Documentation

[amsrichards]

Hi, thanks very much for this. As an experienced user but not a coder, I would like to start defining requirements for documentation. I think that initially we should aim at people with a good knowledge of interferometry and CASA to enable them to test the pipeline. I would find useful

• an overview of what to do to get started in a bit more detail
  • minimum requirements e.g. if you don't have/want aoflagger is that OK as long as you don't ask for it?
• summary or flow-chart of what each step does (e.g. where is fixvis done, averaging...)
• control of averaging especially for mixed mode

Also, you might want to consider using 'steps' as in the ALMA manual QA2 (I can send an example if you want) rather than the AIPS 1-0 system for running each module...

cheers
Anita

[varenius]

Hi,
I agree with Anita, documentation is important. I also think that using the ALMA-style of "steps" may be a good idea, rather than AIPS 1-0 system. In addition to Anitas points, I just want to add that the input file most likely need a minimum level of documentation within it, or at least a reference to a page or document where the input format is specified. Questions I encountered when filling the input file:

• How do I find my source names before I start, and which tasks need them? eMERLIN pick its own source names, so even though I know what should be in the data I don't know the exact names before inspecting the data. In theory one can look at the MS after running importfitsidi but it would be nice know how far the pipeline runs without the source names."
• The AOflagger step requires source names to flag properly. I think a check at the start of the AOflagger, checking if all the sources in the MS are selected for flagging, would be good. If not, prompt the user if the user really want to continue. And vice versa, if sources are selected for flagging which are not in the MS, ask for input.
• What is the format of source lists? If I have, say 2 phase cals, do I write phasecal1,phasecal2? In CASA, some tasks are picky about this, with ",;' or space used to differentiate items in lists.
• What happens if the pipeline fails because of lack of input, for example at the aoflagger step? Can I then re-run the aoflagger task after e.g. setting the correct source names? Will this reset the state of products so that the first failed run of AOflagger is discarded? Same with flag tasks: if I run them again, e.g. adding or removing manual flag commands, will this reset or produce cumulative output?
• Regarding manual flags: what is the format of the manual flag files?

Cheers
Eskil