Where shall we go with scripting?
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 8:43 pm
We are about to enhance the scripting of Digital Atmosphere so that it is possible to combine fields, do true custom analyses, and so on. The idea is to use scripting to form a flexible foundation for Digital Atmosphere, and thus the menu commands (Contour > Temperature, etc) would not drive the program but would simply feed the command line interpreter with a hardcoded command (all behind the scenes of course, for the beginners).
For example, to display an ageostrophic wind we might do: VECT(WIND-GWIND) where DA would subtract the geostrophic wind from the true wind, and the resulting field would be displayed in a vector format. Or to do wind barbs we could do BARB(WIND-GWIND). The user would also be able to create his/her favorite commands and put them into the Contour menu, or a script menu. To do a pressure analysis with a line thickness of 2 we could do CONT(SLP) LINE(2). The question is what is the optimum format to use for such a command?
I had considered the PCGRIDDS script style but decided it was a bit awkward (it strictly reads from right to left). However it is a good start and I think I will draw on some of the conventions it uses. In fact I may begin that way and then make improvements from there. For those interested, the syntax is shown at http://www.lib.noaa.gov/pcgridds/appendix.html in Appendix B.
Anyone here have experience with AWIPS? It would be interesting to see what meteorological scripting conventions it uses (that is, if it has any).
Tim
For example, to display an ageostrophic wind we might do: VECT(WIND-GWIND) where DA would subtract the geostrophic wind from the true wind, and the resulting field would be displayed in a vector format. Or to do wind barbs we could do BARB(WIND-GWIND). The user would also be able to create his/her favorite commands and put them into the Contour menu, or a script menu. To do a pressure analysis with a line thickness of 2 we could do CONT(SLP) LINE(2). The question is what is the optimum format to use for such a command?
I had considered the PCGRIDDS script style but decided it was a bit awkward (it strictly reads from right to left). However it is a good start and I think I will draw on some of the conventions it uses. In fact I may begin that way and then make improvements from there. For those interested, the syntax is shown at http://www.lib.noaa.gov/pcgridds/appendix.html in Appendix B.
Anyone here have experience with AWIPS? It would be interesting to see what meteorological scripting conventions it uses (that is, if it has any).
Tim