The Future of PCGRIDDS32

[jkrob]

To all PCGRIDDS/PCGRIDDS32 users,

If I recall correctly, PCGRIDDS was released by Dr. Ralph Petersen back in the early-mid 1990s and PCGRIDDS32 was officially released back in March of 2003. PCGRIDDS32 has been growing and maturing for the past 2.5 years. I was waiting for this latest release to go out before I put out this announcement.

The time has come and further development of PCGRIDDS32 will cease and nothing new will be added. If serious bugs are reported and a fix is available, and update will be issued, but for all practical purposes, the code development is frozen.

I have always stated PCGRIDDS32 is an interim product between the origional DOS PCGRIDDS and a future, full Windows GUI application. Well, it is today that I am proud to announce that the future has arrived. Two months ago, the kind folks at NWS NCEP HPC purchased a software development tool for me called Winteracter. This is a rapid MS Windows GUI development environment for the FORTRAN computer language that PCGRIDDS/PCGRIDDS32 is written in. With this tool, instead of taking 2-3 years to develop a MS GUI program, I hope to do it within a year or so.

So today I am announcing the birth of the WINdows Gridded Interactive Display and Diagnostic System (WINGRIDDS). It will be completely command and macro compatible with PCGRIDDS32. There will be, of course, some slight changes to the look and feel of some things related to the user interface but I will try to keep it as close as possible. The GUI design will follow the model of an Internet web browser. Where the Address Line is, that is where you will enter commands and the Bookmarks or Favorites will be the menu to access command macros. The WAFS and NWS GRIB ingest utilities will be incorporated into the program and the batch file interface which PCGRIDDS and PCGRIDDS32 had will be gone. All of the configuration files which PCGRIDDS32 has will be accessible through a Preference Menu selection.

The biggest departure from the way PCGRIDDS32 works is how to handle command macro loops and animation. Both of these operations require user interface and the question will be how to incorporate that into the GUI. Should there be “Stop” and “Go” buttons for the Loop control and other similar buttons to control Animation or is there a better way? I am open to suggestions on that. I want to make sure the GUI is designed in a user-friendly way but operations of the program is fairly obvious and not confusing. My way may not be the best way.

Once WINGRIDDS is released, I’m wanting to incorporate other things such as the ability to use surface and upper-air observations, overlay satellite imagery, reformat grid projections on the fly, incorporate a Skew-T and Hodograph displays as well as other things…maybe even NEXRAD data. The time table of NCEP’s crossover to GRIB2 data may require an emergency release for PCGRIDDS32 but I’ll play that by ear. However, the immediate goal is to learn how to use Winteracter, design and develop the GUI and get the PCGRIDDS32 code ported over and incorporated into the new WINGRIDDS project. New MS Windows help files will have to be created along with new documentation. So all this by the end of next year, eh? I’ll try my best and I will keep you informed of the progress and any beta testing which will be needed.

Thanks again to all of you who use and support PCGRIDDS32 and everything coming in the future. It will be exciting. I’m looking forward to it and I hope you are too. If anyone has any questions, comments or suggestions, as always, feel free to ask.

Jeff Krob
PCGRIDDS32/WINGRIDDS Software Developer

[ncwxman]

Jeff,

I again would like to thank you for bringing PCGRIDDS to WINDOWS. Having such a powerful program with which to work with and view model data is just simply AWESOME! Hardly a day has passed since I first downloaded and installed one of the early beta releases that I have not worked with PCGRIDDS32 in some way. It is a fantastic program. However, no matter how fantastic I may think PCGRIDDS32 is, the future of WINGRIDDS is just blowing me away! I am very excited about this.

Again, thank you for all your work and I look forward to WINGRIDDS.

Sincerely,

Kevin McBride

[Carl Sidor]

Dear Jeff:

Count me in with those who use and tremendously enjoy PCGRIDDS 32. The program far outruns my knowledge of meteorology, but that is it's true value. It will have the ability to become even more valuable as my knowledge grows. I am, unfortunately, self educated in meteorology and PCGRIDDS 32 has been a great help to me. I owe you and Tim Vasquez, and Tom Ehrensperger more than I can ever repay. Allow me to thank you until you are better paid. As far as WINGRIDDS goes, can there be better news? I eagerly await developments.

Cordially,
Carl Sidor