New Jython-VisAD tutorial

• To: visad-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, scientists <scientists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: New Jython-VisAD tutorial
• From: Tom Whittaker <tomw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 14:22:42 -0500

I am please to announce the initial release of the Jython tutorial/guide for
VisAD, called "Using Jython with VisAD". While this is a work-in-progress, it
is far enough along to, I believe, serve a useful purpose in orienting people
toward using Jython (Python) for working with VisAD Data without having to know
all about "RealTupleTypes and tuples of RealTypes".  I'm trying to target more
of the "scientist-programmer" rather than the "professional programmer".

The first part of this is a general introduction to Jython (the Java
implementation of the Python language), and even if you don't use VisAD you
might find this of interest.

There are some incomplete sections in the tutorial -- I'm still working on
those.  Plus, the three main support files (JPythonMethods, subs.py and
graph.py) are constantly being added to and refined.  At present the two .py
files are not distributed in the visad.jar file, but we'll working on changing
that.

I ask for feedback and guidance for future work on this tutorial/guide.

The tutorial will be linked off the VisAD homepage next week, but in the
meantime, you can get at it directly at:

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~tomw/visadtutor/index.html

On final note:  for Windows users, I have packaged up an 18MB "runtime"
environment that into a self-extracting ZIP file that includes:  Java1.3,
Java3D, visad.jar, jython.jar, subs.py, graph.py, and a couple of .bat files to
get you rolling.  It is self-contained and should be unzipped into a brand new
directory, if you want to use it.  The link to the file is in the tutorial...

-- 
Tom Whittaker (tomw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Space Science and Engineering Center
Phone/VoiceMail: 608/262-2759
Fax: 608/262-5974