IDV 1.2 Release Candidate 1 available for testing

• To: idvusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, idvdevelopers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: IDV 1.2 Release Candidate 1 available for testing
• From: Don Murray <dmurray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:34:40 -0600

Hello-

We are providing a release candidate (RC) of the IDV 1.2 for
download and testing.  We would appreciate help in testing
this latest release before making a full release in mid-July.

What's in this release:

There are very few new features since the 1.2b2 release in
March, however the underlying structure for reading in
netCDF data has been modified heavily.  We are using the
new netCDF for Java 2.2 infrastructure which is currently
in an alpha state (on it's way to beta).   We have made
every effort to ensure compatibility with old bundles.
However, we would like users who frequently use bundles
or access non-standard datasets to test this release before
we make it final.

This latest release supports more forms of netCDF point
data and aircraft trajectory data.  In particular, it
supports the 1 Hz aircraft sensor data stored in the NCAR
RAF format.  We will support sub-Hertz data in a future
release.

See the Release Notes page in the User's Guide for a list
of changes.

What's not in this release:

Up-to date documentation.
Local reading of Level III (NIDS) data

Please note that we anticipate there may be some incompatibilities
with datasets that previously worked in earlier versions.  That's
why we need your help testing.  If you find problems with bundles or
datasets that worked in previous releases, please use the support form
feature in the IDV to report these or send a note to
support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

This should be considered a test release only.  As such, it is not
available from the normal IDV downloads page.  You can access this
release from:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/release/idv_1.2rc1

InstallAnywhere Installers, source and Jar files, a Webstart link and
the User's Guide are available on that page.

Thanks for your help in testing this release.

Don Murray
Jeff McWhirter
Doug Lindholm