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Martyn Brake
Astro Software
Astro Software
List of software that is frequently used by the Department of Astrophyics:
XCode
IDE that allows programming to be performed on the Mac, downloadable for free from the Mac App Store. After installation run it to install device interfaces and install command line tools from the Download section in the Preferences tab.
https://developer.apple.com/xcode/
iWork
Productivity suite for the Mac, consists of Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheets) and Keynote (presentations).
http://www.apple.com/uk/iwork/
Microsoft Office
Productivity suite for the Mac produces by Microsoft, consists of Word (word processing), Excel (spreadsheets) and Powerpoint (presentations).
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/mac/products
MacTex
A bundled distribution of Tex (open source typesetting system), consists of TeXShop, TeXworks, and other front-ends. And the formats LaTeX, ConTeXt, Eplain, etc.
GNU Compiler Collection
Includes front-ends and libraries for C, C++, Objective C, Fortran , Java, Ada and Go.
Binaries available here http://hpc.sourceforge.net. Copy to the desktop and do the following:
- cd ~
- cd Desktop
- sudo tar -xvf gcc-mlion.tar -C /
MacPorts
The MacPorts Project is an open-source community initiative to design an easy-to-use system for compiling, installing, and upgrading open-source software. Once installed software can be installed with command sudo port install packagename.
XQuarts (X11.app)
A version of the X Window system for OS X.
Aquamacs
An editor (based n Emacs) for Mac OS X. Also install command line tools from Tools menu.
Python
Programming language, installed via MacPorts (port install python27), at some point python31 will be required. Also install the complimentary package of scientific functions py27-scipy.
IDL (Interactive Data Language)
Programming language for data analysis. It is expensive commercial software from Exelis and is becoming less popular, losing out to Python as the language of choice. Licenses need to be obtained in order to instal IDL.
Licenses
The license can be added from http://licensing.exelisvis.com,
Avoid Time Machine Error
There is an error that occurs on IDL 8.1 and 8.2 on OS X 10.7 and 10.8 that complains about Time Machine (link).
The workaround is this:
- The Admin user should open a Terminal window and then issue the following commands (for Bash shell):
sudo –s
. /Applications/exelis/idl82/bin/idl_setup.bash
export HOME=/Users/joe-user
export LOGNAME=joe-user
export USER=joe-user
sudo /Applications/exelis/idl82/bin/idl
Or for IDL Workbench (running at the local display console of the affected machine), the last command should be:
sudo /Applications/exelis/idl82/bin/idlde
- After IDL starts, issue the following command at the IDL> command prompt to exit from the IDL session:
EXIT
- At this point the non-admin user should be able to run an IDL session without encountering the Time Machine errors.
Fink
Packages and ports open source Unix programs to Mac OS X, in a similar way to MacPorts (see above).
Gildas
GILDAS is a collection of state-of-the-art softwares oriented toward (sub-)millimeter radioastronomical applications (either single-dish or interferometer). Produced by IRAM (Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique). Download via fink (fink install gildas)
http://www.iram.fr/IRAMFR/GILDAS/
Starlink
The Starlink project provides general purpose data reduction software.
http://starlink.jach.hawaii.edu/starlink/WelcomePage
CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications)
Developed to support the post-processing needs of radio astronomical telescopes.
http://casa.nrao.edu/casa_obtaining.shtml
SAOImage DS9
Astronomical imaging and data visualisation tool.
https://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/site/Download.html
Karma Visualisation Tools
Karma is a toolkit for interprocess communications, authentication, encryption, graphics display, user interface and manipulating the Karma network data structure.
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/karma/
3D Slicer
An open-source software package for visualisation and image analysis.
VisIt
An interactive parallel visualisation and graphical analysis tool for viewing scientific data.
https://wci.llnl.gov/codes/visit/
Asymptote
Asymptote is a powerful descriptive vector graphics language that provides a natural coordinate-based framework for technical drawing. Labels and equations are typeset with LaTeX, for high-quality PostScript output. Can be installed using port install asymptote.
http://asymptote.sourceforge.net
VLC media player
An open source multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD and various streaming protocols.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
f.lux
Makes the colour of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day
Mendeley
A reference manager and academic social network that can help organise research and collaboration.