[daip] AIPS transitions...

[Eric Greisen]

Chris Wilkinson writes:

 > I have a faculty member who arrived not long ago from another institution.
 > She brought with her a large amount of AIPS catalog data which was, I
 > believe, created using AIPS on a Sun/Solaris system. We have had some
 > success reading her data using an AIPS installed under Solaris, but we
 > would like to switch her over to a Linux system. I have installed AIPS
 > and configured the disks, but a "catal" does not show anything in these
 > directories. I fear we are doing something fundamentally wrong, perhaps
 > even being incorrect to assume that AIPS data can be easily moved between
 > platforms. Can you advise us on this? Do you see any obvious problems with
 > what we're trying to do? 

       AIPS data on disk is machine-dependent.  The different byte
order of Solaris and LInux means you cannot read her binary data files
with Linux.  On the SUN system, in aips enter
RUN WRTPROCS
HELP WRTDISK
to run a procedure that will write out the data in FITS files.  Then
on the LInux side
RUN WRTPROCS
HELP READISK
to run a procedure to read the many files back in.

 > My other question is, where is the AIPS user number "database?" I've
 > scoured the documentation and have been unable to find anything on the
 > topic. Perhaps this is related to the issue above... 

At non-NRAO sites users should feel free to use any numbre they want
from 2 through a rather large number.  Even here, users use more than
one number on their desktops so as to separate their projects.  If you
want to use the NRAO number system, it is regularly updated in a file
$TST/DOC/TEXT/USERNO.LIS

 > 
 > We are certainly not an AIPS saavy support group. I have several
 > researchers using an AIPS Linux install quite successfully, but in the
 > case of the above researcher we have run up against several problems. Any
 > advice you might have would be appreciated. 

if you have further problem, e-mail will be easier than phone.
 > 
 > I am also available by phone, if that is easier for you. The number is
 > attached below. 

Cheers,

Eric Greisen