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Pre-release Announcement of Ferret Version 5.0




                **** Pre-release Announcement of Ferret Version 5.0 ****

Hello Ferret-eers,

The release of Ferret Version 5.0 is scheduled for April. Here is a
list of some of the highlights you can expect.

 o desktop access to remote data bases
        Using networking technology from DODS (Distributed Ocean Data
System --
see http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/dods/) Ferret V.5 will provide
desktop access to approximately 30 Gigabytes of reference climatological
and topographic data sets served from NOAA/PMEL and a great deal more
data served by DODS servers at other institutions. 

 o External Functions
        The External Function framework will permit you to embed your
own
FORTRAN and C code (and even MATLAB functions) into Ferret. In the V.5
release we will provide external functions to handle gridding of
irregular data, sorting along axes, and random sampling. Example
functions and documentation will help you to create your own EFs. We
will set up a Web repository for contributed functions and encourage you
to
contribute your functions to this library.

 o Ferret on PC-Windows
        V.5 of Ferret will include the initial port of Ferret to
PC-Windows.
Since we assume that we will want to make a number of changes after
recieving feedback from users, we will release this as a BETA version.
However, we expect this PC version to be quite robust and highly usable.

 o LAS (the "Live Access Server")
        The Live Access Server is a highly configurable Ferret-based Web
server
for gridded data sets. A new version of LAS will be released in parallel
with Ferret V.5. With the new version multiple LAS servers at
distributed locations can work in cooperation to form collaborative
server
networks.

 o "WebFerret" (Ferret in your Web browser)
        The Ferret V.5 release will include the software needed to set
up
Ferret so it is runable through your Web browser -- access your files
and
Ferret while away from your office (requires a Web server already
installed at your site).

 o new color palette controls
        New variants on color palettes will allow you to create palettes
that
are keyed to data values (e.g. a Sea Surface Temperature palette that
maintains consistent colors regardless of the spacing of contour levels)
and to create "exact" palettes (typical of most imaging applications)
that do not interpolate colors.

 o "hatched" output
        SHADE and FILL plots may now generate hatched output -- useful
for
publication-quality black and white plots, or for overlaying multiple
contour fields.

 o filled polygon plots
        Ferret will support color filled polygon output -- the type of
display
frequently seen in GIS graphics for, say, maps of climate regions. See a
sample
output at
http://tmap.pmel.noaa.gov/~tmap/PMEL98_review/ENSO_diag/us_figs.html

 o "{1,3,5}" list-of-numbers syntax
        Examples,
                yes? PLOT {1,2},{0,0}   ! quick plot of horizontal line 
                yes? LET selected_I_indice = ISAMPLE(my_data, {1,5,7,3})
                yes? LET my_convolution = CONVOLVE(my_data,{1,2,1})

 o improved binary file access
        Ferret V5 will read binary files of bytes, integers, floats,
doubles,
etc.. The V.5 performance on these files will far exceed V4.91 (which
restricted binary files to float, only).

 o optimized FILL command
        Color filled contour plots will be  up to 5 time faster. The
resulting
metafiles will be reduced to as little as 1/5 their previous sizes.

 o Ferret source code release
        The complete Ferret V.5 source code will be packaged for
download and
easy builds. We will be asking that ports to new systems and new
features added by users be shared back with us to be considered for
inclusion in future Ferret releases.


-- 
Steve Hankin
NOAA/PMEL, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-0070
ph. (206) 526-6080 -- FAX (206) 526-6744


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