New IDV release 1.3 Alpha2

[Jeff McWhirter]

Hi all,
We'd like to announce the latest release of the IDV, version  1.3 alpha2

We normally don't advertise alpha releases but there have been some
major changes and we want to get feedback before the beta release.
We are planning a 1.3 beta1 release at the end of November which should be
fairly stable.

A caveat: Bundles saved with this Alpha version might not be
compatible with future releases. The only thing that *may* cause problems
though is the new MultiDisplay display control. Also, there are definitely
some shaky aspects to this, no documentation, etc., so don't try to rely 
on this
release for critical work.

The major changes include:
    -Performance - we used to retransform everything in a display
     when anything  was  added or removed. We don't do that anymore.

     There is also a fast rendering mode that can be set as a preference
     (under Edit->User Preferences) for a particular display (under
     the View menu).    For most cases this does not effect the quality of
     the display but it does provide substantial speedups. Try for example,
     bringing up the Background Maps, turn on the County Lines map. 
Toggle the
     Fast Rendering checkbox for that map.

    -MultiDisplay display control - This bundle shows this new display 
in action:
     http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/data/multidisplays.xidv
     This new display allows you to configure a tabbed and hierarchical 
user interface
     that holds map displays, display controls, field selectors, etc.

    -Charting - the above bundle also has examples of the new charting
     facility. We provide time series, histograms, scatter plots and
     a variety of tabular displays. Right now, these charts work with
     aircraft track data but we will be adding other types of data in
     the future.
   

You can access the installers and the webstart link here:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/release/idv_1.3a2

The release notes can be seen here:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/release/idv_1.3a2/docs/userguide/ReleaseNotes.html

As always we appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have.

The IDV Development Team