On Thursday 17 October 2002 00:10, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In my case, I'm trying to wed my rediscovered > interest in astronomy to my desire to push myself in the realm of > programming/Linux/Unix.
Just making sure you are aware that IRAF is packaged in Debian... :-) IRAF is _the_ data reduction software in astronomy, everyone is using it. I found it to be in contrib, but I really don't understand why, because I thought it was under a BSD-style license, and I can't remember it depending on non-free software. Hm, I found a point in the FAQ: http://iraf.noao.edu/iraf/web/faq/FAQsec01.html#1008 Anyway, integrating IRAF with more popular astronomy software would be absolutely great. I think many advanced amateur astronomers would appreciate that. Really, I find it weird that companies such as Meade has not yet freed their software. They're making a living from hardware and not software, and besides, they are releasing some as freeware. Go figure. At the same time, there exists tons of free software for telescope control and data reduction, also developed specifically for Meade telescopes, developed by professional astronomers. Well, I guess dropping them a note about it is a good idea. Many astronomers use IRAF with IDL, but IMNSHO IDL sucks bad, so the only reason anybody would use that is the number of lines of code for it. I'd really like to see IRAF working nicely with R, which is free software (and nicely packaged . Doing that would be a huge undertaking, though. But I think many professional astronomers would appreciate it eventually... :-) Best, Kjetil (astrophysicist) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
