CASA User Testing Meeting Minutes - 2013-10-01, 09:00 Socorro / 11:00 Charlottesville

Agenda

Participants

Present: Mark Rawlings, Tony Remijan, Jeff Kern, Steve Myers, Amy, Jen, Adam, Remy, Harvey, Scott, Mark Lacy, Nuria

Apologies: Crystal Brogan (Chile), Juergen Ott (Santa Fe GC conference), Kristina Nyland (Santa Fe GC conference)

Locations

• Socorro: AOC-317; IP: 146.88.6.8
• Charlottesville: Room 331; IP: 193.33.117.19

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Minutes (Main Points Only)

Status

• The August casapy-stable was been (re-)published: casapy-stable r26465 in order to fix an issue with wvrgcal. The casapy-stable feature commit deadline was September 15th. September stable package is on the way.
• Most recent casapy-test published: casapy-test r26662, but at runtime it reports its version as r26688. Linux only; Mac OS X package to follow.
• Known Issue: If both rpms and a tar casapy-stable are installed on the same RHEL 5.x system, and their versions do not match, you will see the failure described in CAS-5445 when starting CASA from the tar. You will not see this issue when starting casa from the rpms.

• CAS-5379 - Subtle inconsistencies with other programs in Galactic Coordinates (Adam and Harvey). In a nutshell, shifts of ~0.2" are seen when taking data into other packages (e.g. DS9, IDL which both seem to agree with each other). It is unclear yet if this is an incorrect implementation in one or more packages, or possibly just a precision error. ACTION ITEM: Amy will look at the program, and also run a comparison with AIPS numbers. The best solution would be to get the correct matrices and make sure that they are implemented correctly in the CASA code.

Number of CASA Jira tickets with "Ready To Test" status (including EA, EU, JAO, Software-only tickets) prior to meeting: 69.

Number of CASA Jira tickets with "Ready To Test" status (including EA, EU, JAO, Software-only tickets) following meeting: 64.

PART 1: Items To Be Covered During Meetings

Ready to Close Items

• CAS-4371 (Aug/Sep): add intent to the data selection options in setjy. Subtask of CAS-5156. Dev forgot to update the status. Some testing already done by Todd, though, so ticket now formally passed to him as tester. Consider resolving? Resolved as done following the meeting.
• CAS-3522 (Sep): Quantitative documentation of data weights. Currently ARTT. Steve's looked at this: seems positive so far.Resolved as done following the meeting.
• CAS-4633 (Sep): UVContSub: Documentation of current behavior. Currently ARTT (documentation to be reviewed attached to Jira ticket). Tester: Crystal.Resolved as done following the meeting.
• CAS-5171 (Jul): Rework of MSTool for consistency and correctness. Parent of CAS-801. Currently ARTT in casapy-stable. Tester: Software (Andy Hale et al.).Resolved as done following the meeting.

Item's Descoped from CASA-4.2

• CAS-5111 (May): Implement autoboxing capability. Currently RTT. This one had previously been ARTT, and Crystal had looked at this and provided a problem case. A fix had been put in and tested by Steve. He has provided feedback: seems to sort of work, but still fiddly right now. Ticket is currently set to "Ready To Test" and assigned to Tony, so that he can try it with both the M100 and Orion datasets. Lots of comments provided by John Lightfoot. A meeting has taken place on this, and it is an ongoing development topic. Ongoing development will be target of 4.3 Cycle

Items Overdue for Status Updates (i.e. the "Nag List")

