dax: DS9 Analysis Extensions in CIAO

dax is a suite of scripts that allows various CIAO tools (written to support the Chandra X-ray Observatory) to be run using the analysis framework provided by SAOImage DS9. This allows users to quickly leverage the functionality CIAO provides without having to invest in learning the syntax and semantics of each of the tools. This simplification of the interface benefits all astronomers since many of the CIAO tools are sufficiently generic that they can work with data sets from arbitrary observatories. We present the dax design and discuss some of the pitfalls and limitations we encountered while building dax.