Thread: [Plastic-devs] Re: [Plastic-user] TOPCAT v2.1 release
Brought to you by:
johndavidtaylor,
thomasboch
Menu
▾
▴
plastic-devs
|
From: Marco C. <mc...@oa...> - 2006-05-03 09:48:56
|
Mark Taylor wrote: > This is to announce the release of TOPCAT v2.1. > > Headline enhancements since the last advertised release (v2.0) are: > > - Extensive support for the PLASTIC tool interoperability protocol > - New stacked line plot window > > plus a bunch of other stuff, described in detail at > http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/sun253/versions.html > > Find it as usual at > > http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/ Hi Mark, I got some problems with Topcat too:( I don't receive showObjects messages from your application. It should send this messages when sending subsets, am I wrong? It works fine with the loadFromURL message (I mean when it loads a votable). Directory names are another issue, if a directory name is longer than 8 chars it is renamed to fit the 8.3 file name format. Do I have to handle that from my side? I get long names from other application (Aladin and XMDV). I'll try to monitor the messages arriving to the hub to check were the file name conversion is done. Thanks, Marco Ops, I am really sorry, I sent this email almost to everyone on the net:( -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-03 10:06:28
|
Hi Marco, On Wed, 3 May 2006, Marco Comparato wrote: > Hi Mark, > > I got some problems with Topcat too:( sorry about that. > I don't receive showObjects messages from your application. It should > send this messages when sending subsets, am I wrong? It works fine with > the loadFromURL message (I mean when it loads a votable). Yes, you're right, there seems to be a problem with sending this message to XML-RPC clients (java RMI ones are OK). I will try to track it down. > Directory names are another issue, if a directory name is longer than 8 > chars it is renamed to fit the 8.3 file name format. Do I have to handle > that from my side? I get long names from other application (Aladin and > XMDV). Yuk. I haven't tested on Windows so I've never seen that before. I'll try to work out what/why/when, but can't do it straight away since I don't have a Windows machine to hand. In the mean time if this sounds like familiar behaviour to any Windows/Java people out there advice would be gratefully received. Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-03 11:00:56
|
On Wed, 3 May 2006, Mark Taylor wrote: > Hi Marco, > > On Wed, 3 May 2006, Marco Comparato wrote: > > > Hi Mark, > > > > I got some problems with Topcat too:( > > sorry about that. > > > I don't receive showObjects messages from your application. It should > > send this messages when sending subsets, am I wrong? It works fine with > > the loadFromURL message (I mean when it loads a votable). > > Yes, you're right, there seems to be a problem with sending this > message to XML-RPC clients (java RMI ones are OK). I will try to > track it down. My fault - I was sending a List of Longs not Integers, which is illegal over XML-RPC (though it works with java). I've built a fixed version, which you can find at ftp://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk/pub/star/topcat/pre/topcat-full.jar sorry about that. I'll try to issue a public release with this fix in before Victoria. Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-04 09:32:51
|
On Wed, 3 May 2006, Marco Comparato wrote: > Mark Taylor wrote: > > This is to announce the release of TOPCAT v2.1. > > > > Headline enhancements since the last advertised release (v2.0) are: > > > > - Extensive support for the PLASTIC tool interoperability protocol > > - New stacked line plot window > > > > plus a bunch of other stuff, described in detail at > > http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/sun253/versions.html > > > > Find it as usual at > > > > http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/ > > Hi Mark, > > I got some problems with Topcat too:( > > I don't receive showObjects messages from your application. It should > send this messages when sending subsets, am I wrong? It works fine with > the loadFromURL message (I mean when it loads a votable). > > Directory names are another issue, if a directory name is longer than 8 > chars it is renamed to fit the 8.3 file name format. Do I have to handle > that from my side? I get long names from other application (Aladin and > XMDV). Marco, if I run TOPCAT on Windows it sends, for instance, ivo://votech.org/votable/loadFromURL messages with a url argument that looks like this: file://localhost/C:/DOCUME~1/Mark/LOCALS~1/Temp/plastic7533.vot Is this what you're talking about? Windows seems to understand filenames/URLs in that format, in that if I type that URL into the location box of Internet Explorer, it picks up the file. (For java-aware onlookers, this is the kind of File that you get from File.createTempFile() methods.) If that's what you're talking about, then I don't see anything that needs to be fixed. If I'm missing the point (quite possible as I know next to nothing about windows) then please clarify. Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: Alasdair A. <aa...@as...> - 2006-05-04 15:10:02
