20000713: Lyndon State model data display Tcl/Tk GUI

>From: Bill Fingerhut <address@hidden>
>Organization: Lyndon State
>Keywords: 200007131522.e6DFMAT21195 McIDAS-X Tcl/Tk GRID interface

Bill,

Sorry I have been so silent.  I got your emails about your Tcl/Tk GUI
to GRID display in McIDAS-X.  Thanks!  I have played with them a bit
and have run into a couple of small things which I simply won't have
address until this weekend (or next week).

>In 2 previous emails I sent the 2 files needed to display
>model forecast data: model.gui and WAFMODX.BAT

Right.  I got them, put them into the appropriate directories and
played with them a bit.

>They should work if they are in the users path.
>At the begining of the BATCH file is a list of resources used.
>
>If you have some time, try a few combinations of parameters.

I have.

>A constant pain in the side with this script is that ADDE
>leaves a lot to be desired when selecting data.

I agree that one must be _very_ explicit when asking for grids
and that there is no way to tell the server that multiples of the
same grid should be ignored.

>I have lots of 'extra' code to make sure I get what I want.

I did the same sort of thing in my Fkey menu, but to a much lesser
extent.

>The data is also problematic because there is often more
>than one grid per quantity. Sometimes the only difference is
>the geographic area covered by the grid. For example,
>if you do 
>       GRDLIST RTGRIDS/MRF PARAM=Z LEV=500 DAY=2000195 
>TIME=0 FHOUR=84 96 12 NUM=50 GPRO=PS
>
>there are 6 grids at FHOUR=84.

This sort of thing can be eliminated by reconfiguring XCD to save grids
not only by model, but also by projection.  This is essentially what
GEMPAK does: each GEMPAK grid file has only one projection in it.
The problem with the duplicate grids (i.e., same grid, same projection,
same time, etc.) is a tougher nut to crack.  One could, I suppose,
get a listing of the contents of the GRID file and then parse it to
find out the grid numbers of interest, but this seems like a big 
pain.

>So, what do you think?

I like what I have seen, but wonder why you didn't redo the BATCH file
as a Tcl script or, better yet, as a Tcl procedure.  Using Tcl directly
would speed things up (this is marginal, I'll admit) since you wouldn't
have to be reading/writing the the McIDAS string table (all of the TEs).
I will be immersing myself into an update of my MCGUI coming up real
soon, so I will be looking to learn as much from your work as I can.

Again, thanks for providing me your code!

Tom