[ferret_users] Ferret and PyFerret

[Ansley Manke <ansley.b.manke@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,
Earlier this week Karl wrote about the Beta release of PyFerret, http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/maillists/tmap/ferret_users/fu_2012/msg00250.html

You may be wondering where this development is leading.  PyFerret is the future of Ferret. It will get us a vast library of new functions in math and statistics, and gives us a path to improved graphics. The first of those benefits will be more graphics-output types including png and pdf.  Python programmers can run Ferret from within Python.  Ferret users can run Ferret and call Python functions using Ferret syntax.

Even if you're not familiar with Python, it's worth taking a look at what's in the PyFerret documentation to see what's there. The URL is

http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/documentation/pyferret

If you're intrigued, we encourage you to give it a try and send us your feedback.  The more we hear from you the more we can provide what you need.

So what about "classic Ferret"?  For the moment, we are on a path of parallel development, with at least one more classic Ferret release slated for early summer.  It will include:

• Double-precision handling of data and calculations
• The addition of 2 new dimensions, intended for an Ensemble dimension and a Forecast-time dimension (but can be used for any purpose of course)
  
• Linked with netCDF4.2 libraries
  

We will be working over the coming months to ease the transition to PyFerret. There will be additional requirements when installing PyFerret on your system, including Python and the numerical Python libraries. Python is included with Linux, but we want to make sure that this is not a burden on our users, and we know that not everyone has system-administrator support.

Happy Ferreting!

Ansley