History of pamela

pamela originated as a monolithic program in the late 70s, running under VMS. With the ever larger data frame sizes the original version became difficult and I split it up into separate routines in the mid-80s. It then went through different data formats, starting with BDF, then to DST and SDF as supported by Figaro, and now finally to its current, and I hope final, resting place with the NDF I/O routines.

Over this time its treatment of uncertainties and how it copes with bad data has gradually improved. pamela implemented one of the earliest optimal extraction algorithms, and also includes a method to cope with fitting tilted spectra which is not widely available.

Why is it called pamela? I don't know; you'll have to ask Keith Horne.

Tom Marsh, Warwick.