[daip] current release

[Eric Greisen]

computer support writes:
 > I'm a little bit confused by the statements on your web page.
 > The conclusion seems to be that with the impending withdrawal
 > of 15OCT99, there will no longer be any more "stable" version
 > of AIPS.  Do you plan to "freeze" 31DEC99 in the near future?
 > Doing daily/weekly upgrades is not really an option for us...
 > Given that, what would you recommend we do with our 15APR99
 > installation?  Thanks.
 > 
 > Philippe P. Brieu                http://www.astro.ucla.edu/computing/
 > UCLA, Physics & Astronomy      e-mail: help at astro.ucla.edu
 > 8370 Mathematical Sciences      phone: +1--310-206-8596
 > Los Angeles, CA 90095-1562        fax: +1--310-206-2096

AS I see it, you have two choices.  One is to take a copy of 15OCT99
now.  It is frozen and you can choose to install it when you get it or
at some later time.  The reasons to do so are in the AipsLetter for
15OCT99.  But that version is getting old and lacks all the things
discussed in the latest AIPSLetter.

Alternatively, you can get and install 31DEC99.  You can choose to
update this on whatever time scale you desire.  We provide a
"midnight" job which does the update entirely automatically - almost
never is manual intervention needed.  The few times that it is are
just executions of POPSGN.  I do not understand why "Doing
daily/weekly upgrades is not really an option for us..." - I ran a mnj
at ucla during the period that my personal CVX version of aips was
installed and used primarily for 12-meter single-dish data.  It would
not be an option if it was a full, manually controlled INSTEP1,
INSTEP2, INSTEP4 - not an option for anyone.  The mnj is driven by
transaction files and scripts that do all the file copies, compiles,
etc for you and issue a nice report.  It can be run at any interval yo
think wise - daily or every 6 months.

Eric Greisen