Grating Spectrograph Designer
If the values come up in red, then there is some problem, which is usually the fault of the user. The most likely causes are:
- A set of variables was picked that is overdetermined. Using "enter" after every entry will prevent this.
- The input values do not correspond to a physically realizable system.
- Some unusual branch-cut was encountered, not already known to the program.
- The program does not know how to take limits, so values close to lim{ (x→0)/(y→0) } will be incorrect.
- Sometimes the grating angles are 180 degrees off. Not sure why this happens.
Also, some capabilities of the underlying program are not implemented by the web interface. Mainly, this is when "LOOP" appears, which means that a ring of variables exist which could in theory be solved, but the program needs to be given a starting value.
To-do list:
- There are cases where a variable could be dropped out of the equations, but the program does not know to do so.
- Change to column-down ordering, rather than side-by-side
- Initial values for LOOP's
- Add Javascript to check validity of input values
- Grism and prism versions
The code for this tool has not been touched since 2007. Expect some amount of bitrot.