Title: Updates on Gemini Data Reduction Package
Author(s): Kathleen Labrie, Jen Holt, Emma Hogan, Craig Allen, James Turner, and Nelson Zarate
Abstract:

Gemini's move towards Python for data reduction, beginning in 2005, was 
motivated by PyRAF emerging as a natural transition path from our IRAF CL/SPP 
code base towards a modern, supported data processing platform.  The users of 
the Gemini Data Reduction Package will soon benefit from the effort Gemini
set aside to that end in recent years.

PyRAF is a combined environment containing the Python shell plus the IRAF CL,
offering the users backward IRAF compatibility in addition to a Python 
programming base.  PyRAF can also be used from a Python script to access IRAF 
tasks much like a function library, thus making it easy to build custom tools 
without having to invest time reinventing tools already present in IRAF.

Python is becoming widely used as a modern scientific scripting language in 
the scientific community.  Python is an easily comprehensible language 
that allows a novice to produce useful work in a few days.  Moreover,
Python is suitable for IDL- or Matlab-style interactive use as well as for 
developing complex programs.  

Many of the advantages of Python from the developers' perpective will directly 
impact our users.  Those advantages include more robust error handling, 
faster development cycle, and easier ways to automate tools for pipeline processing.

Here we report on the status of the Gemini Data Reduction Package and the new 
tools coming down the production line.