19991006: McIDAS installation help? (To: Tom Yoksas)

>From: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
>Organization: NIU
>Keywords: 199910062147.PAA18740 McIDAS-X 7.60

Gilbert,

>I wanted to install the latest version of McIDAS on my Linux 6.0 box. I
>need to know a couple of things:
>
>1) Is there a binary version available?

No, McIDAS is too big to create a binary installation.  At some point
in the future, I want convert the executables to use a shared McIDAS
library, but that is not in this distribution.

>If so, where, and

>if not, is there
>any way I could get assistance from you or a UNIDATA staff member in
>installing it?

It is pretty easy if the online instructions are followed.  But, yes, I
am available to help sites do a proper installation.  There are also a
number of entries in the McIDAS online support system that are
blow-by-blows of how to do a complete McIDAS installation and
configuration.  The other thing that I will be encouraging you to do is
to install the McIDAS ADDE remote server.  I will soon be asking the
close to 30 sites that have installed this if they are willing to act
as each other's realtime data backup sites.  ADDE makes it easy for a
site to view another's holdings; load data; and copy all or portions of
datasets.  This network transparency makes it easy to do collaborative
things.  All I can say is that ADDE is cool!

>And what is the McIDAS passowrd now?

I am including the note I send to everyone getting the user name and
password at the bottom of this email.  The access information is buried
inside (but please read all of it).

>2) I have an older version of McIDAS (the one previous to this release) on
>my system already, but I guess I'd have to overwrite everything. Any files
>I need to back up?

If you created any custom BATCH or McBASI (e.g. RUN) files; if you
modified any of the BATCH/McBASI files in the distribution; if you
created new enhancement/stretch tables, etc; then you need to back them
up before you do an installation.  The installation does copy all of
the BATCH and McBASI files from ~mcidas/data into ~mcidas/savedata on
installation, but if one runs into snags and does a second
installation, the first set of saved files gets overwritten by the
second.

If you modify any of our BATCH files in the distribution for
PostProcess production of products, then you would do well to copy your
modified versions to the ~mcidas/workdata directory.  There, the files
will not be overwritten, and they will still be used by the PostProcess
system (e.g. batch.k) since they will be in the first directory in the
user 'mcidas' MCPATH.

>Thanks, as always, for any and all assistance!

No problem.

Please read the various notes and look through the online documentation
BEFORE you attempt to build the distribution.

As a reminder, the primary contact for McIDAS at a site should be
subscribed to our McIDAS-X email list so that s/he will be made aware
of important changes/additions/bugfixes to the distribution.  You can
subscribe online through the following web page:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing-list-form.html

The 7.60 distribution of McIDAS-X is Y2K capable.

Please note the following:

1).  As of the 7.40 release, we no longer provide hardcopy documentation
     for Unidata McIDAS.  Instead, we have made all of the documentation
     accessible online in various links under:

     http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/pacakges/mcidas/mcx

     We also make PostScript (tm) files of the SSEC portion of the McIDAS-X
     documentation available.  Please look at the unix/760/docs directory
     and it subdirectories for these files.

2).  Please do not hesitate to report inconsistencies or omissions in our
     online documentation.  Since it is relatively new, there are bound
     to be things that need modification.

3).  McIDAS-X should be installed in an account named 'mcidas'.

4).  The McIDAS-X remote ADDE server be setup in an account named 'mcadde'.

5).  Do _NOT_ do a 'make clobber' after installing 7.60.  The object files
     and McIDAS-X and -XCD libraries will need to be there so that upgrades
     can be easily integrated into the 7.60 installation.

6).  Please do not hesitate to ask for assistance when building, installing,
     or configuring Unidata McIDAS-X.  The cleaner the installation
     on your end, the easier it will be for you to use and update and the
     easier it will be for us to support.

7).  As promised in the Known Problems page for McIDAS-X 7.50, there have
     been major refinements in the configuration of the Unidata NIDS
     and NOWrad (tm) servers.

8).  There will be continual changes to this and future releases of McIDAS-X.
     Some of the changes already planned are:

     o augmentation/modification of the Unidata Tcl/Tk GUI
     o documentation for Unidata Tcl/Tk GUI
     o development of ADDE servers for imagery in GINI format (GINI
       is the format of the imagery in the NOAAPORT channel 1 and 2 streams)
     o development of ADDE servers for imagery in TeraScan (tm) format
     o development of ADDE servers for DMSP imagery
     o other

9).  We have released a new distribution of ldm-mcidas decoders that
     are Y2K capable and McIDAS-X 7.60 compatible.  The new distribution
     is ldm-mcidas Version 7.6.1.

10). Unidata McIDAS-OS2 is no longer a supported package.  It support
     was sunset on July 31, 1999.

11). If you are not already transitioning to use of the newer ADDE
     routines in McIDAS-X, you need to start doing so now.  A large
     number of old, non-ADDE routines will be sunset in upcoming
     Unidata McIDAS releases.  Please review:

     Release Notes
     http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/release_notes.html

     and

     Sunset Items
     http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/sunset.html

     for further details.

12). If you are not already using the XCD package (bundled with Unidata
     McIDAS versions 7+), you will need to do so immediately.  The MD,
     GRID, PROFILER.CDF, UNIDATAS, and ADMIN.MSG products that were
     included in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream were removed on July
     1, 1999.  XCD decoders and IDD conveyance of global surface, upper
     air, ship/buoy, airep/pirep, synoptic, fous, NCEP model data, etc.
     allows any site to create global data files usable by Unidata
     McIDAS.  In order to conserve funds, and possible redirect some to
     enhance imagery products, we need to stop providing the above,
     redundant data in the Unidata- Wisconsin datastream.

The user name & password information for access to Unidata McIDAS is:

machine: ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
user: umcidas
pass: XXXXXX
directory for X: unix/760

The user name and password are the same for both FTP and web access to
the distribution.  We encourage you to grab the distribution files
through the web access that we have provided.  Please review the
Unidata McIDAS documentation at:

McIDAS-X
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx

Please keep us informed as to your progress.

>Thank you.

You are welcome.

>Sincerely,
>Dr. Mace Bentley
>Kentucky Climate Center
>Department of Geography & Geology
>Western Kentucky University

Tom Yoksas