Re: JHU/APL/S1R IDL Library update.

[Ray Sterner SRO <sterner(at)tesla.jhuapl.edu>]

Ray Sterner SRO wrote:
> 
>   It's been a little while since my last update, but it's now ready.
> 
>   JHU/APL/S1R IDL anonymous ftp site update notice
>   The last update was made on 2001 Feb 16.
>   The previous update was made on 1998 Apr 24.

  It's there now (ftp://fermi.jhuapl.edu/pub/idl/)

  I was rushing to do the update on Friday and ended up putting it in an
old
  ftp directory.  I thought it was the right one, it had all the old
files there.
  I should have checked.  First I knew of the problem was when Reimar
Bauer emailed
  that it wasn't there.  I had to track down the new ftp directory this
morning,
  hopefully it's accessable now without a problem.  This shouldn't even
be in an ftp
  site, should be pure http, maybe I'll move it sometime.

  I meant to update this library some time ago, but when I'd get a bit
of time I
  always thought of something else fun to write in IDL so had trouble
getting to
  the library update.  I've also been busy on the NEAR project, it was
very hectic
  just before and during the landing.  I was notified they wanted to put
the descent
  images on the web page as they came in.  So I wrote an IDL routine to
check for a
  new image and put some slightly processed copies on the web as Image
of the Minute.
  They actually came in a couple times a minute.  A simple spinoff from
that IDl routine
  was used to load the images to live NASA TV.  That routine was tested
the day of the
  landing.  It worked pretty much, but would blow up sometimes.  I
figured it was seeing
  a new image but had trouble reading it when it wasn't all there yet. 
But I remembered
  something from a David Fanning class I took a long time ago, error
handling using
  catch.  Using IDL's builtin help I was able to make that take care of
the problem and
  both IDL routines worked perfectly during the descent.  By the way,
the raw images
  were processed using IDL before I got them.  So IDL had a big part in
making NASA
  look good last monday.

  Ray Sterner                     ray.sterner@jhuapl.edu 
  The Johns Hopkins University    North latitude 39.16 degrees.
  Applied Physics Laboratory      West longitude 76.90 degrees.
  Laurel, MD 20723-6099