[Difx-users] vex2 has landed

[Walter Brisken]

Hi DiFX Users,

I have merged the Goddard/NVI vex2 parser and related vex2difx changes 
(which were developed under the vex2 branch over the last several months) 
into the vex2difx trunk.

Behavior for vex1.5 files should remain largely unchanged.  There has been 
a report of an incomplete vex1.5 file that used to work not working 
anymore -- such non-compliant cases are not likely to receive any 
development attention :)

However, if you see any regression when using a valid vex1.5 file, please 
send me all the files needed to run vex2difx and I will work to resolve 
the issue.

Support for new vex2 features in vex2difx is not complete and has not been 
extensively tested -- both due to lack of an adequate supply of vex2 files 
that span the huge space of possible use cases.  Test reports (fails and 
successes) and sample files would be appreciated.  That said, some of the 
critical new features (support for the BITSTREAM and DATASTREAM tables 
that better support Mark5B and VDIF formats) are supported, at least to 
some degree.

The ChangeLog file in the SVN repository has some details on the supported 
features.

The vex2 defining document is available at the NRAO wiki, but note that 
this location is subject to change:

https://safe.nrao.edu/wiki/bin/view/VLBA/Vex2doc


 	-Walter

-------------------------
Walter Brisken
NRAO
Deputy Assistant Director for VLBA Development
(505)-234-5912 (cell)
(575)-835-7133 (office; not useful during COVID times)