Speaker
Description
The Fermi Science Tools are a software suite provided by the Fermi Science Support Center (FSSC) to facilitate analysis of data gathered by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. In the past the software was distributed via compiled binaries or compile-able source code downloads from the FSSC’s website. While this system was effective, it relied on a large amount of developer hours from the FSSC in addition to the original time contributed by the code’s authors to compile, debug, test, and package the code on all supported systems. In order to streamline this process and increase ease of use the ScienceTools were ported to the Conda Package Manager and distributed via a channel controlled by the FSSC. This has allowed for the use of Continuous Integration systems, greater ease of installation, and faster turn-around time on software updates. In this talk I will be discussing the problems we encountered making this transition with a legacy software package, detailing the benefits obtained, and presenting lessons learned in the process.
