Obviously they were just hanging on so they could say that they saw us
out!
David
On Mon, 20 Jun 2005, Peter W. Draper wrote:
>
> FYI.
>
> > From: "Todd Boroson" <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: June 14, 2005 11:00:51 AM MST
> > To: noao-sci, mtrueblood, dgasson, kwilson
> > Subject: IRAF transition
> >
> > To: NOAO scientific staff
> > From: Todd Boroson
> > Re: IRAF support transition
> >
> > Several years ago, the NOAO Data Products Program was begun, with the
> > IRAF group as its core technical staff. This was a sensible way to
> > start, but DPP's mission is much broader than IRAF, including
> > archives,
> > pipelines, data management, and Virtual Observatory development. As
> > is the case for the rest of NOAO, there is far more that we would
> > like to do than we have the resources for. And as is also the case
> > for the rest of NOAO, funding limitations require us to reconsider
> > some
> > of our traditional activities so that we can move forward with our
> > new mission.
> >
> > The attached memo describes our plan to discontinue user support for
> > IRAF within the year, and to ramp down system and application
> > development within the IRAF system over a longer term. Our strategy
> > is to focus on providing science-ready data products and analysis
> > services, rather than on exporting data reduction software. By
> > discontinuing user support and ramping down IRAF development, we will
> > recover important manpower that now goes into answering questions for
> > the community, and we will avoid addressing the technological
> > limitations of the IRAF system that would be needed for future, major
> > DPP projects.
> >
> > Before we do this, we will complete the IRAF-related efforts that are
> > under way, including the work on data reduction support for Gemini
> > instruments, the development of wrappers that will allow IRAF
> > applications to be used as web services, and the creation of data
> > reduction pipelines for the CCD Mosaic Imagers and NEWFIRM that
> > leverage
> > existing IRAF software.
> >
> > We expect IRAF to remain useful to the community for the foreseeable
> > future, albeit without helpdesk support. To ensure that this is so, we
> > will improve and update the on-line documentation for IRAF, and we
> > will
> > explore whether any other groups might take on the support role.
> > We will continue to issue IRAF releases from time to time as new
> > versions
> > of operating systems appear. (We may take such opportunities to
> > address
> > critical system problems if needed.) DPP will continue to support IRAF
> > installations at KPNO and CTIO telescopes that are essential,
> > integrated
> > elements of the data flow that we are trying to manage. Finally, the
> > in-house IRAF experts will continue to answer questions for the NOAO
> > scientific staff for the forseeable future.
> >
> > We understand that IRAF has been a hugely successful product for NOAO,
> > and many researchers in the community depend on it. Our hope is to
> > minimize the disruption that our decision will cause. We intend to
> > announce this plan to the community in the September NOAO newsletter,
> > with IRAF user support continuing until the end of the calendar year.
>
>
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