|
All, I thought this was at the point where it should go to the list... For context I was having problems getting Aladin to respond to some, but not all, pointAtCoords messages sent from my Perl client via the Hub. Most were successful, but some failed for no apparent reason... Thomas Boch wrote: > Alasdair Allan wrote: >> Alasdair Allan wrote: >>> The 20 & 75 is correct and is the requested RA&Dec is decimal >>> degrees (ie RA 1:20:00.0, Dec 75:00:00)... >> >> Ah ha! It's a casting problem, Perl is of course a non-strictly >> typed language. So when it seems 20.0, it just drops the .0 >> portion, so the 20.0 getting sent (as a double) to the Hub turns >> into a Integer, so Aladin isn't happy. When I explicitly cast it >> as a double everything is fine (which explains why it was working >> sometimes and not others)! > > You are right, Aladin complains with a ClassCastException as it is > waiting for a Double ! I wonder if the hub shouldn't take care of > this kind of casting problems ... Now there's a thought, it would certainly improve interoperability. More work on the Hub end though... > I mean : it would of course add complexity on the hub side, but > Perl developpers don't want to explicitly cast, do they ? No, it's actually a real pain in the backside to do casting and there is the odd corner case where it isn't going to work. For instance I've yet to figure out how to actually cast to a bool so I can send back a true/false response to a message (just sending a a1 or a 0 doesn't seem to cut it and Perl doesn't have a boolean type at all). Ho hum... Cheers, Al. |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-04 15:36:20
|
On Thu, 4 May 2006, Alasdair Allan wrote: > All, > > I thought this was at the point where it should go to the list... > > For context I was having problems getting Aladin to respond to some, > but not all, pointAtCoords messages sent from my Perl client via the > Hub. Most were successful, but some failed for no apparent reason... > > Thomas Boch wrote: > > Alasdair Allan wrote: > >> Alasdair Allan wrote: > >>> The 20 & 75 is correct and is the requested RA&Dec is decimal > >>> degrees (ie RA 1:20:00.0, Dec 75:00:00)... > >> > >> Ah ha! It's a casting problem, Perl is of course a non-strictly > >> typed language. So when it seems 20.0, it just drops the .0 > >> portion, so the 20.0 getting sent (as a double) to the Hub turns > >> into a Integer, so Aladin isn't happy. When I explicitly cast it > >> as a double everything is fine (which explains why it was working > >> sometimes and not others)! > > > > You are right, Aladin complains with a ClassCastException as it is > > waiting for a Double ! I wonder if the hub shouldn't take care of > > this kind of casting problems ... > > Now there's a thought, it would certainly improve interoperability. > More work on the Hub end though... If I understand the problem and proposed solution correctly, this couldn't work without substantial changes to the standard, since the hub, by design, does not understand the content or argument list types of the messages which it forwards. Hence it can't know whether the stream of <double> elements it has received from a client is in fact supposed to be <int>s. Its job is simply to act as a multiplexer forwarding RPC calls unchanged between senders and recipients. > > I mean : it would of course add complexity on the hub side, but > > Perl developpers don't want to explicitly cast, do they ? Laziness may be a virtue, but you can take it too far. > No, it's actually a real pain in the backside to do casting and there > is the odd corner case where it isn't going to work. For instance > I've yet to figure out how to actually cast to a bool so I can send > back a true/false response to a message (just sending a a1 or a 0 > doesn't seem to cut it and Perl doesn't have a boolean type at all). If there's not a way to do this in whatever module you're using for sending XML-RPC messages, that has to be seen as a deficiency in that module. Check the docs || get the author to fix it || write an XML-RPC module yourself. Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: John T. <jon...@gm...> - 2006-05-05 05:44:42
