S. Digel, 21 March 2005
See the Checkout 2 page.
v5r4p1 is the the 'Checkout 2' distribution of ScienceTools. The RM made a Linux build. The optimized build for Linux seemed to have a few problems. As far as I know, the tools will not presently build under Windows.
Navid's installer.pl script works fine for me, although I may have derived some benefit from trying it on the SLAC Linux computers. See Jim's comment at the end of Confluence page for where to find the script.
We are in better shape than for Checkout 1, but documentation is still a mixed bag. James and Masa were working on documentation for the pulsar tools on Friday afternoon, and that may become available soon.
I've assembled summary descriptions of the tools with links to documentation (where available). The page owes a lot to an early version by James.
In case you would like to use it, I've generated 30 days' worth using gtobssim and the TEST response functions. Tom is going to make it available in the GSSC's server. If you want to access the whole thing (about 400 Mbyte) on the SLAC Linux computers, it is available, but I'd encourage you to exercise the server at the GSSC.
The source model is described in detail here. If you want to be surprised, then don't look at it. Data generation required about 7 CPU hours (with the unoptimized build). For many sources, the energy range is 20-200,000 MeV, but for some the lower limit is only 30 MeV.
I used an ordinary, idealized step-rocking pointing history; attitude changes were instantaneous, livetime was 100% and no SAA was considered. Toby describes a more realistic pointing history file - at least it includes realistic slewing. I have not been able to get it to work with gtobssim, however. Even more realistic pointing history files are on the way, including estimated livetimes, but probably not in time for the checkout. This is not critical, of course.
My impression: Basically, exercise the tools in the area that you are evaluating. This may require interaction with the developers if the documentation is inadequate. Submit issues - meaning actual problems or requests - to Jira, and feel free to circulate any analysis results, e.g., by posting them in Confluence. (We'll make a Checkout2 section in ST.) At the end of the checkout, please prepare a brief summary of your experiences with the tools. You may want to review the reports from Checkout 1.