elements of all Midas data structures directly in their
binary format instead of having to go through the binary -> char. conversion
when you use symbol substitution.
Therefore, instead of e.g.
inputd(3) = {image,step(2)}
you should use
inputd(3) = m$value(image,step(2))

You are independent of the formats set via SET/FORMAT and thus avoid the
danger of losing precision.
See the help of COMPUTE/KEYWORD for details.

FIND/PIXEL - KB 960531
This command now works also for 3-dim frames. Also its functionality has been
greatly enhanced. See the Help text of FIND/PIXEL for details.

FILTER/MEDIAN - KB 960617
The algorithm for median filtering the pixels in a frame has been optimized.
For example, on an HP 715/50 the command FILTER/MEDIAN with a 2K*2K input
image and an 11*11 neighbourhood the execution time dropped from 1650 secs.
to 570 secs.

LOAD/IMAGE - KB 960620
When loading different planes of a 3-dim image, also a delay time (in secs) 
can be given. This time is then waited between the loading of each plane of 
the image. See the help of LOAD/IMAGE for details.

INITIALIZE/DISPLAY - KB 960624
The 1. param. `noLUT,LUTsize' has been changed to `noLUT,maxLUTsize,minLUTsize'
like that you can ensure to have at least `minLUTsize' colors. This may have
to be done via a private LUT installation. See the help of INIT/DISPLAY for
details.

COPY/OVERLAY - KB 960627
A new command, COPY/OVERLAY has been implemented to redraw overlayed graphics
and text in an image channel (thus freeing the overlay plane for other
graphics/text). See the help of COPY/OVERLAY for details.

MODIFY/DISPLAY, GRAPHICS - KB 960627
A new command, MODIFY/DISPLAY (MODIFY/GRAPHICS) has been implemented to toggle 
the state of a display (graphics) window to/from Icon. 
See the help of MODIFY/DISPLAY MODIFY/GRAPHICS) for details.

SYNCHRONIZE/TIME - KB 960828
New command SYNCHRONIZE/TIME has been implemented within the framework of
enforcing guaranteed response times. 
Via the command SET/MIDAS maxtime=n you can define a maximum time of `n' secs
for any Midas command/procedure, after that the command/procedure is stopped 
and control returns to the user.
Time checking is done automatically when a procedure or an application/host 
command is started. Thus SYNCHRONIZE/TIME must be used inside Midas procedures,
which only execute system Midas commands, to enable timeout checking.
See the help of SYNCHRONIZE/TIME for details.

Descriptor names - KB 960917
Future NTT and VLT instruments will produce data frames with all ancillary
information stored in the ESO hierarchical FITS keywords. In order to get
ready for these long keywords, the max. size of the names of Midas descriptors
has been extended to 72 chars.
Also the limit on the number of elements of a descriptor has been removed.

The Midas files with the new descriptor structure have internal version 
VERS_010.
Please, note, that Midas frames with VERSION_010 cannot be processed with
any Midas version before 96NOV. Accessing these new frames will lead to the
"VERNOR" (version not recognized) error.

LABEL/DISPLAY - KB 961030
Now one can also use frame coordinates in this command, see the help.

INTAPE/FITS - PJG 961122
The INTAPE was modified to use long MIDAS descriptors. Now ESO FITS
hierarchical keywords e.g. 'HIERARCH ESO DET NAME = 'CCD'' get the
full name e.g. ESO.DET.NAME instead of being encoded.  The old
scheme is available using a 'C' option (see help).  Also '-' was
added as an allowed character in names.  Finally, strings expected
to contain a number are decoded.

LOAD/IMAGE - KB 961127
An option to load planes of a cube into consecutive image channels has been
added. After that you can use BLINK/CHANNEl to cycle through the different
channels of the display window (and thus cycle through the planes of your
cube).
In that cntext also the max. no. of channels of a display window has been
raised to 12.
See the HELP of LOAD/IMAGE for details.

BLINK/CHANNEL =- KB 961206
A new option to blink only in a cursor defined rectangle has been added.
See the HELP of BLINK/CHANNEL for details.

CREATE/ICAT, CREATE/TCAT - KB 961206
These commands have now one more parameter to specify the char. descr which
is used for the Ident field in the Image/Table catalogs (defaulted to IDENT). 
See the help for details.

MAGNITUDE/... - KB 970114
The appendflag parameter of the MAGNITUDE commands is now also applicable to 
table output (was only used for descr. output before).
See the help for details.

@a getcoord - KB 970212
The application procedure getcoord.prg has been upgraded to also provide the
screen pixels for a given coord. pair, if the frame is currently loaded in the
display window. 
Use `HELP/APP getcoord' or the graphical Help Interface for details.

