visky

visky − an application that draws maps with weather data and instrument information.

2.0.1

visky ?parameter_dir?

or

env VISKY_PARAMS=parameter_dir wish
% source visky

This application generates interactive maps which display information about field instruments.

Install the software as directed in the distribution documentation. Make sure visky is in your path. Enter visky on the command line. The application will create a main menu window named visky with a single File menu, and a blank map window named map0. The menus are discussed in the MENUS section below.

One normally displays map data first. You should have downloaded and installed one or more map data sets from the web site that provided the application. To add map data, select a map data package from the Packages menu, e.g. File->Package->oklahoma or File->Package->se_us. The application will read some files and then display a simple map of the selected region in the map0 window. Note that it adds a Mapdata menu to the menu bar in map0.

If desired, you can add the dual doppler radar package by selecting File->Package->dual_dop. This will add Dual_Doppler menus to both the main visky and map0 menus.

Feel free to play around with the map and menus. See the MENUS section for all the details.

Exit the application by selecting File->Exit, or by typing Control-q in any window. You will be asked to name a directory in which to save session information. A good choice would be ~/.visky. The application will save parameters about this session in text files it creates in this directory. Specifying this directory in later runs will restore this session.

Once you have run visky and created a parameter directory, you should re-run it by entering visky dir_name on the command line, where dir_name is the directory specified at the end of a previous run. An alternative is to set the VISKY_PARAMS environment variable to dir_name, then just run visky. Now visky will start up with the packages and configuration from the end of the last run.

Not specifying a directory will start visky in its initial state, with minimal menus and a blank map.

The files in the parameters directories are text files. You can read them and make minor changes with any text editor. Care should be taken to keep spaces and curly braces ({ and }) intact. However, it is safe and easy to change color names and directory paths as desired without having to re-run the application.

The visky application creates a main menu bar named visky and one or more map windows named map0, map1, map2 and so on. Normally, one has just one or two maps open.

The main menu bar always has a File menu with the following selections:

Add map

Creates a new map window.

Package

This cascade menu loads and unloads packages. Currently available packages are dual_dop se_us and oklahoma. If a package is already loaded, the menu lists it with parentheses, in which case selecting it UNLOADS the package.

Exit

Quits the application. A dialog box will ask the user to confirm the directory in which to save information from this session. Default is the directory specified on the command line when starting visky (or stored in the VISKY_PARAMS environment variable).

Each map will always have the following menus:

Map

Provides various utilities to manipulate the map. Colors opens a dialog for adjusting map colors. Postscript sends the map to a Postscript file. Export uses the ImageMagick convert application to export the map to various common image formats. If convert is not available, then there is an XWD instead, which exports the map to an xwd file. Close deletes the map. The visky application continues.

Projection

Selects the map projection. If the projection is defined by a reference longitude, such as Mercator and Sinusoidal, the map can be re-centered by Control-dragging. If the projection is defined by a reference point, such as CylEqDist, LambertConfConic, LambertEqArea, etc., the map can be re-centered by Control-Double Clicking.

Scale

Sets the cartographic scale of the map. It obtains the dots per inch value for the display from the X server. If the X server has the wrong value, it can be overridden with the DPI environment variable. Run xdpyinfo to check the X server’s dots per inch parameter.

Top

Determines which compass direction corresponds to up. Normally North is up, but other directions are possible.

Other menus may be present depending on which packages are loaded.

Gordon Carrie <user0@tkgeomap.org>