Changed since v2.0.9

So, what has globally changed?

The configuration file has been modified.

The file containing the cosmic sources changed.

The binary stream (that is the information parsed from one tool to the other) has changed. As a result, the old intermediate results of SciSim (e.g. the output of msim) cannot be used on the new pipeline.

Some binaries of SciSim are effected:

• gsim (X-ray generator)
• osim (OM simulator)
• oodf (OM ODF converter)


Furthermore, we added some:

• hodf (Spacecraft Attitude History Converter)
• spsim (Spacecraft modeler)
This has certain impact on the usage of the tools.

Additionally, two tools now create ODF ICD compliant file names:

• oodf
• hodf

Can I still use my old source files?

Yes you can, if you are willing to do *some* effort.

Suppose you have an old source file, called old.src. Run the following converter:
 

convert-src --spsim spsim.cfg < old.src > new.src


This will create a new source file and -as a side effect- it extracts the items needed by the new tool called spsim.

More information about spsim follows below
 

Great, but what about my personalized configuration files?

Well, again we a tool for that:

convert-cfg < old.cfg > new.cfg

Life could not be easier...

How do I run the pipeline?

The "old" way of running the SciSim pipeline up to the ODF converters was something like:

gsim --exposureTime < my.src | msim | rgasim | esim | modf

osim < my.src > osim.out

oodf osim.out

Because of the introduction of the spacecraft modeler -spsim, this becomes:

spsim --exposureTime | tee spsim.out | hodf

gsim --sources my.src < spsim.out | msim | rgasim | esim | modf

osim --sources my.src < spsim.out > osim.out

Generally speaking: if a tool used to get a source file on standard input, it now expects the output of spsim. The sources are passed by the keyword sources.
 

How do I change the file names produced by 'oodf' and 'hodf'?

The aim is that SciSim produces odf data, following the ODF ICD file name convention. In order to reach that goal, we had to introduce a single point of information global input (observation identifier, schedule flag etc...). This is done in spsim:

spsim --orbit 0 --proposal 0 --observation 0 --schedule S --exposure 1 > spsim.out

whereas (see XMM-SOC-ICD-0004-SSD, Issue 2.1,chapter 5):

orbit	orbit (revolution number) [0,9999]
proposal	proposal which contained the observation [0,999999]
observation	observation within the proposal [0,9999]
schedule	scheduled (S) or unscheduled (U) exposure
exposure	exposure number within the observation [1,999]

All the other parts of the filename are set by the ODF converters themselves and/or passed by simulators (e.g. OSIM sets the type of data in the file, and the instrument identifier).

At this stage, rodf, modf and podf do not use this mechanism.
 

What else is new?

• The source code is modified, such that the code can be compiled on various platforms:
• Sun Solaris 2.6
• PC Linux kernel 2.0.34
• DEC alpha OSF1 V4.0
• The intermediate (binary) event files are platform independent.
• All tools use a single random number generator (and therefore the configuration has one seed entry).
• The following c++ compilers are used to test the code:
• g++ 2.7.2.3 (Solaris/Linux)
• g++ 2.8.1 (Solaris/Linux)
• egcs 1.0.2 (Linux)
• egcs 1.1.1 (Solaris)
• egcs 1.1.2 (DEC)
Note, that we used the latest c++ compilers on the platforms to release the binaries.