getting started finally?

Well

[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% ncl -V
5.2.1

But executing Mary's sample test code does not do anything?

[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% ncl old_out_xy.ncl
 Copyright (C) 1995-2010 - All Rights Reserved
 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
 NCAR Command Language Version 5.2.1
 The use of this software is governed by a License Agreement.

where

[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% more old_out_xy.ncl
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

and

[Joe-Mac-1008:projects/mars/plots] josephcain% head old_out
 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
 1999.0396 -70.8553 231.1640 157.2839 -34.8135 126.6690 241.8724
Received on Fri Jun 10 11:03:33 2011