Ferret Version v6.08 Release Notes
16-Nov-2007

Version 6.08 is required for users who wish to install the LAS (Live Access Server) software, release Armstrong 1.1. It also has a few bug fixes and additions for non-LAS users.

If you will be installing LAS Armstrong 1.1, please note that you need to download and install the datasets that are included with this Ferret release. The new datasets tar file includes a 4D ocean dataset used for demonstrating new capabilities in LAS. It also includes topography/bathemetry data on finer grids than previously included. Follow the "Ferret datasets" link on the downloads page, http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/static/Downloads/ferret_downloads.html for your operating system.

This Ferret release includes executables for Linux 32-bit and 64-bit;  Altix ia-64; and a statically-linked linux executable, for other Unix systems. A Solaris 8 version is also included, however it is linked with an older OPeNDAP library. Further Solaris builds are being built and will be released shortly.

Enhancements and Bug fixes in Version 6.08

• A new set of symbols STAT* give access to the output of the STAT command for use in scripts. The symbols contain results from the most recent call to STAT.
  

• 
  

  yes? USE coads_climatology   
  yes? STAT sst
             SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE
             LONGITUDE: 20E to 20E(380)
             LATITUDE: 90S to 90N
             Z:  N/A
             TIME: 01-JAN 00:45 to 31-DEC 06:34
             DATA SET: /home/fer_dsets/data/coads_climatology.cdf
                  Total # of data points: 194400 (180*90*1*12)
        # flagged as bad  data: 89622
        Minimum value: -2.6
        Maximum value: 33.15
        Mean    value: 18.095 (unweighted average)
        Standard deviation: 9.4023
  
   yes? SHOW SYMBOL stat*
       STAT_MIN = "-2.6"
       STAT_MAX = "33.15"
       STAT_MEAN = "18.095"
       STAT_STD = "9.4023"
       STAT_NGOOD = "104778"
       STAT_NBAD = "89622"

• Two new symbols are defined after any plot of a 2D field. AX_HORIZ and AZ_VERT each take on a value X, Y, Z, or T, representing the direction of the axis that was plotted in the horizontal or vertical direction. This information is used by LAS when zooming in or out on a plot.    
  

  yes? USE levitus_climatology
  yes? SHADE/Y=0 temp     
  yes? SHOW SYMBOL ax*
       AX_HORIZ = "X"
       AX_VERT = "Z"

• In metafile batch mode (start ferret with "ferret -batch"), previously all commands SET MODE metafile were ignored. Now, SET MODE metafile newname.plt may be used to change the name of the metafile.
  
  

  > ferret -batch
  yes? shade/i=1:5/j=1:5 i+j  ! This is in metafile.plt
  
  yes? set mode meta newname.plt
  *** NOTE: in batch mode: SET MODE METAFILE only changes the name of the metafile
  
  yes? ! The following will be in newname.plt
  yes? plot/i=1:150 sin(i/20)
  
  yes? ! Now newname.plt will be renamed to newname.plt.~1~
  yes? ! and the next plot will be in newname.plt
  yes? plot/i=1:150 cos(i/20)

  
  
• A memory leak has been fixed - it was present in Ferret v6.0 through v6.07 and was seen when defining and redefining variables many times.
  
  
• In Ferret v6.07, when drawing 2-D contour lines, all of the contours for levels less than one are dark; Only the contour at 0 should be dark. This has been fixed.
  
  
• SHOW VARIABLE/XML, used by LAS, is fixed in order to write correct XML output when the definition of the variable includes quotes. This happens when there is a time interval given by dates in quotation marks.
  
  
• Internal storage for some strings which contain URLs was too short for the very-long F-TDS urls used by LAS Armstrong 1.1. This has been fixed.