ALMA MEMO #465

Case for interoperability as an ALMA off-line model

J. Pety (Obs. de Paris/IRAM Grenoble),F. Gueth (IRAM Grenoble),
S. Guilloteau (ESO/IRAM Grenoble),
P. Teuben (U. Maryland), M. Wright (RAL, U.C.Berkeley)

2003-06-26

In this memo we argue that interoperability between the existing radio-interferometry packages provides a fast, robust, flexible, complete, and user-friendly data reduction package for ALMA. We discuss the meaning of these terms from the point of view of the end-user, the data reduction specialist, and the package maintainer, and show that an open software environment provides a cost effective, flexible, and scientifically more valuable data processing environment than a monolithic data reduction package. We discuss our first steps toward interoperation with MIRIAD and GILDAS using python as a command line interface. For a few years, python has become a natural candidate for the command line interface both inside and outside ALMA. This is the first step toward interoperability. We now suggest that ALMA should think about its data formats (both native and exchange) with the community to promote interoperability.

View a pdf version of ALMA Memo #465.