|
>> Now there's a thought, it would certainly improve interoperability. >> More work on the Hub end though... >> > > If I understand the problem and proposed solution correctly, this > couldn't work without substantial changes to the standard, > since the hub, by design, does not understand the content or > argument list types of the messages which it forwards. > Hence it can't know whether the stream of <double> elements it > has received from a client is in fact supposed to be <int>s. > Its job is simply to act as a multiplexer forwarding RPC calls > unchanged between senders and recipients. > > Sorry - not reading ahead down the threads before replying.....I promise I'm not just reading Mark's posts and then resending them in my own words. John |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-05 07:45:58
|
On Fri, 5 May 2006, John Taylor wrote: > > >> Now there's a thought, it would certainly improve interoperability. > >> More work on the Hub end though... > >> > > > > If I understand the problem and proposed solution correctly, this > > couldn't work without substantial changes to the standard, > > since the hub, by design, does not understand the content or > > argument list types of the messages which it forwards. > > Hence it can't know whether the stream of <double> elements it > > has received from a client is in fact supposed to be <int>s. > > Its job is simply to act as a multiplexer forwarding RPC calls > > unchanged between senders and recipients. > > > > > > Sorry - not reading ahead down the threads before replying.....I promise > I'm not just reading Mark's posts and then resending them in my own words. > > John and I promise I'm not taking advantage of John's holiday to fake postings from his address. Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: Pierre F. <fer...@si...> - 2006-05-04 16:54:22
|
Dear Plastic developers, The Plastic mechanism is typically interresting for cross object selections. Presently, there is only one message about that (showObjects) generally implemented by the selection of the corresponding objects in the applications. I would really appreciate, and I suppose that I will be not alone, if we can introduce the following distinction : showObjects and HighlightObject. It could seem a subtle difference, but in practice this difference is evident. Presently, when I select some objects in Aladin, the corresponding records appear in the TOPcat table. But it will be great just by moving the mouse on this list (TOPcat side) or on objects (Aladin side) the current line/object will be highlighted. Without this highlight function, I can modify the selection and keep an unique object, but in practice it is not flexible at all as you lost your first selection. My example concerns Aladin and TOPcat, but it will be exactly the same need for VisIVO or other tools. Comments ? Regards, Pierre Fernique |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-04 17:08:46
|
On Thu, 4 May 2006, Pierre Fernique wrote:
> Dear Plastic developers,
>
> The Plastic mechanism is typically interresting for cross object
> selections. Presently, there is only one message about that
> (showObjects) generally implemented by the selection of the
> corresponding objects in the applications.
>
> I would really appreciate, and I suppose that I will be not alone, if we
> can introduce the following distinction : showObjects and HighlightObject.
>
> It could seem a subtle difference, but in practice this difference is
> evident.
>
> Presently, when I select some objects in Aladin, the corresponding
> records appear in the TOPcat table.
> But it will be great just by moving the mouse on this list (TOPcat side)
> or on objects (Aladin side) the current line/object will be highlighted.
> Without this highlight function, I can modify the selection and keep an
> unique object, but in practice it is not flexible at all as you lost
> your first selection. My example concerns Aladin and TOPcat, but it will
> be exactly the same need for VisIVO or other tools.
>
> Comments ?
Excellent idea. Can't think why we haven't come up with it before now.
Unless someone thinks of a good reason why not I will try to implement
sending and receiving of this message in TOPCAT in the next few days.
For definiteness:
Message ID:
ivo://votech.org/votable/highlightObject
Arguments:
id: String
row: int
Return:
boolean (true for success)
with semantics corresponding to those for votable/showObjects.
thanks Pierre.
