Ximtool tips

• Ximtool documentation (PDF, first page blank)

• Hints for setting up Xgterm and Ximtool

XImtool.displayPanner:  false
XImtool.cmap1:          rainbow2.lut
XImtool.defNFrames:	4

Many people use DS9 these days. A particular virtue of DS9 is that it utilizes 24 bit color, whereas Ximtool is strictly 8 bit. Before Ximtool there was SAOimage (or maybe after, I don't know for sure).

Apparently Ximtool is fed data via a serial protocol that dates back to the days of IIS display devices and Vicom displays. Very likely DS9 will also accept such connections. My friendly expert tells me the following:

IRAF tasks talk to a display device via the IIS protocol. IIS used to be a hardware box with a TV monitor used to display images. (Like the Vicom Steward used to have.) These devices disappeared when workstations appeared on the market. Anyway, the protocol hasn't changed (much) and is not important to us. What's important is the transport method. There are three ways to carry this IIS byte stream protocol.

1. named pipes (the original method). By default, /dev/imt1o and /dev/imt1i Pretty much no longer used. Ximtool still complains and warns if these are not found though.
2. unix sockets. Named uniquely for each user on a machine, because they include the uid. /tmp/.IMT%d The usual method and the default these days.
3. internet sockets. Setting the host environment variable IMTDEV to inet:5137 will tell IRAF to talk to the display server on tcp port on localhost. You can change the port number and/or append :hostname to talk to a display server on a machine other than localhost. Can be used to run more than one display server per user on a machine.

ximtool listens to all three of the above methods at the same time. There are command line switches to turn off one or more methods. "man ximtool" will give the details.

ds9 does the same thing and understands the IIS protocol, so it is a drop in replacement. Different command line switches. Different features and ways of doing things.