Contributions are also welcome from users who have developed software or procedures for IRAF that they would like to share with a broader audience. The main speaker in this BOF session will be David Stern of Research Systems, Inc., who will describe the new features in IDL V4.0, and talk about planned developments in the IDL language. Wayne Landsman will give a brief talk describing recent changes to the IDL Astronomy Library. Users are welcome to give additional short talks describing their applications of IDL in astronomy. This session will review progress to date for the major packages.
Contributions are welcome from any group which has completed a Linux port of their software.
A FITS BOF is being organized by Peter Teuben, the chair of the WGAS FITS Committee, and Don Wells, the chair of the IAU FITS Working Group. The meeting will provide an opportunity for all those with an interest in using and extending FITS to discuss current activities. In the short term, these are sensible things to do. A number of carefully chosen pundits will be invited to give their views, after which there will hopefully be a spirited discussion. Two special sessions are planned along with the Conference.