[idvdevelopers] IDV 2.4 beta2 ready for testing

• To: IDV Users <idvusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, idvdevelopers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [idvdevelopers] IDV 2.4 beta2 ready for testing
• From: Don Murray <dmurray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:11:01 -0600

Hi All-

We have made a stable beta release of IDV 2.4 (beta 2) that
is available for testing.  While this is stable, it is not
a supported release, so only download it if you are interested
in providing feedback on the development and don't need a supported
version.

New features in this release:

- New diagnostic functions:  Many new grid diagnostic functions
have been added to the Jython library. The System
library has been broken out into several smaller pieces.
Since there are many new diagnostic functions, we have not
created formulas for each of them.  We've added a couple
of new automatic derived functions for grids (geostrophic
wind, ageostrophic wind) just as samples.   The real power
is in two new formulas:  Miscellaneous->Define a formula
and Grids->Define a grid diagnostic  (they are actually the
same thing).  Using these, you can use the standard gfunc
syntax to create a diagnostic and then will be prompted
for the input parameters.  Many of the new diagnostics are
based on the GEMPAK syntax, but some have had their names
changed. (e.g. str is strd in IDV).  The complete list is at:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/release/stable/docs/userguide/tools/JythonLib.html

For those of you who have never used GEMPAK, see if you can figure
out how to use the library functions in a formula. ;-)

- New Jython Shell.  For you IDL and MatLab users, we've implemented
a Jython interpreter shell (Edit->Formulas->Jython Shell) where you
can test out your Jython skills.  You can use this to create derived
quantities, make new displays, and just futz around.  Docs on this
are limited at present:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/release/stable/docs/userguide/tools/JythonLib.html

but feedback is appreciated.

- Display Settings:  The Display Settings facility allows you to select
 a set of properties from a display control (e.g., color table,
contouring info, isosurface value, label template, etc.) and apply them
to other display controls and/or save them as preferences to be used
when creating new display controls.

See the docs at:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/release/stable/docs/userguide/tools/DisplaySettings.html

This allows you to predefine some properties for displays before
you load them in.

Minor things:

- you can now set the vertical scale on cross sections.
- you can now use derivative functions on lat/lon grids
- You can use formulas on single level grids

Please test your favorite bundles to make sure that we haven't
broken anything.

You can download this release from the IDV downloads page:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/downloads/idv

Please send in bug reports/problems to support-idv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Don, Jeff and Yuan