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[McIDAS #EKV-159239]: MAKEMAP and GeoJSON

Hi Mike,

re: GEMPAK's shapefile reader?

> Well this led me down a rabbit hole, but you're right.  And what's more, it
> still works (mostly)!

I am _pleasantly_ surprised :-)

re:
> The Gempak program is shpcv, and after finding the documentation for it I
> gave it a try with a roads shapefile I got from here:
> https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/roads/

Thanks for the URL.

re:
> For the sake of documenting the details of what I did:
> 
> - The shpcv program died reading the full original file (Segmentation
>   fault (core dumped)), can't say I'm surprised by that as it's a detailed
>   global dataset
> 
> - I opened it up in Qgis and exported roads in the USA that had
>   level=Interstate, and shpcv was able to generate output for that subset.
> 
> - The next issue I found though is ^A characters preceding each group in
>   the output ASCII file, and I believe MAKEMAP was choking on those...
> 
> - MAKEMAP: Begin
>   makemap.k: ERROR reading number of points in segment
>   makemap.k: ERROR writing OUTINTZ
> 
> - A sed -e "s/^A//" command was able to take care of that, and
>   MAKEMAP worked afterwards.
> 
> - There were of course a few other nuances such as having the right
>   files in the right MCDATA directory and setting West=NEG, but the map works
>   in McIDAS!

I write emails that contain information "for the files" all of the time :-)

re:
> So now that I know this process gets results, I should be able to formalize
> this and make more.  But it's still a janky process that relies on shpcv
> (which doesn't have a Gempak doc page, though that can change ;) ), so I
> still feel it's not a fully ideal method.  Maybe I'm just being picky.

I agree that it is not even remotely ideal.  But, my approach has pretty
much always been to get something working and move on to the next thing.

re:

> After getting the above process to work I'd probably keep trying that over
> writing my own code, mostly because the output was already formatted
> correctly (apart from the ^A characters) so that would likely be less
> effort required on my part.  But in the event I run into a shapefile that
> shpcv can't handle, reading it with Python could still be another option.

Sounds good.

re: send a note to the SSEC/MUG to find out what they use

> Thanks for reaching out to the MUG, I'm very curious to hear what they'll
> have to say.  I really want to believe there's a more streamlined process
> than the two above.

I would imagine that someone there has created a non-McIDAS 
application/procedure
that can create McDAS OUTline files, but I could be wrong.  Let's see what
they have to say, if anything.

re: Tcl

> I've never had the pleasure of working with Tcl, but I'll check it out and
> maybe add another tool to my belt.  At a glance though it does appear
> there's a Json package available:
> https://core.tcl-lang.org/tcllib/doc/trunk/embedded/md/tcllib/files/modules/json/json.md

I discovered Tcl/Tk (Tcl is the scripting language, and Tk provides the ability 
to create
GUIs) about 20-25 years ago when I was an up and coming tool.  During one of my 
MUG
Meeting visits, I talked up the packages (I may have even done a talk, but I can
remember if I did), and they inspired SSEC to adopt their use for a McIDAS-X 
GUI.
Like Python, Tcl/Tk has had a LOT of packages developed as addons, and they have
been very useful to me, at least, in a variety of contexts.  However, when I
set about to write the scripts that create content for various IDD datastreams,
I decided to drop back to using BASH as it is a lowest common denominator.  If
I were to revamp all of the scripts starting now, I may choose Python or more
likely Go.

re:

> Thanks for your insight as always,

No worries.

On a separate, but somewhat related note, I just re-cut the McIDAS-X/XCD/XRD
v2020a distribution.  Why, you may ask?  The ABIN server needed to be updated
to once again work correctly with CSU/CIRA Level2 products (e.g., GeoColor,
DebraDust, and CloudSnow), and the make file setup needed some adjustments
to fix typos, undefined macros, etc.  I will be putting this updated
"release" out on FTP for another site to grab sometime today.  I will send
you a note to let you know when the code is there so you can grab it.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: EKV-159239
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed
===================
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