19990622: Latest Mcidas

>From: Harry Edmon <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of Washington
>Keywords: 199906221714.LAA24187 McIDAS-X 7.60

Harry,

>I was about to grab Mcidas 7.50 (finally), and I notice there is a 7.60.   Is
>this the one I should use, or is it not yet ready?

I am in the process of putting our 7.60 release together. I am
targeting release for sometime in July.  If you have no pressing need
for a current McIDAS-X release, I would suggest waiting.  If you
are hot for the latest release, I could make the distribution tar file
available to you with the understanding that some routines are likely to
change.  Please let me know.

The biggest change between versions 7.50 and 7.60 is the rewrite of the
graphics subsystem.  Previously, a large block of shared memory was
allocated for graphics; this block could not be increased during a
McIDAS-X session.  Now, memory for graphics is allocated in chunks as
needed.  The most visible change for the user is much faster startup
time and, for small to medium sessions (like the ones most Unidata
users use), a lot less memory use.

The other change in 7.60 is the support for use of gcc/f2c on the set
of platforms that SSEC tests on (a subset of those Unidata supports).
I will be sending out my distribution with my makefile set to build
using vendor-supplied compilers; SSEC sent its 7.60 version out with
defaults to use gcc/f2c.

Tom

>From address@hidden  Tue Jun 22 13:19:19 1999

I will wait until August.  Thanks for the info.