Python Powder Data Analyse software for extraction of powder diffraction patterns from image plates

Overview

PPDA was used at the Australian National Beamline Facility
from 1997 until its closure in the early 2010s to extract
powder diffraction patterns from image plates. This deposit
records the state of the software in February 2006. The
main value lies in the *.nw files which are literate
documentation of the code. The code itself no longer
runs on modern systems (see Bitrot, below).

The original documentation is available from the wayback machine.

Compiling the code

Type `make` to process the `Makefile` and create python code from
the literate noweb files.  This will also compile a python C module
for conversion of images to ppm format. Following successful `make`,
executing `ppda.py` will run the software.

Dependencies

Python 2, with the Numeric, Scientific Python and Python Mega Widgets (PMW)
packages, must be available.

Bitrot

As of this writing (2020) the code will not compile out of the
box. Required steps to allow this code to run on a modern Linux system
include:

1. Updating the makefile to use the Python 2.7 include directory
2. Numeric is now called numpy, and scientific python has changed package structure
3. The `-fPIC` flag needs to be added to `CFLAGS` in the Makefile.