Welcome to SAOimage: The Next Generation (1.9)

SAOtng is the new and improved version of the popular SAOimage display program. It also is a superset of the ximtool program developed at NOAO for IRAF and as such, utilizes the NOAO widget server (included in this package). It also incorporates the X Public Access mechanism (XPA) to allow external processes to access and control its data, GUI functions, and algorithms. SAOtng supports direct display of IRAF images and FITS images (and easily can support other file formats), multiple frame buffers, region/cursor manipulation, several scale algorithms, many colormaps, and easy communication with external analysis tasks. It is highly configurable and extensible to meet the evolving needs of the astronomical community.

Click below for more information on the following topics:

• Important Changes for Release 1.9 ...

• Hot Topics ...

• Basic SAOtng Operations
  • Loading an Image
    • FITS Primary Images
    • FITS Image Extensions
    • FITS 3D Images
    • FITS Binary Tables
    • Compressed FITS Files
    • WWW FITS Files
    • Other Image Formats
      • Array Files
      • Event Files
  • Using the Mouse
  • Keyboard Conveniences
  • Mapping Pixel Values to Screen Intensity
  • Defining a Region
  • Panning and Zooming
  • Printing an Image

• The SAOtng Reference Guide
  • The Command Line Options
  • The Graphical User Interface
    • The Images Menu
    • The Frames Menu
    • The Colors Menu
    • The Markers Menu
    • The Zoom Menu
    • The Scales Menu
    • The Coords Menu
    • The Analysis Menu
    • The XImtool Control Panel
  • Region Markers
    • Using Regions to Extract Data from Images
    • Region Descriptors
    • Attaching Text to Regions
    • Giving Names and Colors to Regions
    • Fixing and Freeing Regions
  • The WCS Display
  • Colormap Considerations
  • Memory Considerations
  • An Overview of the X Public Access Mechanism
    • Public Access Programming: Opening The Black Box That Hides Internal Data (from the 1993 ADASS Software conference)
    • Applying Public Access Programming Techniques To SAOimage" (from the 1994 ADASS Software conference)
  • The SAOtng XPA List
  • Advanced Topics
    • Adding New Accelerator Buttons
    • Adding New Analysis Routines
    • Adding Marker New Analysis Routines
    • Adding New Colormaps
    • Adding New File Formats
    • Adding New Scales
    • Modifying the SAOtng GUI
    • Macro Expansion in SAOtng
    • Using Shared Memory
    • Event Filtering
      • Examples
      • Header Parameters
      • Math Functions
      • Region Filtering
      • Advanced Filtering
  • X Window System Problems
  • Known Bugs and Limitations
  • Who Is Responsible?

• Other Information ...
  • The saord release HISTORY
  • Revisit Changes for Release 1.7 ...
  • Revisit Changes for Release 1.6 ...

Last Updated July 8, 1998