getting started finally

So far I have failed to comprehend how to get any program going much less how to use NCL, so I thought I would ask a simple question having installed it on my IMac.

I have tried using your examples like "ncargex cpex08"
but after flailing around some it says
The compile and link failed.

At this time I have for example in my own directory

[Joe-Mac-1008:~] josephcain% more .cshrc
setenv NCARG_ROOT /applications/ncl_ncarg-5.2.1.MacOS_10.6_i386_64bit_nodap_gcc421
setenv PATH /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/texbin:/usr/X11/bin:/applications/ncl_ncarg-5.2.1.MacOS_10.6_i386_64bit_nodap_gcc421/bin

I recall invoking the test code after the install, which I don't seem to be able to locate again, but it did produce a plot.

 I have the nice test program which Mary Haley wrote for me not long ago which I thought I would use as a test to get started and try to understand some of the constructs.

It is below, and an extract of the file "old_out" follows. My questions to help me understand how to get it going include:

1. Should the three load lines below be modified in some way ? If so or not, how are they supposed to be used?
2. afterwards, how does one compile and execute the code between the begin and end below? It is not obvious in any of the material I have read.

load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/gsn_code.ncl"
load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/gsn_csm.ncl"
load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/contributed.ncl"

begin
;---Read 7 columns of data, and ignore first line.
  data = readAsciiTable("old_out", 7, "float", 1)

  year = data(:,0)
  dlat = data(:,1)
  dlon = data(:,2)
  alt = data(:,3)
  X = data(:,4)
  Y = data(:,5)
  Z = data(:,6)

;---Start the graphics.
  wks = gsn_open_wks ("ps", "old_out_xy")

;---Set some plot options
  res = True
  res@gsnMaximize = True ; Maximize plot in frame
  res@gsnDraw = False ; Don't draw plot
  res@gsnFrame = False ; Don't advance page

  res@vpWidthF = 0.8 ; Change aspect ratio
  res@vpHeightF = 0.2 ; of plot

  plotx = gsn_csm_xy(wks, dlat, X, res)
  ploty = gsn_csm_xy(wks, dlat, Y, res)
  plotz = gsn_csm_xy(wks, dlat, Z, res)
  plotalt = gsn_csm_xy(wks, dlat, alt, res)

;---Panel all three plots on one page as 4 rows, 1 column
  pres = True
  pres@gsnMaximize = True
  pres@txString = "Comparison between X, Y, Z, alt"
  gsn_panel(wks,(/plotx,ploty,plotz,plotalt/),(/4,1/),pres)

end
--------------

[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% ls
old_out old_out_xy.ncl old_out_xy.ncl copy
[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% head old_out
   yr dlat dlon alt X Y Z
 1999.0396 -77.4576 236.5607 196.1897 37.5075 -70.3262 -8.0432
 1999.0396 -76.7379 235.7316 191.3689 38.1892 -82.7721 1.8762
 1999.0396 -76.0140 234.9799 186.6699 37.1596 -92.6662 13.3272
 1999.0396 -75.2865 234.2944 182.0940 41.3300 -101.3463 25.5609
 1999.0396 -74.5554 233.6664 177.6428 49.4288 -104.8782 45.9377
 1999.0396 -73.8211 233.0883 173.3159 60.1135 -99.3531 83.4698
 1999.0396 -73.0837 232.5538 169.1160 59.3724 -75.3881 143.5756
 1999.0396 -72.3436 232.0578 165.0432 37.8042 -25.8652 213.3564
 1999.0396 -71.6007 231.5958 161.0989 7.6971 58.0769 251.1240
[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% tail old_out
 1999.0396 -26.1934 221.1180 177.4133 72.2601 -154.9218 -123.6529
 1999.0396 -25.8164 221.0692 179.6584 91.7922 -150.4562 -108.3534
 1999.0396 -25.4399 221.0206 181.9377 103.3611 -140.1341 -90.3866
 1999.0396 -25.0639 220.9722 184.2483 125.7770 -131.1891 -57.8323
 1999.0396 -24.6883 220.9239 186.5920 127.5109 -118.4844 -48.5433
 1999.0396 -24.3131 220.8758 188.9685 123.6467 -104.1106 -40.9750
 1999.0396 -23.9385 220.8279 191.3767 126.3278 -94.2096 -36.4291
 1999.0396 -23.5643 220.7801 193.8179 128.2590 -86.2677 -32.3723
 1999.0396 -23.1906 220.7325 196.2905 120.9526 -74.2833 -28.5982
 1999.0396 -22.8174 220.6851 198.7957 115.4841 -67.6852 -22.9296
[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain%
Received on Sun May 22 17:57:20 2011