[WP3] eclipse, python, 10g, fitsio, type evolution

[D.R. Boxhoorn]

Dear all,

There are several upcoming changes that I want to inform you about.
Most of the following points just tell you what you can expect in the
near future. The first point is can be acted on immediately.


1) oracle

   10g has been out for a while, including a patchset.
   I suggest that everybody upgrades to 10g, and applies the 10.0.3.0 patchset
   available from metalink, as soon as possible.

   We have upgraded both the software and the database here, following the
   instructions in the 10g "Upgrade Guide".

      http://otn.oracle.com/pls/db10g/portal.portal_demo3?selected=1

   More information can be found in the wp3 e-mail from February 10, 2004.

   NB. The `dbua' utility could not upgrade our database automatically,
   but the manual upgrade described in the "Upgrade Guide" went smoothly.

   NB2. SourceList & AssociateList 9i functionality will not be supported
   after everyone has moved to 10g.

2) type evolution

   Some type evolution will be performed tomorrow.
   The bulk will be the addition of a `creation_date' attribute in many
   strategic places. This will aid proper selection of database objects
   in the recipes and elsewhere.

   NB. If you are using a most recent checkout in combination with a
   database things might break. In that case you might include a `-D 11/16/04'
   to you `cvs update' command to update to "no newer than november 16".
   If you stick to the AWBASE version everything will be fine.

3) fitsio

   To be able to compress your FITS files and save on diskspace, fitsio
   will be needed.
   This has become important because the most recent ingest script routinely
   compresses the raw frames.

4) eclipse

   Eclipse will get an additional overscan method.
   Once this has been done an e-mail will be sent so you know when you
   have to recompile things.

5) python

   Python 2.4 will come out soon.
   Although I do not see any features that we absolutely need, it is wise
   to make this our standard Python version.
   This avoids that people that have a newer version than 2.2 accidently commit
   code that doesn't work under version 2.2.


Any comments or questions?

                                                   Danny