Fixes and features in the July upgrade

The July D2D build has a few new features, but is mostly a bug-fix and stability-improvement upgrade. The bulk of the work is improvements to the text workstation.

New features

• Warning text now pops up only on the adjacent text workstation, using scratch product ID DENWRKWGx, where x is the last character of the workstation name (i.e., 1, 2, etc.).
• Many WordPerfect key bindings (keyboard shortcuts for editing functions) have been added. These now also appear on the menus.
• A journaling feature has been added to the editor, so that if a crash occurs while you are editing, you'll be able to recover most of your work. (The journal file is written each minute.)
• Text printing is available.
• Preformat (m:) editing is available.
• For editing tabular products, you can turn auto-wrap off.
• You can recall previous product requests with the up/down arrows.
• Middle-button popup help on station IDs has been added to MTR products. (This is essentially similar to the DARE capability.)
• If you hit Tab 5 times, the elevator on the right side is selected, allowing you to use the up/down arrows and page up/down keys to move through a long product. Press Tab twice or click in the box to get back to product-selection mode. You can also click in the text area to enable the keys or in the entry box to select products.
• When you enter the editor, the pointer is put in the NNN field of the header block, ready to type. The header is now separated from the body of the product for clarity.
• New editor functions include delete and undelete character (F6/shift F6), word (F7/shift F7), and line (F8/shift F8). Delete word does the whole word, regardless of where you are in it. Delete line does from the cursor to the end of the line. To delete a whole line, triple-click to select it, then press F8. The standard cut/copy/paste are still available on both the button bar and the pop-up, as well as on the Edit menu.
• You can now toggle insert/overstrike from the button bar.
• Search and replace and a spelling checker are available.
• Radar text messages have been added to the Products menu.
• Numerous additional products are available from the Browser.
• Menu selections are dimmed when appropriate.
• If the alarm/alert queue is empty, closing the alarm/alert window also closes the queue and "bell" windows.

Bug fixes

• A: now properly formats obs.
• Previous version now works properly if the initial product load request was only 6 characters (e.g., MTRDEN).
• You can dismiss all alert dialogs by hitting the Enter key.
• If a request fails (bogus product; none available), the window title properly shows that nothing is displayed.
• Generated warnings (DENWRKWGx) now automatically go into edit mode.
• Many more text products are now being stored. (A few still are not being sent on the SBN lines.)
• There is no longer a problem with the first line of some text products being deleted when you enter the editor.
• Autowrap works reliably. The split words problem is fixed.
• TAF products now display completely. This applies also to other multi-line products in collectives, including FWC, some MTRs, and others.
• TAFs now store properly with their own keys.
• The "latest" selector always forces a reload. Thus, you can always see the most recent version of a text product by selecting "latest."
• The tab key now inserts four spaces instead of a tab character.
• The problems with the text window jumping to the bottom during editing sessions, and with MTRs being inserted at the bottom, are fixed.

Remaining bugs

• Warngen window occasionally doesn't pop up automatically (text notification server has crashed or wasn't started). Workaround: Request DENWRKWGx from any other window. (Warning expiration reminder won't work in this case.)

Bugs that won't be fixed for this go-round

• Torn-away menus don't respond to changes in the edit state.
• It's possible to tear away multiple copies of the same menu.
• Titles on torn-away menus are not meaningful.
• It's not possible to tear away the history list.

New features

• Clicking button 3 on a product legend unloads that product from the display. If the first product (bottom legend) is unloaded, the next one becomes the base for time-matching, which may cause a reload of the whole display. (Clicking button 3 elsewhere on the display collapses the legends as in the old version.)
• Graphics printing is available.
• There are several new map backgrounds, to wit:
  • drainage basins
  • drainage basin names
  • fire weather zones
  • fire weather stations
  • TWEB routes
• Flash flood guidance products (similar to the DARE products) are now available.
• There is now an RPS list editor application (at the top of the Radar menu).
• The scales were reordered, so Regional is in the middle, not at the bottom of the list.

Bug fixes

• Four-panel products now load in background (i.e., as with other products, other frames in a loop load while you are looking at the first). Due to the way the linked cursors work, you'll see only one cursor, and will experience a delay when you press mouse button one for a cursor read-out. Auto update and color tables also now work properly for 4-panel displays.
• SELS watch graphic now works.
• NCEP 3-5 day guidance loads properly.
• Cursor readout for satellite images now works correctly.
• LDAD plots now include precip information to .01" precision.
• Interactive skew-T will now process a sounding that lacks wind data. Sig winds are available, too.
• The radar pinwheel problem (higher tilts) has been fixed.
• Storm-total rainfall displays properly the vast majority of the time. There still seem to be occurrences of improperly geographically-scaled data.
• Distance/speed is improved: the time projection is based on the time span in the display.
• On a Z/V load, both fields now auto-update.
• Green times for satellite products now work correctly.
• A procedure stored on one workstation will now be available from others.
• VAD graphic now loads correctly.

Remaining or untested bugs

• Napping - Occasionally the workstation will not respond to any mouse inputs. This may last from 15 to 45 seconds after which all the mouse inputs are executed. - we believe that this was an operating system problem, and it appears to be fixed with HP's latest release
• LDAD plots - Only a few of the CDoT stations show up even though many more are in the file. - better, but don't know if they're all plotting
• METAR plots - Some stations plot only part of the time despite the fact that data for those sites is in the text workstation for the times when they are missing. - haven't verified if this is fixed
• Cursor readout - a.) On radar precipitation the values are truncated showing only whole inches. b.) on higher z/v tilts (4.3 and above) returns "no data." - these are still broken
• Radar graphics - do not display correctly and can cause the screen to crash. - have not yet been able to fully test, though storm track and mesocyclone still are a problem. Recommendation: Do not load storm track or mesocyclone. It appears that they do fine if there are no storms, but cause the display to hang when there are.
• Missing 88D products - the layer reflectivity maxima and echo top would not load even though they were on the RPS list. - not yet tested
• The times in the radar combined z/v menus do not update even though the time updates in the individual z and v menus. - not fixed
• NOWrad fails to auto-update. - not fixed
• Unable to delete a procedure. - no help here
• LAPS - Some parameters are still not correct and CAPE and CIN are missing. - still some problems

New bugs (arrgh!)

• The volume browser clears whenever a bundle is loaded (from a procedure or the history list).
• When you display the "all mb" choice from the volume browser (using the Animate Through Space selection) as an image, the label is obscured so you don't know what level you're viewing.
• Multiple forced loads all use the same overlay.
• 4-panel products in bundles (history list; procedures) lose their 4-panel-ness. You see the 4 image labels, but only the last one (from the lower-left quadrant) is displayed, full-screen.
• Once you're in 4-panel mode, you stay there until explicitly Clearing the screen. If you select products on a different scale, you'll get the same thing loaded in each panel.

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This page is maintained by Joe Wakefield.

Last modified: 9 Jul 96