Hi Dave,
PyFerret provides all the same functionality as Ferret, including the Ferret prompt/interface, but does provide additional capabilities:
-- better graphics (uses Qt/PyQt instead of a very old X-Windows library that does not provide anti-aliasing)
-- allows use of system fonts (as well as the Ferret fonts which are seen as additional lines)
-- support for translucent colors
-- support for user-defined symbols
-- support for Ferret external functions written in Python
-- a large number of statistical functions that make use of the SciPy Python module
-- shapefile functions that make use of the PyShp Python module
-- it is a Python module and can be used as such by Python users (although typical use hides this fact as the default usage goes directly to the Ferret prompt)
PyFerret is a Python module that wraps the Ferret engine. So all the Ferret functionality is present, but being a Python module has enable the improvements mentioned above. Often just the first two items above are enough to convince users to use PyFerret instead of Ferret. There has been some graphics display (Qt) issues with PyFerret on the latest Mac OSX systems, but it appears those are getting resolved.
You can just download the latest release source code from GitHub without having to use the git command. There are links for both tar.gz and zip files at
https://github.com/NOAA-PMEL/PyFerret/releases (or
https://github.com/NOAA-PMEL/Ferret/releases if you really want Ferret instead). Using the git command to make a local clone of the repository does allow easy updating of the source, but that is just a nice option and not a requi
e paths are and whether or not I have the correct software installed yet?
What operating system are you working on?
Ubuntu.
Most OSes have standard or popular packaging systems.
Too bad there is none for ferret. Yeah, I have installed netcdf as a package.
ncl-ncarg is already the newest version (6.3.0-6build1).
nco is already the newest version (4.5.4-1build1).
netcdf-bin is already the newest version (1:4.4.0-2).
But that doesn't tell me where the HDF5, NetCDF, and readline directories, and java are. Packages can put libraries in various places, which file or directory am I looking for in each case?
And which package should I install for HDF5? apt search HDF5 returns a million hits. I am installing
h5utils/xenial 1.12.1-4 amd64
hdf5-helpers/xenial-updates,xenial-security 1.8.16+docs-4ubuntu1.1 amd64
hdf5-tools/xenial-updates,xenial-security 1.8.16+docs-4ubuntu1.1 amd64
hdfview/xenial 2.9-5 amd64
But which filename shall I search for? Ah libhdf5*
Hi Dave,
there are several options:
- if the machine you are working on is your PC, this is mostly /usr/local/bin and /usr/local /lib or /usr/local/lib64. The
--
Karl M. Smith, Ph.D.
JISAO Univ. Wash. and PMEL NOAA
"The contents of this message are mine personally and do
not necessarily reflect any position of the Government
or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."