[daip] help

[Eric Greisen]

Svetlana Marchenko writes:
 > Dear Helper,
 > 
 > I would like to ask: is there a way to write 
 > 2-3 volume tape file directly from the large AIPS file 
 > without coping it (using, for example, UVCOP) into three different 
 > AIPS disk files each of them would fit to a tape?

Yes and no.  We do not have a way to have a FITS file span more than
one volume - the standard itself really does not specify any way to do
this.  But the aips task FITAB will divide the data up for you into
"pieces" and it is able to start writing at piece number n (> 1) when
you are writing the 2nd or 3rd tape.  This usage was one of the
reasons to write FITAB - the other is that one can write compressed
data and so use 1/2-1/3 of the tape required by FITTP.

Eric Greisen