CASA User Testing Meeting Minutes - 2013-12-17, 09:00 Socorro / 11:00 Charlottesville

Agenda

Participants

Present: Mark R., Adam, Arielle, Jen, Tony R., Mark L., Scott S., Crystal, Juergen, Steve, Jeff, Remy

Apologies: To be added to as appropriate

Locations

• Socorro: AOC-317; IP: 146.88.6.8
• Charlottesville: Room 331; IP: 192.33.117.19

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Minutes (Main Points Only)

• Final user testing meeting of 2013.

Status

• Pre-release version available: 4.2.0 r27662 (pre-release 5; reports as r27658). Linux-only. New version to be published later this week.
  • All remaining 4.2 testing should be done on the pre-release branch
  • Launch with "casapy -r4.2.0" or "casa -r4.2.0" on RHEL5 systems (including CV cluster)
  • Launch with "casapy-prerelease" or "casa-prerelease" on RHEL6 systems
  • Changes since last casapy-stable:
    • asap: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/branches/release-4_2_0/asap up to r27661 Last included individual asap commit: r2877.
    • casacore: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/branches/release-4_2_0/casacore up to r27611
    • code: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/branches/release-4_2_0/code up to r27654
    • gcwrap: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/branches/release-4_2_0/gcwrap up to r27657

• Most recent casapy-stable published: 4.2.0 r26945 (as previously). Linux only; Mac OS X package to follow.
  • Changes since last casapy-stable:
    • asap: svn.atnf.csiro.au/asap/trunk up to r2861
    • casacore: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/trunk/casacore up to r26910
    • code: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/trunk/code up to r26906
    • gcwrap: svn.cv.nrao.edu/svn/casa/trunk/gcwrap up to r26907

• Most recent casapy-test published: casapy-test r26919. Linux only; Mac OS X package to follow.
  • Changes since last casapy-test same as for casapy-stable (above).
• 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.

Number of CASA Jira tickets with "Ready To Test" status (including EA, EU, JAO, Software-only tickets) prior to meeting: 88 (prior to meeting).

Number of CASA Jira tickets with "Ready To Test" status (including EA, EU, JAO, Software-only tickets) following meeting: 81. To be added following meeting.

Main Points Raised and Any Other Business

• CV management still currently prioritizes data reduction over CASA user testing.
• We will begin assigning 4.3 testing tasks to user testers in the next few weeks.
• Mark will be away from Dec 20th - Jan 3rd. The next one of these meetings will take place in January.
• Juergen invites user tester comments regarding input and improvements to the cookbook.
• Mark Lacy had previously reported that a local software upgrade had broken some of the ALMA-specific plotting scripts produced by Todd. Progress? All 4.2 now. Not an issue.
• Crystal: Something strange going on with wvrgcal - not working. Remy has reported this in an email exchange - dialog ongoing with Dirk. Maybe picking up new wvrgcal even when trying to run 4.1? Can't reduce old data right now. 3rd party package issue. This needs a Jira ticket. Remy will create a (critical/blocker) Jira ticket about this.
  
• Recent version installation issues in Charlottesville. In the new year, we will start having meetings/email list/other with IT in Charlottesville to better oversee local deployment issues.
• Tony and the Data Analysts were to perform CASA Guide updates as soon as they have a usable pre-release package to work against. This will happen this week.
• Marl L. drew attention to open ticket CAS-5883: Feather seems to fail for data having per-plane beams.

• Jeff had previously identified a shortlist of key items remaining for the 4.2 release. Restating these briefly here:
  • CAS-3116: Comprehensive computation of spectral index from image(s). George's documentation. New work done. Latest fix was r27422 on release branch. Kristina is testing.
  • CAS-5213: Feather GUI Blocker.
  • CAS-5127: ia toolkit documentation. Most of Juergen's high-priority list done.
  • CAS-5044: Flagging by weight. RTT again, pending a testable package.
  • CAS-5719 (Oct): view pv-diagram crashes viewer. (Should already be fixed, just needs to be retested).