--
Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/
|
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-05 15:12:44
|
On Thu, 4 May 2006, Mark Taylor wrote: > Message ID: > ivo://votech.org/votable/highlightObject > Arguments: > id: String > row: int > Return: > boolean (true for success) > > with semantics corresponding to those for votable/showObjects. Following Pierre's suggestion I have now implemented send and receive of this message in TOPCAT. You can get a pre-release version with this functionality from ftp://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk/topcat/pre/topcat-full.jar To cause TOPCAT to send highlightObject messages, select the new "Transmit Row" option from the Actiation Window for the table. It will automatically respond to highlightObject messages for tables it has loaded. More detailed documentation is available in the online help (select the Interop|Help on Interoperability menu item from the main control window). Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: Thomas B. <bo...@ne...> - 2006-05-09 14:32:17
|
Mark, > Following Pierre's suggestion I have now implemented send and receive > of this message in TOPCAT. You can get a pre-release version with > this functionality from > > ftp://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk/topcat/pre/topcat-full.jar This link is not working for me I think the link should be : ftp://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk/pub/star/topcat/pre/topcat-full.jar Thomas |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-09 14:35:58
|
On Tue, 9 May 2006, Thomas Boch wrote: > > Following Pierre's suggestion I have now implemented send and receive > > of this message in TOPCAT. You can get a pre-release version with > > this functionality from > > > > ftp://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk/topcat/pre/topcat-full.jar > > This link is not working for me > I think the link should be : > ftp://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk/pub/star/topcat/pre/topcat-full.jar Oops thanks Thomas you are quite right. -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: John T. <jon...@gm...> - 2006-05-09 01:15:53
|
Hi Pierre & Mark, Great idea - we do need to be able to do this. I wonder if this is a special case of a more general problem - being able to highlight multiple selections. We could instead extend showObjects to have an (optional) parameter giving some measure of "priority". In the case of Topcat the highest (and default) priority causes it to generate a new subset, while the next level causes it merely to highlight the points. Topcat and Aladin send the former when a selection is made, and the latter on a mouseover (presumably). In the case of VisIVO, the different "priorities" could be used for different colours in the selection - allowing clustering applications to use VisIVO to show the different clusters. Whether this works or not depends on whether selection and highlighting are completely different things, or different degrees of the same action. Although Topcat distinguishes between the two activities (by generating a subset), other tools such as xmdv do not (at present). We also need to decide how tightly we define the meaning of a message...at the moment we've left it up to application writers to decide how to interpret messages in a way meaningful to them. Thus Topcat creates a new subset on receipt of showObjects, while xmdv interprets the same message as meaning "highlight points". John Pierre Fernique wrote: > > > Dear Plastic developers, > > The Plastic mechanism is typically interresting for cross object > selections. Presently, there is only one message about that > (showObjects) generally implemented by the selection of the > corresponding objects in the applications. > > I would really appreciate, and I suppose that I will be not alone, if > we can introduce the following distinction : showObjects and > HighlightObject. > > It could seem a subtle difference, but in practice this difference is > evident. > > Presently, when I select some objects in Aladin, the corresponding > records appear in the TOPcat table. > But it will be great just by moving the mouse on this list (TOPcat > side) or on objects (Aladin side) the current line/object will be > highlighted. Without this highlight function, I can modify the > selection and keep an unique object, but in practice it is not > flexible at all as you lost your first selection. My example concerns > Aladin and TOPcat, but it will be exactly the same need for VisIVO or > other tools. > > Comments ? > > Regards, > Pierre Fernique > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job > easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache > Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Plastic-devs mailing list > Pla...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plastic-devs > |
|
From: John T. <jon...@gm...> - 2006-05-05 05:44:43
|
