.. module:: pyds9
A Python Connection to DS9 via XPA
The XPA messaging system (http://hea-www.harvard.edu/saord/xpa) provides seamless communication between many kinds of Unix programs, including Tcl/Tk programs such as ds9. The pyds9 module uses a Python interface to XPA to communicate with ds9. It supports communication with all of ds9's XPA access points. See http://hea-www.harvard.edu/saord/ds9/ref/xpa.html for more info on DS9's access points.
pyds9 is available from GitHub:
https://github.com/ericmandel/pyds9
To install in the default directory:
# install in default system directory > python setup.py install
or to install in a user-specified directory:
# install in specified directory > python setup.py install --prefix=<install-dir> > setenv PYTHONPATH <install-dir>lib/python2.x/site-packages
To run:
# start up python > python ... (startup messages) ... >>> from pyds9 import * >>> print ds9_targets() >>> d = Ds9()
The setup.py install will build and install both the XPA shared library and the xpans name server. By default, the code generated for the shared object will match the address size of the host machine, i.e. 32-bit or 64-bit as the case may be. But on 64-bit Intel machines, the XPA build also will check whether python itself is 64-bit. If not, it will add the "-m32" switch to the compile options to build a 32-bit shared object. This check can be overridden by defining the CFLAGS environment variable (which can be anything sensible, including an empty string).
Contact [email protected] for help.
The DS9 Class:
.. autoclass:: DS9 :members: __init__, get, set, info, access, get_pyfits, set_pyfits, get_arr2np, set_np2arr
Auxiliary Routines:
.. autofunction:: ds9_targets
.. autofunction:: ds9_openlist
.. autofunction:: ds9_xpans
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2