              RELEASE NOTES FOR SAO/PROS 2.5 -- October 97

  PROS 2.5 has been built under the IRAF V2.11 system, with the package 
  TABLES/STSDAS version 2.0. There is now full support for Solaris 
  platforms running PROS, and binary executables for both Sun operating 
  systems are released.

  The xray package is a "top level" package (at the same level as packages 
  such as "tables" and "noao").  The xray package contains the sub-packages 
  xdataio, ximages, xspatial, xspectral, xplot, xtiming, xproto, xinstall  
  and xdemo.

I) Setting up to use the XRAY package

   To run the xray package, sites should use the default IRAF V2.11 
   (V2.10 for non-Sun sites).

   In addition, the TABLES 2.0.Beta package, available from STScI, is 
   required. Optionally, the EUV package is used by the XPROTO/TABFILTER 
   task and is available from "cea-ftp.cea.berkeley.edu" (128.32.154.12).

   Users must rerun the "mkiraf" task and answer 'yes' to the 
   're-initialize uparm?' option before running.


II) Summarize the changes made in PROS 2.5

  **** NEW TASKS ****

    < package.subpackage.task  - descriptions  >

     xdataio.qpappend_ftsi - Append a list of input qpoes to produce 
       a single qpoe file. It is similar to qpappend except that it 
       has a new parameter that gives the user the control of whether 
       or not to append the TSI records. Either all or just the first 
       TSI records can be included in the final qpoe file.

     xdataio.rarc2pros_c - Convert ROSAT archive fits files into 
       a set of IRAF/PROS files. It is similar to rarc2pros except
       that it works for filenames whose extensions are capitals
       (eg. root_BAS.FITS). 

     xproto.imdetect - A new task "imdetect" has been cloned from 
       SASS processing. It uses a fixed background level instead
       of the local detect algorithm adopted in 'ldetect'.  It 
       can work for ROSAT data or ASC (AXAF Science Center) data. 
       See the help file for more details.

  **** BUGFIXES AND ENHANCEMENTS ****

    < package.subpackage.task  - descriptions  >

     xdataio.qpappend -
       - Updated to solve the crash problem when merging qpoe's with 
         different TSI formats. Instead, a new qpoe is now created.
       - Updated to write DATE-OBS,TIME-OBS,DATE-END,TIME-END as
         character strings.
 
     ximages.qpsort - 
       Increase the length of prosdef_out for XS-EVENTS to solve 
       the problem of the table columns truncated.

     xplot.imcontour and xplot.tvimcontour -
       Updated to check whether wcs params are available from header.

     xspatial.imcnts -
       Updated to display the count in a correct data type.

     xspatial.detect.imbepos - 
       Display a warning message when input is not in a QPOE format.

     xspatial.ximages.imcalc -
       There are two imcalc's one in stsdas and one in xspatial.  
       If packages were loaded in the wrong order then the wrong 
       imcalc could be called from scripts.  We have changed all 
       the PROS tasks that use imcalc by making the call explicit 
       ('ximages.imcalc') to preclude the previous ambiguity.

     xspectral.hxflux -
       Check the range of requested output energy and display an
       error message if it's outside the acceptable range. 

     xtiming.ksplot -     
       The plot was scaled and labelled incorrectly when running
       ksplot more than one time. Now it has been fixed so users 
       do not need to log out of iraf to get another plot.

     xtiming.timcor.apply_bary and xtiming.timcor.scc_to_utc -
       These two tasks were updated to read the column name
       NCOE from scc_to_utc.tab instead of the name NCOEFF.
       Therefore, the table released from MPE can be read directly
       from these tasks without any pre-conversion.

     xtiming.timcor.calc_bary -
       Updated to read the jdleap table as a floating point instead 
       of an integer.  Also, it now read the table column "JD" instead
       of "JDLEAP" to match up with the column name released from MPE.

     xinstall.fits2spat - 
       Added a pathname to hdummy qpoe and moved the call to 
       datarep to the end.

     qpcreate_lib - 
       Updated to have only one qpcisqpoe.


