Re: [Opengrads-devel] tclgrads

[Arlindo da S. <da...@al...>]

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 10:08 AM, Daniel da Silva <dda...@um...> wrote:
>>
>> I wrote Nbsp (a noaaport software) and I use GrADS and separately
>> tcl for the scripts. I recently started to do a tcl interface to
>> GrADS (tclgrads) and a couple of days ago I saw your site. I wonder
>> if there is any other similar project to do a tcl interface to grads,
>> otherwise I can finish mine and make it available.

Right now we have released the Perl and Python interfaces, and Luiz
Rodrigo has contributed a PHP interface that is still in development.
I have had a query at some point about a TCL interface but we are not
working on one. So, your effort would be much appreciated.

You may want to know that way back someone wrote a TCL/TK graphical
user interface for GrADS that you can find here:

           ftp://grads.iges.org/grads/sprite/XGrads/xgrads.win32.tar

If I am not mistaken, this uses the "expect" package to interact with
the GrADS command line. It has not been maintained in a while, so I am
not sure whether it works with current GrADS releases. One recent
development that was not available then -- and it is now --- is the
ability to capture error conditions from GrADS (the command line
option -u); this is very important for you to perform error handling.

Now for the Perl and Python interfaces I've been trying to keep the
"API" sort of consistent among all the interfaces. It would be nice if
you could keep some level consistency between the TCL and the Perl and
Python interfaces. You can find more information about the Perl/Python
interfaces here:

     http://opengrads.org/wiki/index.php?title=Python_Interface_to_GrADS
     http://opengrads.org/wiki/index.php?title=Perl_Interface_to_GrADS

Luiz Rodrigo, who subscribes to this list, may be able to update you
on where he is with the PHP interface. The last prototype he sent me
was already very functional, we just need to complete the
documentation and release it on sf.net.

So, if you already have an sketch of an interface that you would like
us to look over please send it to this list and we will be glad to
send you feedback. As for distributing through OpenGrADS I need to ask
you a couple of questions:

1) Are you willing to release your tcl interface under an opensource
license? GPL is preferred, but any license acceptable to SourceForge
(our host) is fine too.

2) Are you willing to maintain a simple wiki page at opengrads.org
with information about installation and usage of your interface?

3) Would you be able to support the package by answering to bug
reports on our tracker? We understand that people need to work around
their own schedule, so you do not need to fix things immediately, but
if the package is to be listed as "actively maintained" you need to so
periodically, at least a couple of times a year.

 I look forward to working with you.

 Best Regards,

        Arlindo

-- 
Arlindo da Silva
da...@al...