What's happening with FTOOLS

• The next FTOOLS release (v3.2) is scheduled for Nov. 7th. It will be available from the legacy anonymous ftp site in software/ftools/release.

• FTOOLS does run under Solaris 2.3 but ... everyone's systems seem to have critical libraries in different places.

• ASCAARF is SLOW for the GIS, have patience it finishes eventually. Note that ASCAARF calculates the effective area based on the region filters set in XSELECT when the spectrum is created.

• The MKF file will include ANG_DIST, the distance between the current pointing direction and the mean for the observation (this is being included in PV reprocessing and will go into AO processing around the start of AO-3 observations).

• FTOOLS ports to SGI and HP/Unix are planned.

• A new XSELECT is under developement. It will be GUI-driven and provide better multi-mission capabilities (to satisfy HEASARC and XTE needs).