It would be tricky for the hub to do the casting as it doesn't have any idea what the messages mean...so doesn't know what the argument types should be. One way for you guys to get around this would be to agree that your arguments are all Strings rather than Doubles or whatever, so the client has the job of then converting them into an appropriate numeric type. Alasdair Allan wrote: > All, > > I thought this was at the point where it should go to the list... > > For context I was having problems getting Aladin to respond to some, > but not all, pointAtCoords messages sent from my Perl client via the > Hub. Most were successful, but some failed for no apparent reason... > > Thomas Boch wrote: >> Alasdair Allan wrote: >>> Alasdair Allan wrote: >>>> The 20 & 75 is correct and is the requested RA&Dec is decimal >>>> degrees (ie RA 1:20:00.0, Dec 75:00:00)... >>> >>> Ah ha! It's a casting problem, Perl is of course a non-strictly >>> typed language. So when it seems 20.0, it just drops the .0 portion, >>> so the 20.0 getting sent (as a double) to the Hub turns into a >>> Integer, so Aladin isn't happy. When I explicitly cast it as a >>> double everything is fine (which explains why it was working >>> sometimes and not others)! >> >> You are right, Aladin complains with a ClassCastException as it is >> waiting for a Double ! I wonder if the hub shouldn't take care of >> this kind of casting problems ... > > Now there's a thought, it would certainly improve interoperability. > More work on the Hub end though... > >> I mean : it would of course add complexity on the hub side, but Perl >> developpers don't want to explicitly cast, do they ? > > No, it's actually a real pain in the backside to do casting and there > is the odd corner case where it isn't going to work. For instance I've > yet to figure out how to actually cast to a bool so I can send back a > true/false response to a message (just sending a a1 or a 0 doesn't > seem to cut it and Perl doesn't have a boolean type at all). Ho hum... > > Cheers, > Al. > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job > easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache > Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Plastic-devs mailing list > Pla...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plastic-devs > |
|
From: Marco C. <mc...@oa...> - 2006-05-05 18:24:47
|
Mark Taylor wrote: > Marco, > > if I run TOPCAT on Windows it sends, for instance, > ivo://votech.org/votable/loadFromURL messages with a url argument that > looks like this: > > file://localhost/C:/DOCUME~1/Mark/LOCALS~1/Temp/plastic7533.vot > > Is this what you're talking about? Hi, yes, that is what I get. > Windows seems to understand > filenames/URLs in that format, in that if I type that URL into the > location box of Internet Explorer, it picks up the file. I agree with you but if I pass this filename to Savot (the java library I use to parse votables) I get wrong parsing. Do you have any idea why this java library seems not to accept this path format? Does your application accept it? > (For java-aware onlookers, this is the kind of File that you get > from File.createTempFile() methods.) That is a little strange because it reformats the directory names bigger than 8 chars but the file name is not reformatted even if it is bigger than 8 chars too. It seems you use it just to get a system temp dir, Could you avoid the use of this method? Thanks, Marco |
|
From: Mark T. <m.b...@br...> - 2006-05-09 17:36:55
|
On Fri, 5 May 2006, Marco Comparato wrote: > Mark Taylor wrote: > > Marco, > > > > if I run TOPCAT on Windows it sends, for instance, > > ivo://votech.org/votable/loadFromURL messages with a url argument that > > looks like this: > > > > file://localhost/C:/DOCUME~1/Mark/LOCALS~1/Temp/plastic7533.vot > > > > Is this what you're talking about? > > Hi, > > yes, that is what I get. Marco, sorry for the delay - I meant to bring a windows machine in today so I could look at this but I forgot, I'll try to remember tomorrow. In the mean time: > > Windows seems to understand > > filenames/URLs in that format, in that if I type that URL into the > > location box of Internet Explorer, it picks up the file. > > I agree with you but if I pass this filename to Savot (the java library > I use to parse votables) I get wrong parsing. Do you have any idea why > this java library seems not to accept this path format? Does your > application accept it? Can you tell me exactly what goes wrong with savot? > > (For java-aware onlookers, this is the kind of File that you get > > from File.createTempFile() methods.) > > That is a little strange because it reformats the directory names bigger > than 8 chars but the file name is not reformatted even if it is bigger all a bit of a mystery to me, though it may have something to do with what John said about the difference between starting from DOS prompt or Windows. I'll try to investigate. > than 8 chars too. It seems you use it just to get a system temp dir, > Could you avoid the use of this method? I need to put temporary files somewhere, and File.createTempFile() is the normal way to do it. Mark -- Mark Taylor Astronomical Programmer Physics, Bristol University, UK m.b...@br... +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/ |
|
From: Marco C. <mc...@oa...> - 2006-05-11 10:44:23
|
Mark Taylor wrote: > all a bit of a mystery to me, though it may have something to do with > what John said about the difference between starting from DOS prompt or > Windows. I'll try to investigate. Hi, I have news. Everything works fine if I start VisIVO out of visual studio, so the problem is not in TOPCAT, it is not in VisIVO, it is not in Windows, it is in my ******* old visual studio. Cheers, Marco -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. |
