5.1 Starting BoA

First you have to define an environment variable MBFITSXML, whose value is the path to the file MBFits.xml, including the file name itself (e.g.: setenv MBFITSXML ./MBFits.xml )

To invoke BoA call python in interactive mode (-i) with the file BoaStart.py:

  python -i BoaStart.py

Alternatively, from an already running python session (e.g. within a shell window running the apexCalibrator), it is possible to import the BoA functionalities and commands by giving to the python prompt:

  >>> execfile('BoaStart.py')

BoA then prints a welcome message providing version information and changes the prompt. Nevertheless, you are still in the interactive python layer. The start script BoaStart.py imports a set of modules, instantiates the most essential objects and makes the respective methods available.

In particular, it instantiates an object of the Map class, called data, to which all BoA commands described in the remaining of this section are applied. It is nevertheless possible to instantiate several data objects within one BoA session; then, applying BoA methods to a data object with a different name that data requires to enter the full syntax, including the full name of the method, as opposed to the shortcuts explained below.