  **** THE UPDATED CALIBRATION DATA ****

     <xpackage.data  : description >

     xspatial.data :  hri_qegeom.imh          (see H&P18)  
       Updated to correct the problem in PROS 2.4. 

     xtiming.data  :  jdleap.tab              (see H&P19, H&P20)
       A new version of the Julian Day/leap second file through 
       1-Jul-1997. The data type is now changed to DOUBLE.

     xtiming.data  :  scc_to_utc.tab          (see H&P19, H&P20)
       Coefficients for the conversion of space craft clock time 
       to UTC have been updated by MPE.  These values are valid 
       through 8-Jun-1997. 


  **** TASKS UPDATED FOR ASC AND THEIR TEST DATA ****

    < package.subpackage.task  - descriptions  >
 
     xproto.imdetect - A new task. 

     xdataio.fits2qp and xdataio.qp2fits -
       - Updated to do the fits and qpoe conversion. 
       - two new cards:  qpoexrcf.cards and wcsxrcf.cards 

     xspatial.detect.lpeaks - 
       Commented out error when xdim != ydim; found no dependence in 
       code when tested; required for AXAF gratings detection.

     pros_lib -
       xhead    - Added new keywords to the qpoe header for ASC.
       qpcreate - Added check whether the input file is QPOE format.
       qpwcs    - Updated to skip writing wcs when info unavailable.
       xhist    - Added two new routines for this program to allow table
                  files as input.

     ASC data - 
       ASC data samples for imdetect and fits2qp/qp2fit are in 
       xspatialdata. 


  **** UPDATED FOR ARCHITECTURE ****

     xray.mkpkg - added Alpha and Linux architectures

     ximages.qplintran, xtiming.fft and xdataio.eci_tools   (see hp#19)
       updated to fix the problems when building xray on Linux.


  **** CHANGES MADE FOR IRAF 2.11 ****

     xray.lib - mkpkg.inc 
              - add xray package name to the compile flags

     xplot.xexamine -
        IRAF2.11 has fixed the inconsistency between the QPOE
        and IMAGE coordinate systems. Therefore, the factor of
        0.5 pixel is no longer needed in xexamine.

     xplot.<scripts> -
        scripts in XPLOT that use the DISPLAY from IRAF have been
        updated to accommodate the IRAF2.11 release

     Updated some codes to distinguish between INDEFD and INDEFR 


III) Other Information

  A. PROS User's Guide (PUG)  ( revised on 5 December 1996, see hp#20)

    Latex and/or postscript files are available via anonymous ftp:
        sao-ftp.harvard.edu; from subdirectory /pub/pros/PUG.
    The WWW version can be accessed with URL:
         http://hea-www.harvard.edu/PROS/pros.html

  B. Cross-referencing infomation

    We are continually trying to improve the cross-referencing information
    in PROS.  We recommend using either "references" or "xapropos" to look
    for information on given keywords, e.g., "references prf" or
    "xapropos prf" (xapropos requires the CTIO package to be loaded).

  C. Hints & Pointers

    As the provider of the PROS software package ("xray" in IRAF), the
    ROSAT Science Data Center (RSDC) at SAO distributes HINTS & POINTERS
    to PROS Users via email.  When we find answers to often asked
    questions, or when we have implemented new software solutions to
    longstanding problems, we will send this information directly to our
    users.  These messages will also be available via anonymous ftp*, but
    to receive the email version, you should register with us. If your
    username is the one associated with your site registration, you are
    already registered for "HINTS & POINTERS", but we encourage other
    users (even at the same sites) to register.

    Mailings will be sent as the need arises, perhaps every month or so.
    If you would like to suggest items for future issues of H&P or add
    your name to our distribution list, please contact us at the following
    address:

    ***********************************************************************
    Internet - rsdc@cfa.harvard.edu    RSDC    MS-3
                                       Center for Astrophysics
                                       60 Garden St. Cambridge MA 02138 USA
                                       tel: (617) 495-7134  FAX: 495-7356
    ***********************************************************************

    * to access our anonymous ftp service:
        o   ftp -i sao-ftp.harvard.edu          # node address: 131.142.41.9 
            [Name: anonymous]
            [Password: <yourusername@yoursite>]

       ftp> cd pub/pros/Hints

    N.B.: you can also obtain your own copy of the PROS USERS GUIDE by
    anonftp from subdir /pub/pros/PUG.
