From rlw at stsci.edu  Tue Nov  2 11:39:34 1999
From: rlw at stsci.edu (Rick White)
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 11:39:34 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [AstroPy] Summary of Python related events at ADASS
Message-ID: <199911021639.LAA12708@sundog.stsci.edu>

>From owner-astropy at stsci.edu Tue Nov  2 10:36 EST 1999
>From: Paul Barrett <Barrett at stsci.edu>
>To: astropy at stsci.edu
>Subject: [AstroPy] Summary of Python related events at ADASS
>
> [...]
>
>As an aside, a similar utility for converting IDL programs to Python
>would be a nice asset to the AstroPy toolbox and provide valuable
>experience for future enhancements to the Numerics module,
>particularly for image processing.  Anyone interested in taking on
>this project?

I've been thinking about doing this myself.  I think IDL has a much
simpler syntax than the IRAF CL, so the parsing would be easier.  The
Python code generation would currently be hard, mainly because of
missing features in Numeric like the ability to index arrays with
arrays and the "inverse of take" functionality.  That would require the
generation of a bunch of messy code for simple IDL statements, which
would probably be off-putting for IDL users.

Once the few holes are filled in Numeric, I think it would be possible
to produce clean, readable Python translations of IDL procedures.  Then
the effort would focus on creating a useful subset of the IDL built-in
library routines, which could be shared among many developers.

It took me a few weeks to implement the CL-to-Python translator using
Aycock's SPARK framework, and I suspect doing the IDL version would be
a bit quicker if the Numeric facilities were available...

- Rick

---
Richard L. White    rlw at stsci.edu    http://sundog.stsci.edu/rick/
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, MD
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From magee at aubrey.ucolick.org  Tue Nov  2 13:10:41 1999
From: magee at aubrey.ucolick.org (Daniel K. Magee)
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 10:10:41 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [AstroPy] Summary of Python related events at ADASS
In-Reply-To: <14366.61322.879099.912917@nem-srvr.stsci.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9911021000340.31564-100000@aubrey.ucolick.org>

Is PyRAF available yet?

Cheers,
Dan

Daniel Magee                                    magee at ucolick.org
UCO/Lick Observatory                            831.459.5276

On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Paul Barrett wrote:

> Perry Greenfield's talk about PyRAF followed Beazley's talk.  PyRAF is
> a Python implementation of the IRAF CL.  It was designed and
> implemented by Perry Greenfield and Rick White at STScI.  It provides
> an identical command line environment to the IRAF CL, but with many
> bug fixes and several improvements.  It also enables Python scripts
> and applications to be run.  So in essence it provides backward
> compatibility for IRAF tasks, while enable future compatibility for
> Python applications.  In addition Rick White used SPARK (formerly
> known as "the little language framework.") to implement a translator
> for converting IRAF scripts into Python.


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From perry at stsci.edu  Wed Nov  3 09:54:19 1999
From: perry at stsci.edu (Perry Greenfield)
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 09:54:19 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [AstroPy] Summary of Python related events at ADASS
Message-ID: <199911031454.JAA17677@eclipse.stsci.edu>

> From owner-astropy at stsci.edu Tue Nov  2 13:08 EST 1999
> Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 10:10:41 -0800 (PST)
> From: "Daniel K. Magee" <magee at aubrey.ucolick.org>
> To: astropy at stsci.edu
> Subject: Re: [AstroPy] Summary of Python related events at ADASS
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> 
> Is PyRAF available yet?
> 
> Cheers,
> Dan
> 
> Daniel Magee                                    magee at ucolick.org
> UCO/Lick Observatory                            831.459.5276

No, not yet. We are hoping to make a limited beta available by the end
of the month (limited in the sense that we wanted to limit the number
of sites that tried it out initially). Contact us if you are interested 
in being one of those sites.

Perry
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