5.1 The Software Environment

Data acquisition is controlled via the CFHT HP9000 summit computer system, using software written by John Kerr of CFHT. Instructions are entered by filling out menus, and the overall user interface is similar to that used for other CFHT instruments, such as MOS. In this section, the functions and contents of the various menus are described.

The login id for the FTS software is `fts'. Once this and the current password (see your support astronomer) are entered the work station will show a display, after a few seconds delay, similar to that shown in figure 5.1. The display includes the Pegasus Session Manager which consists of a series of icons at the top of the screen used to access the various menus used for data acquisition (figure 5.2); a window labelled `FTS feedback'; a window monitoring CPU usage; a window monitoring available disk space; and a clock.

The `FTS feedback window' monitors the progress of command sequences executed from the menus. When a scan has completed successfully, the message `successful scan completion' will be displayed in this window. Error messages will also appear in this window and these should be noted as they appear since this information can be used by the software group to diagnose problems.

The menus in the Pegasus Session Manager (figure 5.2) used for data acquisition and other functions are accessed by moving the mouse so as to position the pointer over the desired icon, and then pressing the left-hand button on the mouse (in all subsequent discussion, this procedure is referred to as `selecting'). The various menus, grouped according to their function, are summarized in Table 5.1.

The menus contain two different types of input: predefined toggle switches, which can be turned off or on by selecting the circle or box next to the desired option, and numerical or text input. Examples of the latter are values of T, P, or Q, entered in the Section 5.2.1. Text can be entered by selecting the leftmost region of the box provided for the input (when the pointer is positioned over the text box the box will be outlined in red), and then typing in the desired information. Existing information can be deleted by selecting the rightmost portion of text and pressing the `Delete' key repeatedly. Alternatively, one word of text can be overwritten by `double clicking' with the left button on the desired word and then entering the new text. You can also hold the left mouse button down, `drag' the pointer over several words, release the button, and then erase the highlighted words by pressing `Delete' or overwrite them by entering new text. Similarly an entire line can be overwritten by `dragging' the pointer across the entire line or `triple clicking' in the text box and entering new text.

Once a menu has been filled out, the desired operations can be executed and the values entered saved by selecting `Accept'. If you simply want to save the specified parameters without executing the menu's routine then select `Save values'. Selecting `Defaults' will restore a menu's settings to the default values. If a mistake has occurred, such as selecting an incorrect menu or if it is decided that no changes are necessary, then the menu can be removed by selecting `Cancel'.

A brief discussion of the various menus, according to the categories listed in Table 5.1, can be found in Sections 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5.





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