PART 1: Items To Be Covered During Meetings

Ready to Close Items

None

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

• CAS-5127 (May): Document ia toolkit methods. Status In Progress. Mark is working on this. Most of Juergen's prioritized list of 26 items has been done. Dates to be added his future documentation updates. Prioritized by Mark. Ongoing. Was temporarily passed to Jeff for handling while Mark was away taken back by Mark now. ia.regrid docs will require more work. Still needs code commits.
• CAS-5567 (Aug/Sep): testing for AnnCenterBox fix. Subtask of CAS-5541. Currently Open again. Tester: Amy Mioduszewski. Some testing done - problems encountered (pixel shift still seen, and possible viewer problems?). What is this ticket actually about? Main issue of the ticket has been addressed. Regarding the remaining issue raised: the ticket will be ressigned to Nathan, who will talk to Darrell.
• CAS-5731 (Oct): Loading DS9 region files into the viewer produces a warning and does not load. ARTT in pre-current release package. Some testing previously done in private build, issue still appears to be present. Developer has requested an example from the tester. Tester: Jen. Jen has posted a response.
• 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 (r27422). Currently ARTT in pre-release 5. Kristina to test (in discussion with Laura). Probably almost complete. Just needs testing.
• CAS-5335 (Jul): CASA Region Text File pixel sizes not handled properly. Blocker. Currently listed as "Open". Parked with Mark. At least some of the blocker aspects have hopefully now been addressed by the developer - 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+). Tester: Amy. Some recent comments on this from Josh. Maybe needs input from Science and/or a docs update? Status? Mark to ask Josh if CAS-5335 as a whole is still a real blocker for the 4.2 release.
  • 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+). Tester: Amy. Status?
• CAS-5213 (Jul): feathering GUI (casafeather) upgrade. Upgraded to Blocker. Tester: Brian Mason . RTT. Ongoing discussion in ticket regarding scatter plots. Cautionary note added that we will only do bugfixes for 4.2 at this point, not additional scope.
• CAS-5248 (Aug/Sep): propagate gridding and beam changes to simanalyze. ARTT in casapy-test r26662+ (but previously partly tested in private build). Tester: Brian (was Jen). All done except for the remaining beam size/beam volume issues that are being handled by Brian (and maybe odd edge masking if the simulation is too small). Status? Ticket pinged for update. This may have to go out as is for 4.2. Although the recent immediate urgency arising from the imminent ALMA Cycle 2 proposal submission deadline has now subsided, this is still regarded as an important issue that should be fixed as soon as is reasonably possible. For the CASA 4.2 release, any remaining caveats that may be present in associated documentation also need to be clearly stated in the inline help, if this has not already been done. Noted in Jira ticket.
• CAS-4938 (Sep/Oct): CLONE - mstransform on spws gives errors for different correlation shapes. RTT pending availability in a test package (most recent commit was r26929). Ticket back with Anita for now. tester: Anita. Input requested from Steve on EVLA usage. Steve has provided input to Anita on this issue: it's a valid correlator mode that needs to be supported.
• CAS-5214 (Sep/Oct): plotms hangs when plotting amp vs channel in IRAS16293 CASAguide. ARTT in current pre-release (most recent commit was r26923). Tester: Sarah. Tony will check in with the tester.
• CAS-5710 (Sep/Oct): plotms does not indicate when the measurement set is not found. ARTT in current pre-release (most recent commit was r26923). Tester: Sarah. Tony will check in with the tester.
