The astronomical data reduction package REDUCEME reduces and analyzes long-slit spectroscopic data. The package uses the unformatted FORTRAN raw data format, so requires FITS files be transformed to REDUCEME format; the reverse operation (from REDUCEME to FITS format) is also available. The package is a set of programs written in FORTRAN 77 and includes shell scripts (using the C shell syntax) to perform routine tasks; it can be extended by the inclusion of external programs. REDUCEME uses PGPLOT (ascl:1103.002) for line plots and images, and a subset of subroutines, called BUTTON, enables the user to communicate interactively with the image display employing graphic buttons. One advantage of using REDUCEME is that for each image an associated error image can also be processed throughout the reduction process, allowing for a careful control of the error propagation.

CaTffs predicts the strength of calcium triplet indices (CaT*, PaT and CaT) on the basis of empirical fitting functions and performs required interpolations between the different local functions. Together with the indices predictions, the program also computes the random errors associated to such predictions resulting from the covariance matrices of the fits (for the indices CaT* and PaT). This ensures a reliable error index estimation for any combination of input atmospheric parameters.