Overview
The RXTE Data Finder (XDF) is an tool for navigating the RXTE FITS
Database (XFDB) that has an X-Windows based graphical user interface.
XDF allows the user to enter source names, time ranges, and select
subsystem constraints interactively, searching for observations,
application IDs, and instrument configurations that fit those
constraints. The final product is a list of FITS files from the XFDB
which can be saved to a plain ASCII file for subsequent use by Ftools
or the user's favorite analysis tools.
XDF is implemented using Tcl and Tk as well as the object-oriented
extensions to Tcl, known as iTcl. RXTE-specific Tcl commands have
been implemented using C and the new C-based version of the
FITS I/O library.
Versions 1.* were implemented using Tcl version 7.3, iTcl version
1.5, and Tk version 3.6 and developed under SunOS 4.1.3. It was also
implemented using FITSIO version 3.71.
Version 2.0 of XDF is implemented using Tcl 7.4, Tk 4.0, and CFITSIO
0.95, all of which involve significant departures from and
incompatibilities with their predecessors.
XDF consists of:
- xtcl_wish: a version of the object-oriented itcl_wish
interpreter extended to include the RXTE-specific commands, SelectObs,
SelectAppIds, and SelectFiles
- xTcl/iTcl widgets: XdfBox as derived from the FilterBox
widget class distributed with iTcl 1.5, the unaltered iTcl 1.5 widget
classes ListBox and SelectBox, and a Tcl autoload index file, tclIndex,
appropriate for XDF.
- .xdfrc: the xtcl_wish script used to drive XDF.
- xdf: a Bourne shell script that searches first in the current working directory for .xdfrc, then the user's $HOME directory, and
finally in the "installed" XDF directory, then executes xtcl_wish
using the first .xdfrc it finds as a driver script.