Distribution Policy

  As of the 95NOV release, patch level 2.0, ESO-MIDAS is available under the GNU General Public License. The short statement of the GNU license is included in every MIDAS file; the full text is printed in the beginning of this manual and is included as a separate file in the ESO-MIDAS Release. Terms and conditions for copying, distribution, and modification can be displayed by the command license c. The command lecense w displays details cocerning warranty.

All source code, documentation, as well as binary copies of ESO-MIDAS (already installed and without sources) for specific systems can be retrieved from the ESO-MIDAS anonymous ftp account. Manual pages, installation guides and other documentation are generally released together with the source code and can also be obtained from this ftp account. In some exceptional cases the release of the documentation can be delayed slightly. Only in cases where no possibility exist to retrieve ESO-MIDAS via the network ESO may send the release on magnetic or optical media. Requests for this service, which must include the format of the medium, can be sent to the Data Management Division at ESO/Munich.

As with the main release, patches, new applications, updates of the documentation, etc. will be made available on the above mentioned anonymous ftp account. They will announced via the various communication channels to the User's community and described in the ESO-MIDAS World Wide Web page on Support and Information Services. MIDAS sides are also recommended to check for the existence of new paches in the relevant README file on our anonymous ftp account on a regular basis.