A description of the format of telescope specifications. Many Difmap commands expect you to select one or more sub-arrays, antennas, baselines, or closure triangles. To make this easier, a consistent syntax is used to specify all such telescope aggregates. This specification of an aggregate of n>=0 telescopes is of the form: [sub-array:][antenna_1 antenna_n...] Where "sub-array" is a number between 1 and nsub, and antenna_n is an exactly matching or an otherwise unambiguous prefix of an antenna name. [Sub-array] ----------- The sub-array index is optional and defaults to a context dependent value. From the command line it generally defaults to sub-array 1. Within interactive commands, such as vplot, it defaults to whatever sub-array is currently being viewed. If both a sub-array index and one or more antenna names are specified, the first antenna name must be separated from the sub-array index with a colon (:). Otherwise the colon is optional. A colon without a preceding sub-array index implies selection of the default sub-array. [antenna_1 ...antenna_n] ------------------------- If a telescope aggregate is made up of n telescopes then there may be up to n antenna names specified. Omitted trailing antenna names are treated as wild-cards. Omitting trailing components of a specification ------------------------------------------------ For non-interactive commands, omitting one or more trailing components from a specification is interpreted to mean that all telescope aggregates of the expected type (eg. a sub-array or baseline aggregate...) that match in the initial specified components, are acceptable. The omission is thus effectively a wild-card. For interactive commands, such as vplot, which won't plot all the wild-carded aggregates without further user direction, the first aggregate that matches in the initial given indexes is sought and the selection is then forgotten. Thus to the vplot command an empty specification string "" means plot all baselines of all sub-arrays when plotting to a non-interactive device, whereas on an interactive device the same specification would mean start plotting from the first baseline in the default sub-array. EXAMPLES -------- The following examples illustrate how specifications are interpreted in different contexts. Note that while each specification is shown enclosed within quotes, this is to make it possible to display an empty string. In practice quotes are only legal for specifications that are given as command-line arguments to commands, and even there they are rarely necessary. Also note that all difmap commands interpret the omission of a trailing telescope specification argument as equivalent to specifying an empty string. Sub-array specifications ------------------------ "" All sub-arrays. ":" The default sub-array. "2" Sub-array 2. Telescope specifications ------------------------ "" All telescopes of all sub-arrays. ":" All telescopes of the default sub-array. "2" All telescopes of sub-array 2. "an1" Telescope AN1 of the default sub-array. "2:an1" Telescope AN1 of sub-array 2. Baseline specifications ----------------------- "" All baselines of all sub-arrays. ":" All baselines of the default sub-array. "2" All baselines of sub-array 2. "an1" All baselines of telescope AN1 in the default sub-array. "2:an1" All baselines of telescope AN1 in sub-array 2. "an1 an2" Baseline an1-an2 in the default sub-array. "2:an1 an2" Baseline an1-an2 in subarrary 2. Closure triangle specifications ------------------------------- "" All triangles of all sub-arrays. ":" All triangles of the default sub-array. "2" All triangles of sub-array 2. "an1" All triangles of telescope AN1 in the default sub-array. "2:an1" All triangles of telescope AN1 in sub-array 2. "an1 an2" All triangles of baseline an1-an2 in the default sub-array. "2:an1 an2" All triangles of baseline an1-an2 in subarrary 2. "an1 an2 an3" Triangle an1-an2-an3 in the default sub-array. "2:an1 an2 an3" Triangle an1-an2-an3 in sub-array 2. SPECIFIC EXAMPLES ----------------- 1. Inspection of the currently selected self-cal constraints for one or more telescopes. 0>selfant "" 1:AN1 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 1:AN2 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 1:AN3 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 2:AN1 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 2:AN2 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 2:AN3 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 0>selfant 2 2:AN1 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 2:AN2 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 2:AN3 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 0>selfant an3 1:AN3 self-cal status=correctable weight=1 2. Non-interactive visibility plotting to a hard-copy device. 0>dev /ps 0>vplot 0, "" Using default options string "efbm3" Page 01: baselines of 1:AN1 Page 02: baselines of 1:AN2 Page 03: baselines of 1:AN3 Page 04: baselines of 2:AN1 Page 05: baselines of 2:AN2 Page 06: baselines of 2:AN3 0>vplot 0, 1 Using default options string "efbm3" Page 01: baselines of 1:AN1 Page 02: baselines of 1:AN2 Page 03: baselines of 1:AN3 0>vpl 0, 2:an2 Using default options string "efbm3" Page 01: baselines of 2:AN2 0>vpl 1, 2:an2 an3 Using default options string "efbm3" Page 01: baselines of 2:AN2