EXSAS - Known Bugs

Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik

EXSAS - Known Bugs

Deutsche Version

MPE

HEG

X-Ray Astronomy

Wave

Exsas

X-Ray Astronomy

Wave

ROSAT

XMM-Newton

Chandra

Other Projects

Data Center

Exsas

Search

Impressum

Contact

eXsas and MIDAS Bugs

Midas - Help GUI - Reported: 2 March 1996

The "Release:" field in the feedback window is empty. It should contain "96NOV".

Midas - Redirection (>) - Reported: 2 March 1996

When a redirection is performed (interactively), it is included in the command buffer: for instance, typing

        Midas 001> read/table tablename >filename

in the command buffer is recorded

        read/table tablename >filename

Nevertheless, when retrieving the command using the up-arrow, only read/table tablename is found (without >filename).

Spectral Analysis - BIN/DETECTOR_RESPONSE - Reported: 24 October 1996

If there are 43 spectral bins, the program hangs.

Data Preparation - PREPARE/SPECTRUM - Reported: 6 October 1996

The command hangs when the command is called in the form

        PREPARE/SPEC input output select=11,200

Midas - M$INDEX, M$VALUE - Reported: 12 September 1996 (Fixed in MIDAS 96NOV)

The implementation of the new function M$VALUE introduced a bug in the evaluation of the other M$functions that contain a square bracket in the argument list and some operands following that function on the same line, as in the following:

        M = M$INDEX(blabla,"[") + 1

This can be (temporarily) fixed by splitting the line as in the following:

        M = M$INDEX(blabla,"[") 
        M = M + 1

Midas - Random Number Generator - Reported: 6 August 1996

There is not a simple way to generate random numbers in a MIDAS procedure. Today this is done by creating a random image, and accessing sequentially its pixel values.

Midas - SELECT/TABLE - Reported: 24 July 1996 (Fixed in MIDAS 96NOV)

We have created a table with a C*4 column, containing various strings as "abcd", "a___", "a_cd", "__c_" and even "____" (where with "_" we indicate a blank).

        select/table test :col.eq."a"

matches all strings "a___" (and not strings like "abcd"), but the command

        select/table test :col.eq."a___"

would not match the string "a___" (and it would not match, actually, nothing at all!). In particular, the command

        select/table test :col.eq."_"

though one may easily expect that would match empty (blank) strings, or at least all strings beginning with a blank, is also not matching anything (the only way to match blank strings is: select/table test :col="").

From this and other similar results, we feel that blanks are not treated correctly (or at least, consistently) in the table column elements selection scheme.

Midas - COPY/DD - Reported: 6 May 1996 (Fixed in MIDAS 96NOV)

Character array descriptors are not copied correctly. Take two tables, table_a.tbl and table_b.tbl; then create a character array of 3 elements, 64 characters each, in table_a:

        Midas 001> write/descr table_a.tbl remarks/c*64/1/3 " "

The descriptor is written correctly:

        Midas 002> show/descr table_a.tbl remarks
         frame: table_a.tbl  (data = R4)
         name: REMARKS         (...)
         type: character*64    no. of elements:    3

Now copy this descriptor to table_b:

        Midas 003> copy/dd table_a.tbl remarks table_b.tbl

The output descriptor is an array of 192 elements (i.e. 64*3) of 64 characters each.

        Midas 004> show/descr table_b.tbl remarks
         frame: table_b.tbl  (data = R4)
         name: REMARKS         (...)
         type: character*64    no. of elements:  192

Midas - SUBTRACT/ICAT - Reported: 23 April 1996 (Fixed in MIDAS 96NOV)

The command does not work if a catalog is to be subtracted, e.g.

        sub/icat mar96 workmar96.cat

with workmar96.cat containing a subset of the files in mar96.cat.

