IRAF provides the user interface (command language, or CL) and general purpose graphic and image display facilities. Because STSDAS is layered on IRAF, the system runs on any computing platform for which an IRAF port is available, including most Unix systems.
The CL provides a wide range of functions typically provided by an operating system, and uses a syntax similar to Unix. Some of the CL features include input/output redirection and piping, command buffers and history editing, minimum matching of commands, host-independent file naming, parameter range checking, background and batch processing modes, an integrated online help system, and a script authoring environment.
Users can also use PyRAF to interact with IRAF tasks. This provides a much more powerful environment than the IRAF cl, while still retaining the capability of running almost all existing cl scripts. Version 3 of STSDAS also includes some tasks that require the use of PyRAF to run.
A more complete description of STSDAS and IRAF can be found in the STSDAS User's Guide (see the Documentation section).
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