Iris Bugs & Caveats

o When a spectral model component is deleted from the Custom Model Manager, the Sherpa model expression being used for fitting, shown in the Fitting Tool window, is not automatically updated; it needs to be edited manually by the user.

o In the Iris 2.0 version of sherpa_samp, custom template models cannot be mixed with other Sherpa model components. E.g., the model cannot be a template model multiplied by a power-law, or combined with any other component. The template model can only be used on its own.

o When fitting with a template model, the search method is automatically switched to a grid search over the templates included in the model. Interpolation between templates is not supported in the Sherpa 4.5 functionality which provides the fitting support for Iris v2.0.

o All custom table and template data files must be in ASCII format. Table and template models do not read from FITS files in Iris 2.0.

o The data contained in custom table and template models must have the same units that Iris uses internally for modeling and fitting. The x-axis units must be in Angstroms, and the y-axis units must be in photons/s/cm²/Angstrom. (These units match the internal units used for fitting in the original Specview, and which are still used in the Iris components derived from Specview. These components prepare data and model for fitting with Sherpa.)

o The internal units for fitting in Iris are photons/sec/cm²/angstrom and Angstroms, and so the best-fit parameters values will always be in terms of photons/s/cm²/Angstrom and Angstroms, regardless of the user-defined unit settings.

o If one has the Model Window (the one with the list of models) and the Fit Window (the one with the optimization and statistics drop-down menu) both opened, some changes in the Model window (e.g. Thaw all, Freeze all) will not affect the Fit Window. The fit will be performed with an out-of-date model. If you have to change the model, it is preferable to close the Fit Window and open it again by clicking on "Fit" in the Model window.

o Clicking "Stop" or "Dismiss" while calculating the fit statistics in either the "Fit" or "Confidence" tab will disconnect Sherpa from the SAMP hub. This prevents any more fitting routines within Iris. As of 07.25.13, the easiest way to reconnect Sherpa to Iris via SAMP is to restart Iris. If you click "Stop" or "Dismiss" while fit statistics are being calculated, you can still build, filter and save your SEDs, and save previously fitted models. Be wary of any saved fit statistics that were being calculated when Sherpa disconnected.

o Too few points in the region of interest of the Integrated SED will result in NaNs. In order to obtain good results you need to have a "good" density of points in the interval over which you are integrating. I am not sure I can define "good". However, problems arise when one interpolates a whole SED with more than 1.5k bins: with too many points the SED Viewer chokes.

o The single-point metadata display first tab (marked "Point metadata" when one rightclicks on a plotted point and get a tree representation) seems to be broken and might be removed in the next release

o The Segment metadata table, both in single-point mode (right click on point) and entire SED mode (Metadata button) also uses some column names taken from that same old Spectrum Data Model. Column names in all-capitals are in fact FITS keywords that are associated to the corresponding utypes in that old Spectrum Data Model. Not all utypes have an associated FITS keyword, so in those cases, the software that builds the table uses as column name the 'name' of the corresponding field in the matadata structure. That may lead to entire sets of metadata to be ignored because these names may not be unique to each type. An example is the column named "Unit" in NED SEDs. There is a field named "Unit" in the Characterization.FluxAxis" element, and another field with same name in the Characterization.SpectralAxis" element. And likely in other places as well. There is no way for the table-building software to tell apart one from the other, once they are taken out of context (that is, striped out from the fully qualified type). Thus the software currently is retaining the last one it finds when traversing the metadata tree. For the interim solution I put in this release for the missing characterization entries, I used in the characterization spatial and time axis columns the fully qualified utype as column name. That is not very practical for the user (the strings are too long), but ensures unambiguous names, and also ensures that every utype gets its own column.

o Handling of other elements in the same table, such as SpectralAxis and FluxAxis, is still done by the old FITS/element name mapping.

o Spectral coordinate errors are ignored if present in the input SED data. This means that errors on the X axis are not displayed nor taken into account for modeling.

o Model components which are deleted in the Fit -> Component window, are not removed automatically from the model expression.

o In the window(s) that give individual access to spectral model parameters (double click on a row with a spectral component in the list displayed by the Fitting Tool), the Apply button is used just to apply changes in the Fit check box. Any other change, achieved by typing a value in a numeric or text field, is immediately applied as soon as the Return/Enter key, or the Tab key, are pressed. The change is also applied if, right after typing the new value, the mouse cursor is clicked on another field.

o When the user deletes a model component in the model editor window, Iris automatically renames and renumbers the remaining model components. This may oblige the user to then rewrite the model expression. For example, if the user creates the models:

 powerlaw.c1
 brokenpowerlaw.c2
 logparabola.c3

 brokenpowerlaw.c1
 logparabola.c2