Lessons learned: the switch from VMS to UNIX operations for the STScI's Science and Mission Scheduling Branch

David S. Adler; William M. Workman III; Don Chance

doi:10.1117/12.549012

16 September 2004 Lessons learned: the switch from VMS to UNIX operations for the STScI's Science and Mission Scheduling Branch

David S. Adler, William M. Workman III, Don Chance

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5493, Optimizing Scientific Return for Astronomy through Information Technologies; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.549012
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Science and Mission Scheduling Branch (SMSB) of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) historically operated exclusively under VMS. Due to diminished support for VMS-based platforms at STScI, SMSB recently transitioned to Unix operations. No additional resources were available to the group; the project was SMSB's to design, develop, and implement. Early decisions included the choice of Python as the primary scripting language; adoption of Object-Oriented Design in the development of base utilities; and the development of a Python utility to interact directly with the Sybase database. The project was completed in January 2004 with the implementation of a GUI to generate the Command Loads that are uplinked to HST. The current tool suite consists of 31 utilities and 271 tools comprising over 60,000 lines of code. In this paper, we summarize the decision-making process used to determine the primary scripting language, database interface, and code management library. We also describe the finished product and summarize lessons learned along the way to completing the project.

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David S. Adler, William M. Workman III, and Don Chance "Lessons learned: the switch from VMS to UNIX operations for the STScI's Science and Mission Scheduling Branch", Proc. SPIE 5493, Optimizing Scientific Return for Astronomy through Information Technologies, (16 September 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.549012

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