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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.