• CAS-2252 (May): calculate the rotation measure. VLA item. Still awaiting input from Science. Input Required. Steve to do something.
• CAS-4141 (May): SD: Sideband separation algorithm for DSB receivers. Shinya had been testing. Latest fix was r2835 to ASAP; included in casapy-test 25953+. ARTT. Tester: Shinya. To be completed within the next two weeks.
• CAS-5127 (May): Document ia toolkit methods. Status In Progress. Mark is working on this. Currently half-way through Juergen's prioritized list of 26 items. But there are 99 tool methods in total. Ongoing...
• CAS-4959 (Jul): imregrid: When using image templates, the default shape used should be that of the template (not the input image). Some testing done by Mark, but problems with test data used. Dev has looked at this, and made suggestions for testing (tested example was exposing as yet unsupported features). Still to be retested with more conservative datasets. Status ARTT. Tester: Adam (was Mark).
• CAS-4961 (Aug): imregrid: axis ordering of data cubes appears to be inconsistent. Currently ARTT with August stable package. Tester: Adam (was Mark).
• CAS-5406 (Jul): importfits "make casa-style 4d". Moved back to RTT. Latest commit (r26289) now available in casapy-test (r26325+) package for user testing. Some discussion between Dirk and Remy on this ticket. Remy to test.Reassigned to Sarah following the meeting.
• CAS-5110 (May): big pixels in ia.regrid. Remy's been providing examples of problem cases, and possible approaches to solutions (with Adam). Input Required. Remy still to provide some recommendations text for tool documentation purposes. Work done by Remy, but some still awaiting some text from him. Pinged ticket (Sep. 24). Too late?

Items Currently Undergoing Testing

• CAS-4960 (Aug/Sep): imregrid: When regridding, the regridding should by default be done in accordance only with whichever axes are common to both the template and the image (and are sensible). Most recent commit: r26439. Currently ARTT in casapy-test r26662+). To be considered as part of "imregrid checkout". Tester: Adam.
• CAS-5547 (Aug): Testing ticket for AnnRectBox fix. Fix committed. Subtask of CAS-5541. Currently ARTT, in casapy-test (r26325) package. Tester: Amy Mioduszewski. Some testing started, iterating with developer now.
• CAS-5567 (Aug/Sep): testing for AnnCenterBox fix. Subtask of CAS-5541. Commit: r26367. Currently ARTT in casapy-test r26662+. Tester: Amy Mioduszewski.
• CAS-5312 (Jun): sdimaging: enable specifying output frequency frame. Currently ARTT again. Daniel Espada is now the tester for this. Latest fix (r26247) tested in casapy-test package r26325. Fix works. Ticket passed back to dev and left Open until extraneous debugging message is suppressed.
• CAS-3517 (Aug): Improve remapping interface (Cal libraries). Currently ARTT in casapy-test r26325+. Tester: Steve. Some testing done, recommendations made. More regressions to be done. Ongoing.
• CAS-5134 (Apr/Jun): viewer crashes after certain interactive steps. Lots of work done and comments on this in the past. Testing being done by Josh and Kristina. Bugfix committed (r26431); ARTT in casapytest (r26662+). Tester: Kristina
• CAS-4081 (Aug): Create tool / view that allows management of open images and changing the image stack. ARTT again now in casapy-test r26662+. Tester: Mark Lacy.
• CAS-3968 (Sep): Imregrid has trouble with degenerate axes. New item. Currently ARTT(?) in casapy-test r26662. Tester: Adam.
• CAS-5179 (Sep): Viewer OTF Spectral Smoothing. New item. Currently ARTT in cassapy-test r26662+. Tester: Adam first, then passed to Tony. Some testing and comments already present from Adam.
• CAS-5228 (Jul): use masks in feather and transfer to output. Critical item. ARTT again. Remy to retest if low-res mask is being transferred (r26604). Tester: Remy
• CAS-5639 (Sep): sdimaging: implement a way to mask noisy edge of single dish images. CRITICAL item. Currently ARTT, in casapy-test (r26662+). Tester: Shinya and Brian.
• CAS-5248 (Aug/Sep): propagate gridding and beam changes to simanalyze. ARTT in casapy-test r26662+ (but previously partly tested in private build). Tester: Jen.
• CAS-5610 (Sep): msmd needs a method to get the square law detector spws. New item. (See also below items). Code commit: r26623. Currently RTT, pending user-testable package. Tester: Todd.
• CAS-5266 (Sep): msmd needs a method to return the field direction. New item. (See also below items). Code commit: r26512. Currently ARTT, in cassapy-test r26662+. Tester: Todd.
• CAS-5450 (Sep): msmd needs a method to retrieve the total bandwidth of an spw. New item. Can probably be tested with CAS-5266 (above). Code commit: r26542. Currently ARTT, in cassapy-test r26662+. Tester: Todd.
• CAS-5477 (Sep): msmd needs a method to return non-wvr spws. New item. Can probably be tested with CAS-5266 and CAS-5450 (above). Code commit: r26549. Currently ARTT, in cassapy-test r26662+. Tester: Todd.
• CAS-5563 (Sep): viewer spectral profile tool doesn't work on images with tabular spectral axis. New item. Commit: r26407. Currently RTT, pending user-testable package. Tester: Nathan.
• CAS-4754 - MSTransform subtasks:
  • CAS-5013 (Jul): "cvel handling of different sensitivity spw". ARTT in July stable+. Subtask of CAS-4754. Ticket passed to Anita in Europe as part of the general MSTransform testing effort there. Testing is ongoing (losts of back-and-forth, but it sounds harmonious). See also new parent ticket for combined MSTransform testing (CAS-5581)
  • CAS-5172 (Jun): Add capability for fftshift to regridding portion of MSTransform. To be tested as part of CAS-4754. Juergen's done some testing of this, but Adam could help if necessary. Some follow-up work done by the developers (r26435). ARTT in cassapy-test r26662+. Tester: Juergen
• CAS-5581 - Test of MSTransform capabilities in combination. ARTT. Most recent commit was r26622 - now in latest casapy-test. Currently being tested by Anita Richards. Ongoing.