• CAS-5734 (Oct/Nov): imval fails when it executes with box region. ARTT in current pre-release package (most recent commit was r27100). Tested and found to work in a private build - just needs checking. Tester: Nathan. Tony will check in with the tester.
• CAS-5723 (Oct/Nov): Failure in rotbox specification. ARTT in current pre-release package (most recent commit was r26983). Tester: Nathan. Tony will check in with the tester.
• CAS-5711 (Nov): imfit issues warnings for single dish images with bunit=K. ARTT in current pre-release package (most recent commit was r27067). Critical item. Tester: Brian. Adam will also look at this. A discussion will need to happen early next year regarding imfit functionality specification.
• CAS-5570 (Nov): immoments "min/max/median coordinate" operations yield wrong unit/value combination. ARTT in the current pre-release package (commit was r27402 to the pre-release). Tester: Adam.
• CAS-5646 (Nov): ia.newimagefromarray segfaults if called duplicating an open image. ARTT, in the current pre-release package (commit was r27081 to prerelease). Tester: Adam.
• CAS-5767 (Nov): ia.regrid() fails in casa 4.2.0 (r27007), but works in casa 4.1.0 (r24668). ARTT in the current pre-release package (commit was r27163 to prerelease). Tester: Urvashi.
• CAS-5701 (Nov): msmd needs a method to get the integration time. ARTT in the current pre-release package. Fix: r7356. Tester: Todd Tested by Todd. Works as advertised, but needs further improvement (better handling of pol ID, which I assume will be a 4.3 improvement. To be moved down to the deferred list for next meeting.
• CAS-5738 (Nov): slice cut is not visible. ARTT in current pre-release package. Fix: r27370. Tester: Juergen. Fixes plus issues reported by Urvashi to be checked.
• CAS-5781 (Nov): Viewer crashes while using 2D Fitting. ARTT in current pre-release package. Fix was r27231. Tester: Nuria. To be tackled as part of general viewer stability testing.
• CAS-5777 (Nov): spectral profile tool plots mean from rectangle enclosing elliptical region in viewer. ARTT in current pre-release package. Fix was r27286. Tester: Nathan Tony will check in with the tester.
• CAS-5735 (Nov): an antenna method of msmd should be able to filter by ALMA antenna type. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Todd. Tested by Todd. mindiameter and maxdiameter features do not work as advertised. Set back to "Open" accordingly.
• CAS-5783 (Nov): Viewer spectral profile not working on the original image when the moment 0 is also open. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Nuria. Since Nuria is away, this will be transferred to Nathan.
• CAS-5774 (Oct): sdimaging cannot write an outfile if the name includes a dash character. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Todd.
• CAS-5778 (Oct): WCS in a GBT image crashes imstat. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Adam.
• CAS-5717 (Oct): Warning about Stokes axes regridding. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Urvashi. Close to closing? Ticket pinged.
• CAS-5793 (Oct): Interactive viewer in imager randomly fails. Sanjay was to test with his private build. ARTT in the current pre-release package. Blocker. It was decided that this was no longer a blocker issue for the release. Sanjay to test in the pre-release. Steve will check in with Frazer et al.
• CAS-5713 (Oct): msmd needs method to get station names for antennas. Fix was r26944. ARTT in the current pre-release. Tester: Todd. Resolved as done.
• CAS-5044 (Sep/Oct): Flagdata mode='clip' should allow WEIGHT as an option for datacolumn. Tester: Todd. ARTT (again) in the current pre-release package. Critical item: Identified as worthy of close 4.2 tracking by Jeff during a previous meeting. Noted again as important.
