NCL > What's New

What's new in the current release

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Version 6.1.2 - February 7, 2013 - [download]

Note: almost immediately after V6.1.1 was released, a few users reported a bug that warranted a V6.1.2 release immediately. For more information, see the discussion below on the wsMaximizeSize resource.

Since V6.1.1 had a number of new features, we will include the "what's new" for V6.1.1. V6.1.2 is a bug fix release only and doesn't contain any new features.

New reassignment operator

There's a new operator, ":=", that allows you to reassign variables without having to delete them first.
For example: 

   x = fspan(-10.5,20.8,0.1)    ; array of floats
;  x = "This is a string"       ; this won't work
   x := "This is a string"      ; single string

This operator works for attributes as well, but not for coordinate arrays.

New functions

  • covcorm_xy - Calculates a covariance or correlation matrix given two separate arrays.

  • dgeevx_lapack - Given a square (N,N) real non-symmetric matrix, compute the eigenvalues and, optionally, the left and/or right eigenvectors via the LAPACK subroutine dgeevx.

  • get_isolines - Retrieves the points that define a contour line.

  • totype - Converts values of any snumeric data type or string to values of the given type.

New color tables

Joe Grim of NCAR/RAL contributed three new color tables to help colleagues who have difficulty discerning colors.

You can download these tables now and use them. Click on the "download now" link of the desired table, and then go to the "Move file to appropriate directory" section of the "create your own color table" page for information on adding this new table to your current version of NCL.

cb_9step
(download now) 		cb_rainbow
(download now) 		cb_rainbow_inv
(download now)

Better support for NetCDF-4 files

Support for NetCDF-4 files is in beta-testing in V6.1.1 and V6.1.2.
We encourage people to test it out and give us feedback on our ncl-talk email list.

A number of improvements were made to NCL's "advanced file structure" that was added in V6.1.0 to address new data features in NetCDF-4, like groups, compound data types, variable length arrays, and multiple unlimited dimensions. There are some examples of these new features on the "Output to NetCDF" section of the examples page.

File input/output improvements

  • Improved the handling of record marker sizes when reading/writing Fortran binary files. You can now specify the record marker size by setting the "RecordMarkerSize" parameter in a call to setfileoption

  • Added support for GRIB1 GDS grid 205, described as "Arakawa Non-E Staggered rotated Latitude/Longitude Grid".

File input/output bugs fixed

  • Several NetCDF bugs were fixed (in reference to NetCDF-4 files, and not NetCDF "classic" files, which have worked as they always have):

    1. Writing an undefined variable directly to a file.
    2. Writing a scalar to a file.
    3. Printing a variable's attribute when it is double.
    4. Adding global attributes to an existing file.
    5. If two files are opened, where the first one is NetCDF3 and second one is NetCDF4, then there was a problem operating on the first file.

Function and procedure bugs fixed

  • dtrend_quadratic_msg_n - The "remove_mean" parameter was behaving the opposite of what the documentation states. This has been fixed.

  • reshape / reshape_ind - The first argument was unnecessarily being restricted to "numeric". It now works with strings.

  • rgrid2rcm_Wrap - Fixed two bugs: (a) the argument sequence was incorrect, and (b) a named dimension was corrected.

  • str_split_by_length - Fixed bug with where a string terminator wasn't properly added, if the string didn't split into nice even chunks.

Graphical bugs fixed

Known issues with versions 6.1.1 and 6.1.2

  • covcorm - "iopt" behaves the opposite of how it is described in the documentation. That is, an iopt of (/0,1/) behaves as if you had entered (/1,0/), and an iopt of (/1,0/) behaves as if you had entered (/0,1/). An iopt of (/0,0/) or (/1,1/) works as described. We are not sure if we will change the function or the documentation, but for now, be sure to use the work-around.

  • There's a bug in version 6.1.1 of NCL that can cause contour plotting scripts to fail with the message: 

    fatal:_NhlUseWorkspace: Allocation of workspace would exceed maximum total size
fatal:ContourPlotDraw: error reserving label area map workspace
fatal:ContourPlotDraw: Error reserving workspace
fatal:ContourPlotDraw: draw error
warning:WorkstationDeactivate: workstation not active or not opened

    This occurs when you have a wsMaximizeSize setting in your .hluresfile, and the value is something "small" like 32556688. If you remove this setting, or bump it up to a larger number like 100000000, then contouring should work again.

    This bug is fixed in V6.1.2. We recommend you download that version.

  • There is a bug in Apple's new XQuartz windowing system that causes NCL's cairo X11 window to not display properly on Mac systems running MacOS 10.8 or later, or on Macs that have been upgraded to use Xquartz 2.7.x as the default X11 window system.

    If you believe you've run into this bug with our precompiled binary, then you can try "ncl.xq.fix" to see if this fixes the issue. Just use this executable in place of "ncl": 

      ncl.xq.fix myscript.ncl
    If this seems to fix the problem, then you can make this your default "ncl": 

      mv $NCARG_ROOT/bin/ncl $NCARG_ROOT/bin/ncl.bkp
  mv $NCARG_ROOT/bin/ncl.xq.fix $NCARG_ROOT/bin/ncl
  • If you have an NCL script that calls ImageMagick's "convert" utility to convert from a PS/PDF file to another format, then you need to make sure you delete the workstation before you call convert: 

       delete(wks)
   system( "convert -trim file.ps file.gif")

    This ensures that the "file.ps" file is properly closed before you convert it. In versions 6.0.0 and earlier, this wasn't required, but it was always recommended. It is now required for V6.1.x.

  • PS files are quite a bit larger than they were in V6.0.0 and earlier. PDF files are smaller.