Parser error when using SCHED catalogs

[bobeldering]

Example sched.py output:

The error message is:

Error running pySCHED: /home/eldering/sched//catalogs/sources.gsfc line 16858: Unexpected RHS token Token(type_='misc', value="'1957+40", file_=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='/home/eldering/sched//catalogs/sources.gsfc' mode='r' encoding='UTF-8'>, line=16858)

The complete output of the pySCHED run is below:

$ sched.py -k input.key 
 
    Welcome to pySCHED version 1.18.0 based on
    SCHED version: 11.6 Release 11.6; Feburary 2020
 
The manual is at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/software/sched/index.html
Bug reports, feature requests and other discussions can be posted on the GitHub page:
    https://github.com/jive-vlbi/sched
pySCHED will use the catalogs under /home/eldering/.pysched unless $SCHED is set.
Most run time messages will be in sched.runlog
 
Check 'sched.py -h' for command line paramters.
Some useful commands to give now if running interactively:
   SCHedule=<filename>    :  Specify input file.
   PLOT                   :  Invokes uv, xy, rd, and uptime plotting.
   FREQLIST=lowF,highF    :  Make frequency list (MHz).  Then exit.
   EXIT                   :  Leave program.
   /                      :  End of inputs - run program (or EXIT).
 
Updating catalogs in /home/eldering/.pysched
Catalogs in /home/eldering/.pysched are up-to-date.
Error running pySCHED: /home/eldering/sched//catalogs/sources.gsfc line 16858: Unexpected RHS token Token(type_='misc', value="'1957+40", file_=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='/home/eldering/sched//catalogs/sources.gsfc' mode='r' encoding='UTF-8'>, line=16858)

Explanation of the error

pySCHED is designed to accept and process any valid SCHED input. However some SCHED (source) catalogs have missing quote closing characters. For example in the case above, one of the values of the SOURCE keyword is '1957+40 (note the opening quote without the closing quote character). While SCHED does accept this (a newline implicitly ends a quoted string), the pySCHED parser does not accept this.

Resolution

The pySCHED catalogs are continuously updated to track the SCHED catalogs, with the missing quote problem fixed. To use the pySCHED catalogs, remove the $SCHED environment variable from your shell, by running the following command:
$ unset SCHED
When the $SCHED environment is not set, pySCHED will use the default location, where the pySCHED catalogs are downloaded to. You can also explicitly set this path:
$ export SCHED=~/.pysched

[bobeldering]

A few more example of bad entries in the SCHED source catalog:

The usage of ****** as a value for a number parameter, as found in this entry:

source= '0030-220', 'J0033-2144'
         RA= 00:33:26.209204  DEC= -21:42:50.78168  RAER= 9391.74 DECER= ******  EQUINOX= 'J2000'  CALCODE='V'
         REMARKS= "rfc_2022c Petrov and Kovalev, in preparation  3* observations. No flux information" /

This leads to the following error message running pySCHED:

Error running pySCHED: schedlib.srlist() 5th argument (dece) can't be converted to float

The usage of n/a (unquoted) as a value for any parameter, as found in this entry:

source= '0155-109', 'J0157-1043'
         RA= 01:57:41.619251  DEC= -10:43:40.96512  RAER= 0.15    DECER= 0.26    EQUINOX= 'J2000'  CALCODE='V'
         FLUX= 2.2, 0.377, n/a,   5.0, 0.131, 0.025,   8.4, 0.104, 0.043  FLUXREF='rfc_2022c'
         REMARKS= "rfc_2022c Petrov and Kovalev, in preparation  224 observations" /

This leads to the following (warning) message running pySCHED:
WARNING: An unnamed source was found in the source catalog:
rfc_2022c_cat.key
There may be an extra '/' somewhere.