• CAS-5773 (Nov): Incorrect channel labelling in viewer spectral profile. ARTT in the current pre-release package (check-in was r27151). Tester: Anita Reassigned to Nathan.
• CAS-5760 (Oct/Nov): casafeather: zoom in scatter plot does not reveal points. ARTT in the current pre-release package (check-in was r27144). Tester: Juergen
• CAS-5110 (May): big pixels in ia.regrid. Remy's been providing examples of problem cases, and possible approaches to solutions (with Adam). Remy provided some recommendations. Some additional work done by developer (r26985). ARTT in current pre-release package. Will probably be released "as is". Adam will check that the rules included do work. Close to done.
• 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. ARTT again now (r27202) in the current pre-release package. To be considered as part of "imregrid checkout". Tester: Adam. Testing ongoing.
• CAS-5719 (Oct): view pv-diagram crashes viewer. RTT pending availability in a test package (most recent commit was r26971). ARTT in current pre-release package. Blocker. Tester: Adam. Developer refers to CAS-5502 (below). Reassigned to Juergen. Tested; still an issue - set back to "Open" and passed back to dev.
• CAS-5502 (Aug): Velocity regridding in viewer sometimes not available. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Adam. New fix committed as r27341 (trunk) and r27323 (release). Blocker. Reassigned to Juergen. Tested and works (improvement suggestion for 4.3) - resolved.
• CAS-4081 (Aug): Create tool / view that allows management of open images and changing the image stack. Bug fixes put in as r27004. ARTT again in the current pre-release package. Tester: Mark Lacy. Tested by Mark and it now at least runs. However, ds9 pre-rotated images remain problematic (this would be for some future release, though - not now).
• CAS-5695 (Oct): msmd "forintent" methods should allow wildcards in intent names. ARTT in the current pre-release package. Latest commit was r26969. Todd to test. Works. Resolved as done.
• CAS-5466 (Oct): typos in the help for immath. Fix put in; ARTT in current pre-release. Mark Rawlings had looked at this: it appears to not be fixed in the current pre-release.
• CAS-5706 (Oct): msmd.spwsforfield returns the wrong answer (Blank) if the specified field name has two IDs. Todd to test this. Currently ARTT in the current pre-release package. Commit was r26931. Works. Resolved as done.
• CAS-4754- MSTransform subtasks: Lots of testing done. time averaging stuff being tested now. MSTransform will be marked as "experimental" in the 4.2 release. Enhanced split and cvel subtasks currently "(A)RTT". Some general mstransform discussion. Testing seems to be going well. Last of Justo's feature commits now in. Speed sometimes not faster than split, but not horribly slow. Just keep an eye on performance for now - no corrective action needed. keepflags option still missing - to be part of 4.3.
  • CAS-4849 (Oct): Enhanced Split Capabilities: Time Averaging. Currently ARTT - in current casapy-test (26919+). Some caveats in ticket. Tester Anita. Ticket has gone a bit quiet.
  • CAS-4850 (Oct): Enhanced Split Capabilities: Baseline Dependent Time Averaging. Currently ARTT in current casapy-test (26919+). Some caveats in ticket. Tester Anita. Fixes put in at the end of November. Reminder posted on ticket to test on pre-release. Hopefully close to done, though.
  • 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 and Steve. Seems to work, albeit with caveats. Proposed documentation changes given in ticket. To be marked as "Effectively feature complete as for the 4.2 release, with remaining issues to be addressed in 4.3."
  • 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: it mostly seems to work, but a few questions remain (covered in the parent ticket for combined MSTransform testing (CAS-5581). Remaining issue was covered in CAS-5581 (above).

