19990526: LWPATH.NAM?

>From: Jim Heimbach <address@hidden>
>Organization: UNCA
>Keywords: 199905262030.OAA14674 McIDAS-X 7.5

Jim,

>     Finally got back into McIDAS and made the changes you suggested.
>Yezzer!  The McGUI is in the slick category.

I'm glad that you like the first steps on a real GUI for McIDAS.  There
will be many changes/improvements in the future.

>     I think everything is pretty well set and I have installed
>everything on another PC without any trauma.  I'm having some trouble
>with data and some other items not being found.  The missing data
>seems to belong to MDXX-files.  In my redirection, I thought I set
>this up like any other, assigning MDXX* to /typhoon/data/mcidas/data.
>This was done both manually, and in LWPATH.NAM.

LWPATH.NAM is the disk-resident repository for a user's set of REDIRECTions.
It really should not be edited by hand; rather, it is best to "populate"
it by running the REDIRECT command to add/delete things.  The other
way of setting up a slug of REDIRECTions at one go is to do what I
recommend in the online documents:  copy ~mcidas/data/EXAMPLE.NAM to
~mcidas/data/LOCAL.NAM and edit it directly.  After editing
~mcidas/data/LOCAL.NAM each user should then run:

REDIRECT REST LOCAL.NAM

LOCAL.NAM should be accessible to all users by virtue of the 
~mcidas/data directory being in their MCPATH (don't use '~', however.
Use the fully qualified path for the ~mcidas/data directory).

>In previous McIDAS-X
>installations, there was fussiness where this file and several others
>were placed.

There is still this kind of fussiness.  Each McIDAS account (other than
the one for 'mcidas') must have a mcidas/data subdirectory (e.g.
/home/joe/mcidas/data).  This will then be that user's McIDAS working
directory.  It will be defined to be such by virtue of that user's
MCDATA being defined to be the directory (e.g. MCPATH=/home/joe/mcidas/data).
That directory will also be the first directory in the user's MCPATH
(e.g. MCPATH=${MCDATA}:/home/mcidas/data:/home/mcidas/help).

>I have LWPATH.NAM in /home/mcidas/workdata.

This is correct for the user 'mcidas' since the working directory for
'mcidas' will be /home/mcidas/workdata.

>This is for 
>both the mcidas account and the user account called uncamcid.Is this right
>and proper?

No.  The account 'uncamcid' should have the following setup:

MCDATA=/home/uncamcid/mcidas/data
MCPATH=${MCDATA}:/home/mcidas/data:/home/mcidas/help
MCGUI=/home/mcidas/bin
PATH=${MCGUI}:...

A complete list can be found in the online installation/configuration
documents.

>     Feel free to prowl around:

OK, I did.  Here is what I would change:

o currently, you have a lot of the anciallary McIDAS data files in
  /typhoon/data/mcidas/data.  For example:

  *.bdf *.GRX DC* *.ST *.ET ABBREF.LW ADDGRID.BAT AFOS.TXT ID* *.BAT
  MAPDEFLT.COR *.DAT *.TXT OUTl* *.MCB, etc.

  I _strongly_ (actually __very__ strongly) recommend that you reserve
  the data directory for simple data files (e.g. MDXX, AREA, GRID, and
  several textual type files that will be produced by XCD decoders).

  I can't emphesize this strongly enough!!

  The above files should be located in the ~mcidas/data directory.  They
  will be sharable by all users through each user's MCPATH setting.

o I noted that you apparently copied AREA9* from /home/mcidas/data
  to /typhoon/data/mcidas/data.  I would leave these files in
  /home/mcidas/data.

o I would revisit the setting up of file REDIRECTions and follow the
  examples in /home/mcidas/data/EXAMPLE.NAM.  In particular, I would
  have specific REDIRECTions for the various AREA and MDXX files.
  I would do this in preference to the general ones that you now
  have.

  For example, you now have:

AREA*        /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
GRID*         /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX*        /typhoon/data/mcidas/data

  I am more inclined to have specific REDIRECTions like:

AREA006*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
AREA010*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
AREA011*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
AREA012*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
AREA013*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
 ...

AREA901*     /home/mcidas/data

 ...

MDXX000*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX001*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX002*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX0030     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX008*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX009*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX0100     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data

 ...

GRID000*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
GRID010*     /typhoon/data/mcidas/data

 ...

GRID5*      /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
"
" Lightning data (via IDD from SUNY Albany)
"
MDXX007*    /typhoon/data/mcidas/data
MDXX0080    /typhoon/data/mcidas/data

etc.

  This may seem like overkill, but it tends to work out better in the long
  run.

Another thing I noticed while on chinook was that you have not yet 
implemented the McIDAS-XCD decoding of data from the Unidata IDD.  I
hope that you received the advisory message I sent out yesterday warning
all McIDAS users (and also those on the ldm-users email list) that
the non-image products (e.g. MDXX, GRID, PROFILER.CDF, etc.) in the
Unidata-Wisconsin datastream will be going away effective July 1, 1999.
This date is fast approaching, so it would be wise to make the switch
as soon as possible.  We stand ready to help out, of course.

>     Many thanks -- Jim Heimbach

Please let me know if/when I can help in your transition.

Tom