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20001010: Alden finality? future?

>From: Eric Horst <address@hidden>
>Organization: Millersville
>Keywords: 200010101616.e9AGGJ424173 difax demise

Eric-

>So where do we go from here?
>
>I know that Art Person (PSU) and all of us here at Millersville are committed
>to maintaining a DIFAX mapwall in our respective institutions. There are 
>other possibilities such as UNISYS...so I think we need to get UNIDATA 
>involved, despite the fact they live and breath in the "electronic map 
>world". But down here where the rubber meets the road, paper difax maps 
>are still a fundamental part of the educational and forecast process.

Unidata HAS been involved in providing several options other than
Unisys. Unidata has never subsidized DIFAX from Alden. In addition to
the options provided in several different emails this past summer,
University of Wisconsin has offered up GEMPAK scripts to create
DIFAX-like maps. University Mass - Lowell has indicated that they are
automatically downloading maps from the NWS web site. Perhaps they are
willing to share their scripts with others (even though they are VAX
scripts, they could probably be adapted). The NWS will terminate the
DIFAX feed soon, so even the Unisys option is a short-term bandaid.

One of the fundamental aspects of Unidata is community building.  Perhaps
someone in the DIFAX community would be willing to automatically generate
DIFAX or DIFAX-like products and feed them via LDM to others dependent on
DIFAX.  Apparently, we now have a spare feed type. ;-)

Additionally, since most of the people on the ldm-users list do not
receive DIFAX, perhaps discussion of this topic should be moved to the
address@hidden list which was set up several years ago to
discuss DIFAX specific issues like this.

Just my $.02

Don Murray
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Don Murray                               UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                        P.O. Box 3000
(303) 497-8628                              Boulder, CO 80307
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