Tue Mar 3 17:15:47 2015 jpmorgen@snipe

README

This file serves as the general introduction and roadmap to the documentation of the Parameter Function Objection (PFO) system.

PFO was originally developed in 2003 with the support of a National Research Fellowship to Dr. Jeffrey P. Morgenthaler. The original version of PFO was developed in the Interactive Data Language (IDL), version 5.3, a product, at the time, of Research Systems Incorporated (RSI). IDL was owned by ITT for a few years and, as of late 2011, is currently owned by Exelis Visual Information Solutions. A compatible, freely distributed IDL compiler, GDL, is being developed under the GNU Public License. PFO has yet to be tested with GDL, but works with IDL versions 5, 6, 7, and 8.

PFO was upgraded to add object-oriented and a IDL widget GUI in 2011 with the support of the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) project on NASA's Dawn spacecraft. At this point IDL version 5 suport was dropped.

DOCUMENTATION ROADMAP:

README.pfo: general overview of the PFO system. Start here.

README.pfo_fit: an introduction to the GUI front-end of PFO.

README.pfo_obj: an introduction to the object-oriented interface of PFO

README.pfo_CZT: an log of how the PFO function pfo_CZT was created using another function, pfo_scint, as a template. VERY USEFUL if you want to create your own functions in PFO.

README.names: a document summarizing the naming conventions used in the PFO system. VERY USEFUL if you are going to be creating functions and augmenting the parinfo structure.