Ferret Version 5.81 Release Notes

Ferret v5.81 contains a few bug fixes and a couple of new features. It is being released now because it is needed for the upcoming release of LAS V6.5.1. Look for a Ferret release with more new features later in the summer of 2005.

New Features and Enhancements in Version 5.81

• SHADE, FILL, and POLYGON commands allow open-ended levels.
  
• New function, LABWID returns length of a label in plot inches.
  
• New qualifier, /MODULO draws modulo replications in longitude for curvilinear data.
  
• New qualifer EXIT/CYCLE skips the remaining comands in the current repetition of a loop.
  
  
  
• A statically-linked executable is available for linux.

Bug Fixes in Version 5.81

• SHOW AXIS/XML used by FDS and LAS, shows time units and origin in the same format as in the NetCDF attribute.
  
• SAVE/TITLE="" string was limited to 80 characters Changed to 1024.
  
• PPL VECKEY with format specifier caused a crash This is fixed.
  
• Bugs with non-standard calendars With non-Gregorian calendar time axes, SHOW REGION and SHOW AXIS/T= returned incorrect time ranges.
  
• USE/REGULART did not force the time axis to be treated as a regular axis. This functionality is now restored.
  
• EXIT/SCRIPT did not exit the script if executed from within a loop or an IF clause. This is fixed.
  

New Features and Enhancements in Version 5.81

• SHADE, FILL, and POLYGON commands allow open-ended levels The /LEV qualifier for these commands may now contain (-INF) and/or (INF) as part of the descriptor. These will fill areas on the plot with a color for all data whose values are below (-INF) or above (INF) the range specified by the rest of the /LEV descriptor. A triangle on the colorbar indicates the color that is used. For example:

     yes? use etopo60
     yes? fill/pal=land_sea/lev=(-inf)(-5000,5000,1000)(inf) rose
  
       
  
  

  
  
  
• A new function, LABWID returns length of a label in plot inches. It takes into account the width of different letters in the font style and size.

  The call is
  

     LABWID (string, labelsize)  
  
  

  Where string may include a font specification. For a multi-line label, the longest line of the label determines the length that is returned.
  

     yes?  LIST/NOHEADER  LABWID("abcdefg", .15)
            0.8857
     yes? LIST/NOHEADER  LABWID("abcdefg", .10)
            0.5905
     yes? LIST/NOHEADER  LABWID("abcdefg<NL>hi", .15)
            0.8857
     yes? LIST/NOHEADER  LABWID("ABCDEFG", .15)
            0.9929
  
          ! Make a plot, appending one label after another.
          ! Use the italics font for the first label.
  		
     yes? PLOT/VS/LINE/I=1:314 i*cos(i/20),i*sin(i/20)
   
     yes? LET firstlab = "@iiMy label"
     yes? LABEL/NOUSER 0, 3, -1, 0, .15, "`firstlab`"
     yes? LET wid = labwid("`firstlab`", .15)
     yes? LABEL/NOUSER `wid`, 3, -1, 0, .15,  "@P4Second Label"
  
          
  
  

  
  
  
• A new qualifier, /MODULO for SHADE, CONTOUR, and FILL draws modulo replications in longitude for curvilinear data. This is a simple first step towards modulo treatment of longitudes for curvilinear data. For example, if xlon and ylat are the curvilinear coordinates of a dataset:

          ! Draw modulo replications to fill the requested range /HLIM=-180:180
     yes? SET DATA my_curvilinear.nc
     yes? SHADE/MOD/HLIM=-180:180 my_var, xlon, ylat
  
     yes? FILL/MOD/HLIM=-180:180 my_var, xlon, ylat
     yes? CONTOUR/OVER/MOD/HLIM=-180:180 my_var, xlon, ylat
   

  
  
  
• New qualifer EXIT/CYCLE skips the remaining comands in the current repetition of a loop and continues with the start of the next repetition.

     
     yes? CANCEL MODE verify
     yes? LET a = 1
     yes? REPEAT/I=1:10 (LET a = `2*a`; IF `a LT 20` THEN EXIT/CYCLE; SAY `a`)
      32
      64
      128
      256
      512
      1024
   

  
  
  
• A statically-linked executable is available for linux. This executable should run on many of the linux platforms out there. (However it has one drawback; it cannot run external functions. We suggest that you try the redHat 9 executable first.) In future releases, more of the functions released with ferret which are now external functions will be statically linked. See the download page and installation guide for the statically linked executable.

Bug fixes in Version 5.81

• SHOW AXIS/XML, used by FDS and LAS, shows time units and origin in the same format as in the NetCDF attribute:
  

     yes? SHOW AXIS/XML taxis
     <axes>
     <axis name="taxis">
     <units>DAYS since 0001-01-01 00:00:00</units>
     <length>32</length>
     <start>1989-12-30 00:00:00</start>
     <end>1990-01-30 00:00:00</end>
     <point_spacing>even</point_spacing>
     <modulo>no</modulo>
     <time_origin>0001-01-01 00:00:00</time_origin>
     </axis>
     </axes>
  

  
  
  
• SAVE/TITLE="" string limited to 80 characters. This has been changed to 1024.
  
  
• PPL VECKEY with format specifier caused a crash.
  

     yes? use coads_climatology
     yes? vec/l=1/set uwnd,vwnd
     yes? ppl veckey,1,1,,(f4.0,"x10^-^2 n m^-^2")
     yes? ppl vector

  
  
  
• Bugs with non-standard calendars. With non-Gregorian calendar time axes, SHOW REGION and SHOW AXIS/T= returned incorrect time ranges. This has been corrected.
  
  
• USE/REGULART did not force the time axis to be treated as a regular axis. This functionality is now restored. (The bug occurred in versions 5.53 - 5.80).
  
  
• EXIT/SCRIPT did not exit the script if executed from within a loop or an IF clause. Now it returns us to the level in Ferret which executed the script (either the user or another command file).