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USGS MIPS Frequently Asked Questions

How do you install USGS MIPS

Installation of USGS MIPS is quite easy. Simply follow the instructions given in the online Installation Guide.




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What needs to be done to use USGS MIPS

Besides the obvious, installing USGS MIPS, there is little else that needs to be done in order to use it. The most important thing is to READ the online Users Guide which contains essential information regarding the successful operation of USGS MIPS.




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What types of programs exist in USGS MIPS

There are over 100 programs in USGS MIPS. Click here to see a table of contents of all the current USGS MIPS programs. Click on the program name for more specific information on that individual program.




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How do you find out information about a program

First, to obtain a list of all the available USGS MIPS programs simply type the following:

mipsman

This will bring up a html browser which lists the available programs. You can get information about a program by clicking on its name. If you already know the name of the program you want to use and just need some additional information type the following:

mipsmanprogram

For example, if you want to obtain information about the program ratio type the following:

mipsman ratio




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How do you run a program (interactive, batch)

This is straight forward for X windows systems. Just type the program name and wait for the window to appear. Then fill in the blanks and press the appropriate buttons.

Before running a program strictly using the command line, you should run a program under the windows mode first. This will allow you to see what type of parameters you need to enter. The following are examples of running several programs using only the command line:

ratio outfile=infile1,infile2
histdk infile
filter outfile=infile lpf nl=5,ns=5
stats infile1,infile2,infile3 min=(10,13,6)

To run the program under batch just put the commands similar to the ones given above in a file and execute that file. You can create a batch file quickly by using a history file (.hst) which is created by programs that have output files. For example, the command:

ratio outfile=infile1,infile2

will produce a file called outfile.hst and this file can be easily modified to create a batch file.




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Why don't the vista capabilities blink/stretch/color-code work on my PC/Mac's X-server?

X Windows server software, such as Humingbird Exceed, for PC and Mac platforms can be used as a display to run most of the MIPS programs (i.e.; processing programs such as filter, histdk, digmos, etc...) without limitations. However, limitations in the server cause some features of the MIPS program vista to be disabled. These features include: Most PC or Mac X Windows servers use a TrueColor or PseudoColor visual. If a server is running under PseudoColor, color images can not be displayed using the MIPS program vista because of the very limited number of colors available. If the server is running under TrueColor, all stretch capabilities and color coding are disabled because the visual does not support writeable color maps/lookup tables. Blinking is disabled if the server does not support multiple visuals at one time. Most Unix X windows servers support multiple visuals at the same time, these usually include PseudoColor, TrueColor and DirectColor. If the server is running under DirectColor all capabilities are enabled.

To find out which visuals a server supports check the help pages for that software or login to a Unix machine from the machine you want the information about and bring up a terminal window. Type the command xdpyinfo. The program xdpyinfo will display a list of available visuals along with information about the current default settings.




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Can I run USGS MIPS on my PC?

USGS MIPS was developed for the UNIX and OpenVMS operating systems only. Many operating system specific calls are used to speed up image processing tasks, and the user interface was written using X Windows not MS Windows. For these reasons the USGS MIPS software is not compatible with MS DOS, Windows 95 or NT.

Although it has not been done, it may be possible for a talented programmer to port USGS MIPS to a PC based system running Linux.




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