NAME

PDL::Graphics::IIS - Display PDL images on IIS devices (saoimage/ximtool)

SYNOPSIS

 use PDL::Graphics::IIS;
 saoimage ( -geometry => '800x800' );
 iis rvals(100,100);

DESCRIPTION

This module provides an interface to any image display 'device' which support the 'IIS protocol' - viz the SAOimage and Ximtool X-windows programs, the old SunView imtool program and presumably even the original IIS CRT itself if they aren't all in museums!

These programs should be familiar to astronomer's - they are used by the common IRAF system. The programs and their HTML documentation can be obtained from the following URLs:

 SAOimage: http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/software/saoimage.html
 Ximtool:  http://iraf.noao.edu/iraf/web/projects/x11iraf/x11iraf.html

Non-astronomer's may find they quite nifty for displaying 2D data.

The Perl variable $stdimage is exported from the module and controls the frame buffer configuration currently in use. The default value is "imt1024" which specifies a "1024x1024" frame buffer. Other values supported by the module are:

 imt512, imt800, imt1024, imt1600, imt2048, and imt4096.

If you have a $HOME/.imtoolrc you can use it to specify other frame buffer names and configurations in exactly the same way you can in IRAF. Here is a sample file:

 -------------------snip-------------------------
 # Format:  configno nframes width height
  1  2  512  512         # imt1|imt512
  2  2  800  800         # imt2|imt800
  3  2 1024 1024         # imt3|imt1024
  4  1 1600 1600         # imt4|imt1600
  5  1 2048 2048         # imt5|imt2048
  6  1 4096 4096         # imt6|imt4096
  7  1 8192 8192         # imt7|imt8192
  8  1 1024 4096         # imt8|imt1x4
  9  2 1144  880         # imt9|imtfs    full screen (1152x900 minus frame)
 10  2 1144  764         # imt10|imtfs35 full screen at 35mm film aspect ratio
 -------------------snip-------------------------

(Note: some versions of SAOimage may not even work if this file is not present. If you get funny error messages about 'imtoolrc' try copying the above to $HOME/.imtoolrc or /usr/local/lib/imtoolrc)

The Perl variable $iisframe is also exported from the module and controls which display frame number to use in programs such as Ximtool which supports multiple frames. This allows you to do useful things such as blink between images.

The module communicates with the IIS device down FIFO pipes (special UNIX files) - unlike IRAF this module does a pretty decent job of intelligently guessing which file names to use for the pipes and will prompt for their creating if absent. Also if SAOimage or Ximtool are started from within Perl using the module this will guarantee correct file names!

FUNCTIONS

iis

Displays an image on a IIS device (e.g. SAOimage/Ximtool)

 iis $image, [ { MIN => $min, MAX => $max,
                 TITLE => 'pretty picture',
                 FRAME => 2 } ]
 iis $image, [$min,$max]

 (image(m,n),[\%options]) or (image(m,n),[min(),max()])

Displays image on a IIS device. If "min()" or "max()" are omitted they are autoscaled. A good demonstration of PDL threading can be had by giving "iis()" a data *cube* - "iis()" will be repeatedly called for each plane of the cube resulting in a poor man's movie!

If supplied, "TITLE" is used to label the frame, if no title is supplied, either the "OBJECT" value stored in the image header or a default string is used (the title is restricted to a maximum length of 32 characters).

To specify which frame to draw to, either use the package variable $iisframe, or the "FRAME" option.

iiscur

Return cursor position from an IIS device (e.g. SAOimage/Ximtool)

 ($x,$y) = iiscur($ch)

This function puts up an interactive cursor on the IIS device and returns the "($x,$y)" position and the character typed ($ch) by the user.

iiscirc

Draws a circle on a IIS device (e.g. SAOimage/Ximtool)

 (x(),y(),radius(),colour())

 iiscirc $x, $y, [$radius, $colour]

Draws circles on the IIS device with specied points and colours. Because this module uses PDL::PP threading you can supply lists of points via 1D arrays, etc.

An amusing PDL idiom is:

 pdl> iiscirc iiscur

Note the colours are the same as IRAF, viz:

 201 = cursor color (white)
 202 = black
 203 = white
 204 = red
 205 = green
 206 = blue
 207 = yellow
 208 = cyan
 209 = magenta
 210 = coral
 211 = maroon
 212 = orange
 213 = khaki
 214 = orchid
 215 = turquoise
 216 = violet
 217 = wheat

saoimage

Starts the SAOimage external program

 saoimage[(command line options)]

Starts up the SAOimage external program. Default FIFO devices are chosen so as to be compatible with other IIS module functions. If no suitable FIFOs are found it will offer to create them.

e.g.:

 pdl> saoimage
 pdl> saoimage( -geometry => '800x800' )

ximtool

Starts the Ximtool external program

 ximtool[(command line options)]

Starts up the Ximtool external program. Default FIFO devices are chosen so as to be compatible with other IIS module functions. If no suitable FIFOs are found it will offer to create them.

e.g.

 pdl> ximtool
 pdl> ximtool (-maxColors => 64)

BUGS

None known

AUTHOR

Copyright (C) Karl Glazebrook 1997. All rights reserved. There is no warranty. You are allowed to redistribute this software / documentation under certain conditions. For details, see the file COPYING in the PDL distribution. If this file is separated from the PDL distribution, the copyright notice should be included in the file.