20000428: McIDAS-X 7.6x update/addenda installation

>From: Mark Tucker <address@hidden>
>Organization: Lyndon State
>Keywords: 200004272134.e3RLYsG12837 McIDAS-X 7.6x addenda

Mark,

I logged onto 155.42.21.97 and took a quick look at the setup.  It appears
that:

o you did load McIDAS-X 7.6 back in August of 1999

o you grabbed the addendum file from the 7.40 version of McIDAS instead
  of the one for 7.60

Since the 7.40 addendum file, mcupdate.tar.Z, contained a copy of
makefile, you now have the 7.40 makefile coupled with the 7.60
distribution.

Unfortunately, backing out of this situation is not as easy as simply
grabbing and installing the 7.60 addendum.  All of the files in the
7.40 addendum need to be replaced with 7.60 versions.  The absolute easiest
way to get to a code set you need is to grab and install the
entire 7.60 distribution.  I just started the FTP to get things moving.
After the transfer is finished, the following needs to be done:

<login as 'mcidas'>
cd ~mcidas
./mcinstall
cd mcidas7.6/src
make all                or       make mcx           if XCD is not needed
make install.all        or       make install.mcx   if XCD is not needed

>On a somewhat unrelated note, I was wondering why using the "!" will
>produce different results than the "OS" command.  For example:
>
>!tl.k Y                                                                
>Y           := 2000119                                                 
>  --END OF LIST                                                        
>OS {tl.k Y                                                             
>OS: Done                

The OS {tl.k Y will run the tl.k in a new instance of the shell.  There are
much better ways of trapping output from commands.  Please see below.

>This is affecting some tcl gui scripts we are working on.  We (Bill) were
>hoping to be able to capture a string table value into a tcl variable
>within the tcl script instead of passing it as a argument.

There are several McIDAS-related commands added to the 'mcwish' Tcl/Tk
windowing shell routine built with McIDAS-X.  Here is a piece of the
information block from the Unidata-provided Tcl/Tk GUI for McIDAS-X
(mcgui.k):

#          o mcwish provides three interfaces for Tk:
#
#          o mcidas
#            altkey          - run McIDAS ALT-<> command
#            exec            - run McIDAS command in foreground or background
#            area get        - return 4-byte value from McIDAS AREA file
#            area put        - set 4-byte value in McIDAS AREA file
#            pathname        - return file's fully qualified McIDAS pathname
#            peek            - return a User Common value
#            poke            - set a User Common value
#            shadow          - run proc based on change in specified UC value
#            stringtable get - return String Table value
#            stringtable put - set String Table value
#            syskey get      - return System Key Table value
#            syskey put      - set System Key Table value
#          o xwindow
#            xinfo           - return information on an X window
#            xwindow         - reparent an X window

The action you are interested in is 'stringtable get', since this returns
the value of a string table variable to Tcl/Tk.  Here is an example of
how this is used in Tcl/Tk:

set myval [mcidas stringtable get Y]
 ^   ^       ^         ^       ^  ^___ McIDAS string table variable name
 |   |       |         |       |______ string table action
 |   |       |         |______________ what we want to manipulate
 |   |       |________________________ McIDAS interface in mcwish
 |   |________________________________ Tcl/Tk variable
 |____________________________________ Tcl/Tk command

Similarly, if you wanted to set a value in the string table, you would
run:

mcidas stringtable put MYVAL value
                        ^      |____ value you want to store in MYVAL
                        |___________ McIDAS string table variable name

As you (Bill) can see, there are a number of very useful McIDAS additions
to mcwish.  To see how they are used, you/he should browse through
the files mcgui.k and upcguiprocs.tcl which can be found in the ~mcidas/bin
directory.

Tom

>From address@hidden Fri Apr 28 11:29:48 2000

I found the cause of the problem you ran into.  The web page from which
you downloaded the addendum had an old link to the 7.40 mcupdate.tar.Z
file.  This was my fault, and I apologize profusely!  The origin of
this problem goes all the way back to the end of July, 1999.  The fact
that other users have not run into the problem tells me that they are
get the updates through FTP, not web downloads.

Unfortunately, my previous comments on how to get out of this situation
still stand.  One must reinstall the source code; rebuild the
distribution; and reinstall the binaries.

Again, I apologize for my screw-up.

Tom

>From address@hidden Fri Apr 28 13:43:16 2000
>Subject: 20000428: McIDAS-X 7.6x update/addenda installation (cont.)

>Thanks.  I ftp the file and am in the middle of the compile right now.  So
>far everything looks to be in order. 

re: Again, I apologize for my screw-up.

>It's not a disaster.  That's what I have backups for.  :)

>Mark Tucker
>Information Technology
>Lyndon State College
>address@hidden
>http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu

>From address@hidden Fri Apr 28 13:47:30 2000
>Subject: trapping strings

>Tom,

>Thanks, again.

>Bill

Bill Fingerhut, Professor              PHONE: 802-626-6257