Single Dish (to be skipped during the meeting)

• CAS-4772 (Mar): Implement Tsys calibration task. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Shinya.
• CAS-4777 (Mar): Define caltable for Tsys calibration. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Danny. (synched with above item).
• CAS-5496 (Sep): sdflag2: enable data selection by time range. Fix put in. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Daniel Espada
• CAS-4141 (May): SD: Sideband separation algorithm for DSB receivers. Shinya had been testing. ARTT in current pre-release package. Tester: Shinya.
• CAS-5138 (Aug): Make default image area of sdimaging cover the pointings in MS. Shinya has been testing this. Set back to ARTT again for retesting with the current pre-release package. (commit: r27041).
• CAS-5338 (Jul/Nov): Update single dish flagging task interface (sdflag2). Currently ARTT again in the pre-release. Tester: Eric Villard. He has promised to test it this week.
• CAS-5858 (Nov/Dec): field section parameter in SD tasks should accept multiple fields selection by field IDs and names. Action on Mark Rawlings: ARTT status in current pre-release to be verified (see also "pending assignment list below). To be passed to Bunyo once confirmed to be ARTT.

Items Currently Undergoing Testing

See above

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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-3904 (Nov): NEW ITEM. Conformance error in uvcontsub. Currently ARTT in latest pre-release. Fix was r27507. Tester: Nathan
• CAS-5139 (Sep): Proper handling of flag information in sideband separation algorithm. Subtask of CAS-1756. Currently ARTT in casapy-test. Needs a user tester assigning. Daniel Espada was just asked.To be noted on ticket as a low testing priority.

Unable to Test Items

• CAS-4636 (Oct 2012): Elevation dependent opacity application w/ Tsys. Still awaiting input from Science (since February). On Hold since August. 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.
• CAS-5431 slicing in frequency selection throws exception. Set to Input Required and passed back to dev. Tester: Kumar. Jeff: Jim was to update the docs. Anything else to be done?

Upcoming Ready to (Re)Test Items

Not Yet Assigned To Testers

New additions during meeting:

• CAS-5926(Dec): Spectral profile tool state resets to default upon registering/unregistering/loading/etc. Crystal identified this as an item for concern. Maybe also CAS-5925?

Already Assigned To Testers

• 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). Set back to Open. Tester: Juergen. Juergen had talked with Justo, issue still remains, so can't resolve. Not a blocker, though.
• CAS-5712 (Oct): mstransform does not slice WEIGHT column when correlation selection non-trivial. RTT. Tester: George. Blocker. Pinged for an update.

Single Dish

None

Other Blockers

• CAS-5944 multiple spectra w unit=flux only shows one spectrum. Blocker. Discussion ongoing with Remy.
• CAS-5877 Accessing inline help by syntax 'taskname?' causes segmentation fault. Blocker.
• CAS-5724 applycal w/ calwt=F does not reset weights. Blocker. Steve will talk to George about this. What it actually does now should be documented (and the documentation availabile from the right place).
• CAS-4946 Crash on Mac OS X when virtual model requested. Blocker. 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.

4.2 Release "As Is" Items

• CAS-2252 (May): calculate the rotation measure. VLA item. Currently ARTT Will be released "as is". Testing done by Steve, but still inconclusive.
• 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.

Items Descoped from CASA 4.2 / 4.3 items

• 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.
• 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. Pinged Oct. 22nd: possibly deprecated? Will probably not now make it into the 4.2 release.
• 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. This is a subtle issue, and has been pushed back to 4.3.
• CAS-3517 (Aug): Improve remapping interface (Cal libraries). Currently ARTT in casapy-test r26325+. Tester: Steve. Some testing done, recommendations made. Discussion ongoing. Further callibrary work to be pushed out to 4.3 in Jira.
• CAS-5836 (Nov): 4.3 item. Create new task imrebin. Commit to trunk as r27427. Ticket parked with Mark for now. Tester: Adam and/or Remy?
• CAS-5744 (Oct/Nov): 4.3 item. jump to channel not persistent in spectral viewer. Commit to trunk as r27460. Juergen to test.
• CAS-5879 (Dec): 4.3 item. include pixel rms in imfit fitting. Committed to trunk as r27674. Ticket parked with Mark for now.
• CAS-5926 (Dec): 4.3 item (I think). spectral profile tool state resets to default upon registering/unregistering/loading/etc. Ticket left parked with developer for now. Fix: r27709.
• CAS-3532 (Sep): Incorporation of Alma Primary Beam in Mosaic. Currently ARTT. Needs tester assigning. Ticket currently with Juergen. Also, Mark to check documentation.
• CAS-5841 Make the scan numbers between scantable, asdm, and MS consistent. Currently ARTT in casapy-test? TO BE VERIFIED. Needs a user tester assigning. 4.3 item?

-- MarkRawlings - 2013-12-14