20000323: MAP names recognized by McIDAS

>From: Bill Fingerhut <address@hidden>
>Organization: Lyndon State College
>Keywords: 200003231338.GAA28882 McIDAS-X MAP names

Bill,

>McIDAS recognizes several map names, such as EURO and USA,
>which are quite useful. I believe a map of Canada would be
>just as useful, but there is no such 'predefined' map name.

You are correct, of course.  We felt that there needed to be a large
list of map names recognized by McIDAS, that is why we wrote the
McBASI script, BKGMAP.BAT, and integrated it with both the Fkey
and MCGUI interfaces.  For reference, BKGMAP's invocation syntax is:

REM ? Invocation:
REM ?          BATCH mnemonic frame LALO SVF PRO FLIP BAR EG "BKGMAP.BAT
REM ?                   |       |    |    |   |   |    |  |   |_ BATCH file name
REM ?                   |       |    |    |   |   |    |  |___ erase after
REM ?                   |       |    |    |   |   |    |______ draw data bar
REM ?                   |       |    |    |   |   |___________ flip to menu
REM ?                   |       |    |    |   |_______________ map projection
REM ?                   |       |    |    |___________________ VIRT file save
REM ?                   |       |    |________________________ LATxLON line flag
REM ?                   |       |_____________________________ frame to draw in
REM ?                   |_____________________________________ map mnemonic

The idea behind the use of BKGMAP.BAT is that it contains definitions for
a large variety of maps; you pass it the mnemonic for the map you want
(with other things you can see from this list); and then you plot on top
of the map using the NAV=C keyword for ADDE commands; the OLAY map
type for Unidata-supplied commands; or the SAT map for SSEC commands.

>Does one exist that I am not aware of?

No.

>If not, could you suggest to the higher powers that one be
>created?

This problem is being attacked in a much different way.  In a future
McIDAS release, there will be map definition files where the user can
define his/her own map mnemonics.  The newer ADDE applications will
read this file; find the mnemonic; and use the user-supplied map
definition.  In fact, the setup is even more flexible than this.  Instead
of just one definition file, there will be three: a user-defined one,
a site defined one, and a system one.  The system one would be one that
is delivered with the distribution.  The site defined one would be one
that the McIDAS administrator at a site can define.  The user defined
one would be configurable on a user-by-user basis.  The search order
for getting the map mnemonic would be then user followed by site followed
by system.  This feature will really make it a lot easier to plot
on specific maps.  Unfortunately, it is not in the current distribution.

>Thanks, Bill

You are welcome.

Tom