20000105: Old OS/2 McIDAS Question

>From: Chris Novy <address@hidden>
>Organization: Southern Illinios University
>Keywords: 200001052026.NAA18062 OS2-750 dmnids

Hi Chris-

>I realize OS/2 McIDAS (especially 7.10) is no longer supported but I
>have a quick question. Were there any Y2K compliance issues concerning
>ingestion of NIDS data? 

There are now! ;-) see below.

>I no longer work for Southern Illinois
>University but I'm providing "remote support" for them.
>
>They are seeing messages like:
>  
>   Queuing WSI NEX/PAH/VEL4/200001050010
>   Processing WSI NEX/PAH/VEL4/200001050010

They should see the decoding messages after this. Something like:

M0NIDSDC -- BEGIN
PRODUCT CODE=R5       5    001640
M0NIDSDC -- DONE  AREA   483

They can check the status of the decoder by typing:

DECINFO LIST DMNIDS

if it lists as inactive, they can activate it by typing:

DECINFO SET DMNIDS ACTIVE

It shouldn't automatically deactivate, so if it is inactive, then
I'm not sure how it would get that way.

>I know there were some NLDN issues but I don't recall anyone writing
>about NIDS. 

The changes to the NLDN datastream should not have affected the OS/2 
decoder since it does not use the LDM header information to get the date
and time.  I haven't been feeding NLDN to my OS/2 box, but I just
started it up and it seems to work, however there are no lightning 
flashes since 12Z so I can't really verify this.

>Is it possible the OS/2 ingestor somehow suspended
>processsing of these products and all they need to do is a RELEASE?

That's my guess, but....

I just noticed on my OS/2 machine that the dates in the NIDS AREA files
are coming out as 5 instead of 100005. I was able to create a new binary
of the decoder on my OS/2 system (tested briefly) and I've put this new
version of the decoder (dmnids.exe) in the os2/750/bugfix directory of
the McIDAS FTP account. You could install this version of DMNIDS in
c:\mcidas\user\code, deactivate the decoder and then reactivate it to
get the new binary:

from the OS/2 command prompt (assuming McIDAS executables are on C:):

c:
cd \mcidas\user\code
ftp ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
(login using umcidas/XXXXXX)
cd os2/750/bugfix
bin
get dmnids.exe
quit

in McIDAS:

DECINFO SET DMNIDS INACTIVE
DECINFO SET DMNIDS ACTIVE

Note, after the AMS meeting next week, my OS/2 system will become a
Windows NT system, so I will not be able to solve future OS/2 problems
that require code changes.  If SIU wants to continue running McIDAS,
they will have to move over to McIDAS-X.  

Don Murray

>From address@hidden  Wed Jan  5 16:15:50 2000

Thanks.

I'm downloading 7.60 for UNIX right now.  We'll see if I can get it
running remotely.  ..Chris..