Re: Time for Software

[Tom Droege <droege@wwa.com>]

I understand that each of you will want to do it all yourself.  Actually 
there are probably two classes, those who will tend to do everything 
themselves, and those who want to get everything done by someone else.  The 
latter class has at least one member (me.)

I think what is really important is that we all agree on formats/standards 
so that we can share programs.  It would be nice to be able to process the 
same data through several pipelines and compare outputs at various stages 
in the process.  This implies that there are stages.

Unless we define stages, all we will know is that pipeline A has some 
systematic difference from pipeline B when we compare the outputs.  Some 
stages might be star finding, flat field correction, color correction, etc..

OK, I am far from an expert here.  I am just trying to stimulate some 
discussion as to what the pipeline should look like.  Some of you have some 
real experience on a lot of different systems.  Some of you have little 
experience with anything but Mark III and Mark IV data.  The later group 
might be major contributors to the software effort.  But to do so, they 
need somehow to get input from the experienced as to how to partition the 
effort.  This partition will also allow several people to create one pipeline.

Tom Droege