About Chandra Archive Proposer Instruments & Calibration Newsletters Data Analysis HelpDesk Calibration Database NASA Archives & Centers Chandra Science Links

Skip the navigation links
Last modified: December 2006

URL: http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao3.4/slang.html
Hardcopy (PDF): A4 | Letter
AHELP for CIAO 3.4 slang Context: slang

Synopsis

The S-Lang programing language

Description

While ChIPS and Sherpa have their own languages which can be used to read in data, plot graphs, or fit data, they do not contain a general-purpose language which can be used to write macros or manipulate data. This capability is instead provided by the S-Lang language, a popular interpreted language created by John Davis of the Center for Space Research at MIT. For a list of topics related to S-Lang and its use in CIAO, type "about slang" (or "ahelp -k slang") and "ahelp -c slang".

  • See "ahelp overview" for an overview of the S-Lang language
  • See "ahelp slangrtl" for a list of functions in the S-Lang Run-Time librart
  • See "ahelp chips" for specific information on using S-Lang in ChIPS.
  • See "ahelp sherpa" for specific information on using S-Lang in Sherpa. The use of S-Lang to create models for Sherpa is described in "ahelp slang usermodel".
  • See "ahelp variables" for the use of variables in S-Lang.
  • See "ahelp math" for mathematical operations available in S-Lang.
  • See "ahelp tips" for S-Lang tips and examples.
  • See "ahelp varmm" for a discussion of the Variables, Math and Macros library.
  • See "ahelp varmmrl" for the information on the Varmm readline module.
  • See "ahelp caldb caldb" for a discussion of the S-Lang version of the CALDB library.
  • See "ahelp paramio" for a discussion of the S-Lang version of the parmaeter library.
  • See "ahelp group" for a discussion of the S-Lang version of the grouping library.
  • See "ahelp stackio" for a discussion of the S-Lang version of the stack library.
  • See "ahelp pixlib" for a discussion of the S-Lang version of the pixlib library.

Notes

  • The Grating User Interactive Data Extension (GUIDE) derives most of its power from the S-Lang language; the scripts it uses are available in the $ASCDS_INSTALL/contrib/share/slsh/local-packages/ directory.
  • Additional S-Lang scripts are provided on the CIAO download page.

CHANGES IN CIAO 3.0

The integration of S-Lang into CIAO has been greatly extended and improved with CIAO 3.0. Sherpa and ChIPS have an increased number of S-Lang functions and a number of libraries - caldb, paramio, group, region, stackio, and pixlib - are also now importable from S-Lang. See their respective ahelp documents for further information.

Hardcopy (PDF): A4 | Letter
Last modified: December 2006



The Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA.    Email: cxcweb@head.cfa.harvard.edu
Smithsonian Institution, Copyright © 1998-2004. All rights reserved.