[Modification date: 05/24/2012] Here are some detailed instructions for setting up your laptop to access the UCSC computers so that you can run IDL and access/analyze some of our astronomical data on Andromeda: [The actual commands you would need to type are preceded by *** - don't type in the asterisks when you type the commands!] ----------------------------- 1. Make sure your laptop has a Unix terminal emulator. I use the X11 terminal on my MacBook Pro laptop running OS X - and recommend you use this if you have a newish Mac. There are also many other varieties of free "ssh client" software available for Macs and PCs if you prefer one of those. ----------------------------- 2. Here's how you can access the UCSC astro computer network using a guest account. From a terminal window, type: *** ssh -XYC ssh.ucolick.org -l gst131 *** [enter password] [YOU WILL NEED TO GET THIS PASSWORD FROM ME (VIA SKYPE OR PHONE: 408.455.3036). THIS IS THE PREFERRED WAY. PLEASE DO *NOT*, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EMAIL THIS PASSWORD TO ONE ANOTHER.] *** ssh -XYC puccini *** cd [Get your work space directory from Raja] *** cp /usr/local/www/raja/plot_star_cmd.pro ./ *** cp /usr/local/www/raja/plot_vhist.pro ./ [Copy over two existing IDL programs into your work space directory. Note the period and slash at the end of the commands are important to type.] ----------------------------- 3. Running IDL: *** /u/ekirby/eidl [This starts up IDL. In IDL, try typing the following commands and see what happens. The two programs below are very simple programs that I have written: the first generates a plot of data points in (x,y) space and the second generates histograms of data.] The old instruction here was to type in "deepidl". This works too, but that version of IDL is not nearly as capable as "eidl". *** .r plot_star_cmd.pro *** plot_star_cmd Or you can try: *** .r plot_vhist.pro *** plot_vhist *** exit [This gets you out of IDL.] ----------------------------- 4. Here's how to modify the above IDL programs to suit your needs. This has to be done *outside* IDL. You can either exit IDL and take the following steps. Or you can type this in from a different X11 terminal window after logging into the UCSC network (using the commands in block #2 above). *** cp plot_star_cmd.pro test.pro or *** cp plot_vhist.pro test.pro [This makes a copy of one of the above two sample IDL programs and renames it test.pro.] *** vi test.pro or *** emacs test.pro [The commands "vi" and "emacs" bring up two different text file editing programs. Or you can copy the "test.pro" file to your laptop, edit the version on your laptop (say using the TextEdit software on a Mac) and copy the modified "test.pro" file back to the UCSC network. For this you would type the following from an X11 terminal on your laptop.] -----------------------------