[McIDAS #HMV-801244]: ASCII file display in McIDAS-X

Hi Sohail,

re:
> Can you please look into the following process I have done.  What wrong
> with that now?
> 
> what am i unable to list the ASCII files and to implement TXT2MD command?

I think that you are misunderstanding what the input to TXT2MD is.
TXT2MD uses an ASCII file, NOT and ADDE TEXT dataset element, as its
input:

HELP TXT2MD

 TXT2MD - Creates an MD file from an ASCII text data file
    TXT2MD sfile dfile schema <keywords>
 Parameters:
    sfile  | source ASCII text file name and extension
    dfile  | destination MD file number
    schema | MD file schema name, e.g. IRAB, ISFC

sfile - source ASCII text file name and extension, not an ADDE TEXT dataset!!

re:
> Here is the screenshot for the DSSERVE and listing commands for the
> file. I followed your instructions but maybe i am using the wrong command
> to list the files.

You would use the READ command to read the contents of a text dataset element:

HELP READ
READ - Lists the contents of an ADDE text dataset
   READ dataset
Parameters:
   dataset | ADDE dataset name; specify as group/descriptor or alias
Remarks:
   READ lists the contents of a text dataset, which points to a single
   text file.  If the dataset is on a remote server, use the DATALOC
   command to map the group name to the remote server workstation.

re:
> Also attaching the ASCII files i have. Please guide me.

Even if you get a TEXT ADDE dataset created and usable (by READ, for
example), it will not be usable by TXT2MD.

To address your question directly (even though I do NOT think that this
is what you want to be doing):

I created an ADDE TEXT dataset in the same way as you showed in your
screen capture of your DSSERVE command:

DSSERVE ADD NAV/MODIS TEXT INFO='/home/mcidas/workdata/GOES_VIS.001' "ASCII 
FILES

Group/Descriptor         Type  Format & Range     RT Comment
------------------------ ----- ------------------ -- --------------------
NAV/MODIS                TEXT  TEXT                  ASCII FILES
                               Info=/home/mcidas/workdata/GOES_VIS.001
DSSERVE: done

I then tried to use READ to list out values from the dataset.  Since
the output looks like gibberish (control characters, etc.), I decided
to take a look at GOES_VIS.001 and GOES_VIS2.001:

$ less GOES_VIS.001 
"GOES_VIS.001" may be a binary file.  See it anyway? 

$ less attachments/GOES_VIS2.001
"attachments/GOES_VIS2.001" may be a binary file.  See it anyway? 

This is telling us that GOES_VIS.001 and GOES_VIS2.001 are _not_
ASCII files, they are binary.  They are not, therefore, appropriate
to include in an ADDE TEXT dataset.

Cheers,

Tom
--
****************************************************************************
Unidata User Support                                    UCAR Unidata Program
(303) 497-8642                                                 P.O. Box 3000
address@hidden                                   Boulder, CO 80307
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unidata HomePage                       http://www.unidata.ucar.edu
****************************************************************************


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: HMV-801244
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed
===================
NOTE: All email exchanges with Unidata User Support are recorded in the Unidata 
inquiry tracking system and then made publicly available through the web.  If 
you do not want to have your interactions made available in this way, you must 
let us know in each email you send to us.