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PART 2: Items Listed for Informational Purposes (note that these will not be specifically discussed during the meeting unless someone raises them)

"ARTT" Items Pending Tester Assignment

• CAS-5117 (May): Association of Syspower Cal entries with scan / field in table or during apply. Currently ARTT in casapy-stable (May 2013; r24824+). Information posted to ticket by developer. VLA item. Steve will figure out how to proceed with this one. He may end up testing this himself. Tester: Still TBD.
• CAS-5159 (Jul): Add Support for Scaife and Heald low frequency standard. VLA-only item. Currently ARTT - in current casapy-test. Probably needs external testers (Huib, Scaife, and/or possibly Frazer?), so assigned to Juergen to reassign. Subtask of CAS-5156. - Ticket passed to Steve for reassignment (probably to Huib?).
• CAS-5519 (Sep): listobs shows wrong antenna position information if an antenna in the ANTENNA table does not appear in any rows of the ms . New item. CRITICAL. Currently ARTT in latest casapy-test (r26662+). Tester: TBD. (Todd?)
• CAS-4637 (Sep): Multi-SPW Bulk Delay Fitting. New item. Currently ARTT in casapy-test r26662+. Ticket passed to Steve for now.
• CAS-5335 (Jul): CASA Region Text File pixel sizes not handled properly. BLOCKER.Currently listed as "Open". Blocker aspects have hopefully now been addressed - see below:
  • CAS-5572 (Sep): Test fix for circles and ellipses when image has non-square pixels. Subtask of CAS-5335. ARTT in casapy-test (r26662+). Ticket with Steve. Tester TBD. Assigned to Amy for user testing during the meeting.
  • CAS-5589 (Sep): Test cos(dec) fix to ensure region sizes are invariant upon shifts in dec. Subtask of CAS-5335. ARTT in casapy-test (r26662+). Ticket with Steve. Assigned to Amy for user testing during the meeting.
• CAS-5487 (Aug): sdimaging: image header stores a wrong unit. Workaround fix provided. Currently ARTT with August stable package. Brian Mason added as a watcher for North America. Ticket passed to Bunyo for reassignment. Tester: TBD.
• CAS-5545 (Aug): MS to scantable filler should apply FLAGROW of scantable to FLAG of MS. Currently ARTT in casapy-test (r26325+) package. Ticket passed to Bunyo for reassignment. Tester: TBD.
• CAS-5535 (Aug): Remove freq_tolsr parameter from sd.splitant(). Currently RTT, pending a user-testable package. Tester: TBD. Ticket passed to Bunyo for reassignment. Tester: TBD.
• CAS-5499 (Aug/Sep): sdimaging: support input of multiple MSes. Currently ARTT in casapy-test (r26662+). Ticket passed to Bunyo for tester identification. Tester: TBD Assigned to Shinya.
• CAS-5497 (Aug/Sep): sdimaging: sdflag2: improve description of selection parameters in inline help. Currently ARTT in casapy-test (r26662+). Ticket passed to Bunyo for tester identification. Tester: TBD