Midas - SELECT/TABLE, COPY/TABLE - Reported: 25 March 1996 (Fixed in MIDAS 96NOV)

I have a table called "in" and I apply a selection:

        sel/tab in seq.gt.1.and.seq.lt.13
        copy/tab in out

The output table, consisting of 11 rows, still has the descriptor TSELTABL filled with

        seq.gt.1.and.seq.lt.13

and this information is displayed also with the command SHOW/TABLE. This is misleading even if, apparently, the selection is not effective in the output table (it is enough to do a READ/TABLE to see this).

Midas - KEY = "string" - Reported: 25 March 1996 (Fixed in MIDAS 96NOV)

Try the following:

        outputc = " "
        outputc = "()"
        read/key outputc

The content of outputc is now (0). The command

        write/key outputc/c/1/2 "()"

works correctly, instead.

Spectral - FIT/SPECTRUM - Reported: 23 June 1995

Apparently the model "abvu" is not documented in the EXSAS user's guide or in the on-line help. This model exists since March 1993.

Spatial - CALCULATE/GALACTIC_NH - Reported: 8 May 1995

In order to calculate the galactic NH of a point in the sky the user has to create a table with the right columns and formats and write his equatorial coordinates in this table (see command TRANSFORM/EQU_ECL_GAL), use the command TRANSFORM/EQU_ECL_GAL to convert them into galactic coordinates, and finally use the command CALCULATE/GALACTIC_NH. This has been defined as "a nightmare" by some users.

Midas - LABEL/GRAP - Reported: 28 April 1995

The label is not placed in the right (world coordinate) position when the Y range of the plot is extending to too low or too high values.

Spatial - TRANSFORM/EQU_ECL_GAL - Reported: 25 April 1995

It just converts the first 50000 entries of any input table containing coordinates. Morevover an input from table is still compulsory, even if only one coordinate has to be converted.

Midas - OVERPLOT/ERROR - Reported: 31 March 1995

 
        OVERPLOT/ERROR table ? :COL :ERROR 6

does not work, but it should (see on line Help).

        OVERPLOT/ERROR table SEQ :COL :ERROR 6

works.

Spectral - PLOT/FIT - Reported: 15 March 1995

The default for the effective area table is not working All spectral programs seem to require that the extension .tbl is not specified with the table name.

Spectral - PLOT/FIT - Reported: 14 March 1995

The command doesn't work when applied to a fitted spectrum.

Spatial - MERGE/SOURCE - Reported: 7 March 1995

limit in the number of sources that can be handled (total must be less than 1000, and the sources in a single list cannot exceed 166). This limit is not documented in the manual.

Midas - Table readonly mode - Reported: 3 February 1995

If a table is opened in readonly mode (F_I_MODE) it can be modified while it is loaded in memory, but when it is closed the changes are not written to disk (correctly). This is OK, but it would be useful to have a warning (just in case the table was modified) at close time - something like "Table modifications not applied to disk file".

Midas - SHOW/TABLE - Reported: 19 July 1994

Is there an easy way to know the data type of a given column of a given table, working at a procedure level? Now it seems we have first to find where the column corresponding to the given label is, then we must read the corresponding element of TBLENGTH, and finally to convert it into "legible" information (436207617 means R*4, 167772161 means I*4, etc.).

Data Preparation - Reported: 5 May 1994

In a Projection command file, when the same binned dataset is indicated in output to more than one file, only the last file contains it. Example:

        INPUT events
    A = BIN/IMAGE 30
        OUTPUT A: to image1
        OUTPUT A: to image2
        END

Only image2 contains data, image1 exists but it is empty. Problem understood, but difficult to fix...

Midas - PLOT/... - Reported: 4 May 1994

Graphic window should be created automatically when a PLOT command is issued, if it does not exist.

Midas - DRAW/RECTANGLE - Reported: 18 April 1994

Colour 0, used to "erase" rectangles, does not work for X11.

Timing - COMPUTE/ACCEPTED - Reported: 11 March 1994

No on-line help available.

Last update: March 2, 1997 - xray-info @ mpe . mpg . de .