May 2005 EVLA Offline software test NAME: Gustaaf van Moorsel Questionnaire on testing experience 1. Please list briefly your background in the following areas: A. Radio Interferometry ((sub)millimeter or centimeter) 25 years of centimeter radio interferometry B. Experience with VLA and/or PdBI data 22 years of experience with VLA data C. Astronomical Data Reduction packages: - AIPS - MIRIAD - MMA - Gildas/Clic - AIPS++ 22 years of AIPS experience. Occasional dabbling in AIPS++ over the years, but nothing more recent than 5 years ago. D. How much experience have you had with the AIPS++ software package before this test? See above. My little exposure 5 years ago was not relevant to this test. 2. Please identify which dataset you processed during this test: A. VLA L Band 1046-Shk 116 B. VLA L Band AXAF The AXA data set 3. Were you able to complete the imaging on the data? If not, why? Please comment on specific steps if desired (comments can be positive or negative): I completed the imaging; after all, it was not much more than typing 'include axaf.g'. It took me a little while to get to that point, though. It was not clear to me at first where the data were supposed to reside vis-a-vis the working directory. Also, initially I picked up an obsolete version of AIPS++ which took some time to be resolved. 4. Were you able to analyze the images adequately to determine if the results you obtained were scientifically reasonable (e.g. display the image, calculate RMS and peak? If not, why? No, this is as far as I got. I hope to do some of this this week, but after this report is due. What slows me down is simply to find out what functionality exists and how to invoke it. 5. Please summarize the final results of your image(s): - RMS: - Peak Flux Density: Not determined, see above. 6. Did you have adequate support during your test? If you contacted the AIPS++ groups for questions or to fix a bug, please comment on the interaction and whether it was helpful. The AIPS++ people were helpful. 7.If you installed the AIPS++ rpms, was this easy to install? If not, why? Yes, easy. 8.The Synthesis Reduction Cookbook you used for this test is the first version of a comprehensive cookbook for EVLA users. Please evaluate the organization, content, and presentation of the cookbook. It is meant to be the first documentation users will see when they want to reduce EVLA data, it provides background on the code capabilities, and extensive examples. The on-line documentation provides more details and code descriptions. With this in mind, please answer the questions below. If you have detailed comments, please attach them to the end of this questionnaire. - Was the documentation adequate for you to complete your test? No, but this may be the lack of time I've had to adequately study the cookbook. - Was the cookbook good? N/A - Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the cookbook? Walk through a typical data reduction from beginning to end - Was the on-line documentation good: * User Reference Manual? * Supporting documentation? 9.Roughly how much time did you take to perform the following steps: - Imaging: Four hours. - Analysis: 1 hour - not enough to get anywhere - Filling out this questionnaire: 30 minutes - Evaluating and grading the scientific requirements: - Total time: 6 hours 10.Please rate your overall testing experience: - excellent - good - fair - poor - horrid Fair. 11.Was the test well designed and executed by those in the EVLA offline subsystem (e.g. the subsystem scientist and the Offline subsystem group). If not, can you provide any suggestions for improving the next test? Yes, though I think there still may be too many pieces of documentation around that try to cover the same thing. It would be good to know what documents are obsolete and no longer in use, even they may still be referred to on the AIPS++ Web pages. 12.Do you have any additional comments that may help improve test of the offline software in the future? Maybe later.