COPY/PSCR - KB 970217
New command COPY/PSCR which converts a Midas image directly to PostScript
has been added. See the help for details.

SET/MIDAS_SYS  - KB 970212
In case you need to create Midas files with the old (short) descriptor format
(of 95NOV Midas) use the new option: SET/MIDAS DSCFORMAT=old (default = new).

SHRINK/IMAGE - KB 970312
New command SHRINK/IMAGE has been implemented to store statistical quantitities
of all rows/planes of an image into a 1-dim frame. See the HELP for details.

OUTDISK/ASCII - KB 970623
A new command OUTDISK/ASCII has been added  With this command you can convert
Midas images to ASCII files which contain one data value per file record, i.e.
the pixels are stored as a single column. Many data reduction packages require
ASCII input data to be in that format (e.g. MATLAB).

gammacorr.prg - KB 970623
A new application procedure `gammacorr.prg' has been added to help in getting
better hardcopies from the screen. Via "@a gammacorr" you create an ITT with
which you can correct the gamma of your display.

COMPUTE/PLANE - KB 970701
New command COMPUTE/PLANE has been implemented to work on the different planes 
of a 3-dim image (similar to COMPUTE/ROW for 2-dim images). See the HELP for 
details.

CREATE/RANDOM - KB 970722
New option (Fibonacci) has been added to CREATE/RANDOM. This option does NOT
use the NAG library.See the HELP for details.

COPY/DD - KB 970729
Add option to exclude descriptors from the copying.See the HELP for details.

hex. constants - KB 970930
Support hexadecimal constants in Midas commands. Hex constants are indicated
by a leading no. sign (#), e.g. COMP/KEYW inputi(12) = #abc123 would set
inputi(12) to 11256099.

RGB color mode - KB 980120
Support for displays supporting true color mode (i.e. having 8 bits per red, 
green, blue color component) has been implemented. A new 5th parameter has
been added to the INITIALIZE/DISPLAY command to set up a display for true
color mode. See the help of INITIALIZE/DISPLAY as well as topic [RGB].

RESAMPLE/IMAGE - KB 980205
New command RESAMPLE/IMAGE has been added. See the help for details.

COMPUTE/DIMAGE, /DPIXEL, /DPLANE - KB 980319
Computing facilities for double precision images has been added, see the help
for details.

STATISTICS/IMAGE - KB 980322
New options have been added to compute additional statistical values, see the 
help for details.

OUTDISK/SFITS - PG 980525
A new command has been added to write several files as different extensions
into a single FITS file.

SET/MIDAS_SYS - KB 980525
Two new options facilitating direct work with FITS files have been implemented:
SET/MIDAS NEWFILES=fileformat
where `fileformat' is MIDAS (default) or FITS. New images created by Midas
commands (like e.g. compute/image, create/image) will be created according to
that format.
For FITS images the filetype of new images may be set via 
SET/MIDAS DEFTYPE=filetype
current default for `filetype' is ".mt"
It is planned to extend this to Midas images as well as tables.

LOAD/IMAGE - KB 980525
New averaging options (min/max) have been added, see the help for details.

MODIFY/COLUMN, ROW - KB 980525
These commands work now for unlimited column/row sizes.

DRAW/... - KB 980525
The DRAW command takes also input from an ASCII file for faster drawing, see 
the help for details.

LOAD/TABLE - KB 980525
New options have been added, see the help for details.

READ/DESCR, SHOW/DESCR - KB 980525
New pattern matching options have been added, see the help for details.

LOAD/OVERLAY, CURSOR - KB 980525
These commands were only applicable to the DeAnza image display systems (RIP)
and have been removed.

FITS files - KB 980608
In this version we continued our efforts in integrating FITS frames smoothly
into Midas. The handling of FITS files has been upgraded as follows:
a) no more temporary copies of the FITS header files are stored on disk
b) FITS images and tables can be processed like Midas images/tables for input
c) FITS images/tables can also be modified, but in order to be backwards
   compatible a flag has to be set before (see the command 
   SET/MIDAS F_UPDATE=...)
d) by default newly created images/tables are in Midas format, that can be 
   changed by setting a flag (via command SET/MIDAS NEWFILES=...,
   SET/MIDAS DEFTYPE=...)

At the moment only the prime FITS header and data matrix is used, i.e. we do
NOT support FITS extensions, yet.

COPY/DD - KB 980821
New pattern matching options have been added, see the help for details.

Display/Graphics in Midas - KB 980831
Now you can also work in PseudoColor mode (8 bits per pixel) on systems which 
only support 24 bit graphics mode. While this is rarely necessary on Unix 
workstations where 24 bit graphics cards also offer 8 bit mode, this is needed
for many PCs with Linux.

