Programming Interface

Both IRAF and ZODIAC include support for the addition of user code through interpreted scripts and compiled programs. Common features include:

• Scripting language with simple flow control (e.g., for and while loops).
• Image access library interface.
• Execution permitted outside the interactive environment.

Features particular to IRAF include:

• Simple, but limited IMFORT interface.
• Complex SPP interface with extensive set of standard libraries.

Features particular to ZODIAC include:

• Simple language-independent interface.
• Independent integration of each task.

The simplicity of the ZODIAC API have led many Fabry-Perot astronomers to choose it over IRAF . In fact, the ZODIAC interface is only slightly more powerful than the IMFORT interface of IRAF , so external libraries must be used for many purposes, such as plotting (e.g., pgplot ) and image display. While this reduces portability and uniformity of the user interface, the steep learning curve of SPP is often more daunting. The OpenIRAF initiative should alleviate this difficulty by eliminating the need to learn another language.