[Matrix-SIG] advocacy

[Earl J. Spillar]

Paul Barrett wrote:

> 
> I feel that in the astronomical community at least Python is reaching
> critical mass.  More and more people that I talk to are interested in
> using it.  (There is even discussion of tossing the IRAF CL and
> replacing it with Python.)  So we need to make a push now to get a
> basic data analysis system operational, if we are not to loose these
> people.  We need a few more people to step forward and take charge of
> a few critical issues, for example plotting and documentation, if we
> are to succeed.
> 
>  -- Paul
> 

I also think that we are reaching critical mass. I think I count
at least 4 efforts to work with FITS files. (Mine does N-dimensional
FITS files; I don't deal with extensions at all, and my handling
of tables is very far from alpha- but I can and do use the simple
stuff all the time. )   I am surprised at the number of
astronomers in particular who have contributed written to the
matrix-sig- there aren't that many of us, or so I thought! This
bodes well for our efforts.

I think a high priority might be to set up some sort of a web/ftp
site where we can share our creations.  This would:

1) prevent the re-invention of the wheel (~4 FITS readers)
2) help focus us on what needs to be done
3) show newbies that there are already some tools to work with
4) make it easier to find some of the stuff out there.  

Does this make sense to folks?  I was about to set up a "internal"
site for me and some of my collaborators devoted to astronomical
image processing in python.  It wasn't supposed to be anything
elaborate, but we could certainly open it up to the community.  
There might be files there, and links to other sites.

If there is already such a site, I'd like to know about it/them!

The other possibility is to start up a separate SIG or something like
that; but I don't think we want to steal the thunder of the matrix-sig,
since our focus is probably fairly tight.  

Thoughts?

Earl Spillar
spillar@uwyo.edu
University of Wyoming 
Director, Wyoming Infrared Observatory 2.3m
Occasional Python Hacker on Openstep, Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.