REBIN/STATISTICS - KB 980922
New command REBIN/STATISTICS has been added. See the help for details.

Midas commands in Unix - KB 990713
All Midas commands not using display or graphics windows can also be executed
directly from the Unix command line.
For details see the help about [Host+Midas].

verification procedures - KB 990930
The verifications have been expanded a lot. You should always execute them
when installing Midas. They are executed via:
Midas> @ vericopy
Midas> @@ veriall

context RBS - KB 991020
New context RBS (Reduction Block Scheduler) has been implemented.
This context is relevant for users who have VLT data from FORS1, FORS2 or UVES
and want to execute the pipeline recipes without the need of having the full
ESO Data Flow System installed (which is only possible on HP at the moment).
See the help for details.

INFO/FILE - KB 991120
New command INFO/FILE has been implemented. See the help for details.

Daophot - PN 991220
The max. image size for the Daophot context has been increased to
4096x4096 pixels.

Midas command line - KB 000117
The max. length of a single token (atom) in a Midas command line has been
increased from 80 to 150 chars.
The max. length of the total command line remains at 400 chars. as before.

FITS extensions - KB 000329
It is now possible to access directly extensions of FITS files in Midas.
See the help about [Filenames] for info about syntax, etc.

debugging Midas procedures - KB 000417
The problems with the debugging of Midas procedures (command DEBUG/PROC)
have been solved and a few new debugging commands added.

FITS file handling - KB 000714
New options DSCALLOC= and DSCHELP= have been added to the command SET/MIDAS.
For files with huge FITS headers (e.g. VIMOS data files) the adequate setting
of DSCALLOC will make a big difference in performance.

There will also be a VMS version for 99NOV (pl2.1), for details contact
Jean-Pierre De Cuyper at system@midasc.oma.be.

We finally have also our GUIs working smoothly on Linux systems, since
Motif became public software recently.

work on FITS files - KB 000912
Now one can directly access extensions of FITS files, for details see the
help of the topic [Filenames].

INFO/FRAME - KB 000922
Command INFO/FRAME supersedes INFO/IMAGE, because this command is also
applicable to tables, not just images.

INDISK/MFITS - KB 001010
New command INDISK/MFITS to read in a FITS file and all its extensions has
been implemented. See the help for details.

MODIFY/DISPLAY, /GRAPHICS - KB 001020
A new option "PARENT" has been added to the MODIFY command. With that
option you can build a hierarchy of windows.
See the help for details.

COPY/DD - KB 001102
Upgrade the command to optionally clear descriptors before overwriting them
with less values than the max.

COMPUTE/PRECESSION - PN 001113
Correct the algorithm.

CREATE/DISPLAY - KB 001124
It is now possible to choose a background color for displays, see the help
for details.

HELP/SUBJECT - KB 001128
This command has been completely revised. Now, the complete main help
directory is searched for a given string and all commands containing this
string are displayed.

display with more than 8 bits - CM 001201
Thanks to the efforts of Craig Markwardt of the U. of Wisconsin the
long standing problem with graphics cards supporting 16, 24bit displays only
has been finally solved.
Now Midas works with 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit displays.
Thanks a lot, Craig!

DRAW/... - KB 001212
The drawing commands now support also fractions of frame pixels.

Linux on DEC/Compaq Alpha - KB 010104
Linux SuSE 7.0 has been installed on our 64 bit Alpha machine and Midas
version 01FEB has been installed/tested using g77 instead of f2c for
the Fortran code.

RedHat Linux - KB 010109
Beware of RedHat Linux release 7.0 - they use a non-standard version of
gcc (gcc-2.96), not the "standard/official" one (gcc-2.95), and 2.96 is
a development release and thus supposedly not waterproof...
Some Midas users have reported that programs would not work anymore correctly
on a RedHat 7.0 system.
In that case you'll get all our sympathy - but not much more...

Linux - KB 010109
For Linux we use now the ncurses library instead of the outdated
termcap library.

drs - KB 010125
Just a reminder of the "drs" command to execute Midas commands directly from
Unix, e.g., you can get the statistics of a FITS file image extension
(assuming it's extension no. 4) via:

$ drs statistics/image image.fits[4]

without having to start up Midas. See also the help of [Host+Midas].


RESET/DISPLAY - KB 010206
An additional parameter (Allflag) is added to make it possible to stop
all running/hanging `idiserv.exe' processes (only for Unix).
See the help of RESET/DISPLAY.

CONVERT/DESCR_MATRIX = KB 010223
New command CONVERT/DESC_MATRIX has been implemented. See the help for details.

• Computer Manuals at the Sternwarte Bonn
• Sternwarte Bonn Homepage
• Computer System of the Sternwarte  (only available locally)
• MIDAS User Support  (by ESO)