TOPCAT: Working with Data and Working with Users

TL;DR

TOPCAT is a widely used desktop application for interactive analysis of astronomical tabular data, with a focus on usability, design, and handling datasets of various sizes, developed over 15 years.

Contribution

This paper reviews TOPCAT's capabilities, design considerations, and user interaction issues, highlighting its development history and practical utility in astronomy.

Findings

Effective handling of large and small datasets

Design considerations for user interaction and software development

Long-term development and widespread adoption in astronomy

Abstract

TOPCAT is a desktop application for interactive analysis of tabular data, especially source catalogues. Along with its command-line counterpart STILTS, it has been under more or less continuous development for the past 15 years and is now widely used by astronomers from project students to research scientists. This paper reviews its capabilities as a tool for working with large and small datasets, and considers some of the issues in design, implementation and user interaction that have to be tackled when developing software of this kind.