Concrete Goals of the MetApps Project
Russ Rew
The current goals of the MetApps project are described in the document
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/community/committees/umada/goals.html, accessible
from the
UMADA home page.
An action item from the September 1999 Unidata Users Committee meeting was
to clarify these goals:
ACTION 1: Unidata should create a more concrete
description of the goals of the Java development, including the relationship
between components, a GUI framework for the components, and turn-key applications.
Here's a draft of more concrete goals from the developers' perspectives:
- Deliver turn-key platform-independent applications for the analysis and
visualization of meteorological data. These applications must provide and
extend the most important capabilities of currently-available applications
such as GEMPAK, GARP, and McIDAS. Use of these applications should require
no knowledge of Java or component architectures.
- Deliver easily installed executables, user documentation, and test cases
for the turn-key applications.
- Identify or create a component-oriented framework that supports construction
of custom applications from components used to build the turn-key applications.
This framework should be useful to create new combinations of components that
provide subsets of the capabilities of the turn-key applications, connect
them in unanticipated ways, or provide tailored mini-applications for embedding
in educational materials. Use of these components may require knowledge of
component architectures or Java.
- Deliver full source code, class documentation, and test cases for the MetApps
components.
- Enlist other developers in enhancing components and developing new components
for the framework by providing an archive, mailing list, developers' forums,
documentation, web site, and support for the components.