Unable to Test Items

• CAS-5123 (May): Support for On the Fly Mosaics. Currently ARTT. JAO (ALMA) and Socorro (VLA) to test. Awaiting suitable data from ALMA. Steve has done some work on this for VLA. Still waiting on data; unlikely to be fully tested before release. Ticket's with Steve now. Have recently been in the process of doing tests on the VLA with some data scanning across bright sources. Kunal to test this when ready to invoke the imaging.
• CAS-4636 (Oct 2012): Elevation dependent opacity application w/ Tsys. Still awaiting input from Science (since February). On Hold. Awaiting data.
• CAS-5084 (May): Testing multi-term support in pclean. Lots of feedback supplied by Kristina and Claire. Currently On Hold and assigned to Kumar pending class refactoring.

Upcoming Ready to (Re)Test Items

Not Yet Assigned To Testers

• To be added to as necessary.

Already Assigned To Testers

• CAS-3116 (Jun): Comprehensive computation of spectral index from image(s). Laura Perez is testing this for the VLA. ALMA will hold off on testing this for now, pending the VLA testing. Latest fix was (r26751). Currently RTT again, pending a new test package. Laura has been doing some testing. Urvashi has reported issues, Dave has put in a fix.
  • CAS-4765 (Jul): Add capability in MSTransform framework to combine spectral windows. To be tested as part of CAS-4754. ARTT. Assigned to Juergen for testing. It produces a composite dataset with any gap filled with interpolated data. Set back to Open for more work and passed back to developer.
• CAS-2722 (Jul): Viewer profile tool and ascii have weird order for multiple cubes. RTT again (latest commit: r26666). Tester: Crystal.
• CAS-5213 (Jul): feathering GUI (casafeather) upgrade. Upgraded to BLOCKER. Brian Mason and Juergen did some testing of this, and are working on documentation. Bugs have been reported to the dev recently and the ticket passed back accordingly. RTT, pending a new user-testable package. Latest commit was r26738.
• CAS-5502 (Aug): Velocity regridding in viewer sometimes not available. Previously ARTT, currently Open. Tester: Adam. Earlier fix tested. Needs more work and so passed back to dev. Ticket pinged Sep. 24th.
• CAS-5125 (Jul): Make frequency an axis display option (in the viewer). Previously ARTT, currently Open. Tester: Adam. Tested. Needs more work and so ticket back to dev.
• CAS-5276 (Jul): Loading region file with box, ellipse and poly shapes produces warning and does not load. Tested by Anand. Seems to mostly work but a few issues remain. Open. Previously ARTT. Ticket currently back with developer.
• CAS-5278 immoments channel selection does not seem to work in some cases. New item. Currently RTT. Tester: Dirk
• CAS-5251 St9bad_alloc when running impv on a large cube. New item. Currently RTT. Tester: Dirk
• CAS-5239 imfit gives unexpected exception concerning "objcopy" and does not complete fit attempts for all channels. New item. Currently RTT. Tester: Dirk
• CAS-5431 slicing in frequency selection throws exception. New item. Currently RTT?. Tester: Kumar.
• CAS-4754 - MSTransform
  • CAS-4900 (Jun): Add capability in MSTransform framework to apply channel average. To be tested as part of CAS-4754. Adam has been testing this. Some follow-up work done by the developers. Ongoing. Set back to Open, while the developers investigate a couple of oddities. Fix committed as r26326. <- Should this one be ARTT again? Developers consulted.

Other Blockers

• CAS-4946 Crash on Mac OS X when virtual model requested. BLOCKER. Recently re-checked by Nathan, and it now sounds as if this still affects Mac OS X 10.6, but not 10.7 or 10.8. Debugging code pops up for all, though.
• Also, Mac OS X 10.7 Qt stuff: CAS-4310, 4602.

-- MarkRawlings - 2013-09-27