Hello Adele:
The benefits to using Jython (Python) for your first big VisAD project
are that you can more easily and interactively learn how VisAD can be
used to meet your data manipulation and display needs. While Jython
adds some overhead to your processing, most of the "real work" in a
VisAD application is done by the VisAD library routines and so there is
no loss of performance. The shear convenience of the language makes it
a winner for me...
Just about anything you'd want to do in Java with VisAD can be done in
Jython...and you'll get it up and running more quickly. About the only
down-side I can think of is that you would need to learn a new
language...fortunately, there are lots of references available
(including a couple of Jython-specific books now out...). There are
also some examples on using a CellImpl to change data in the
VisAD-Python tutorial (see the example built in stages).
Having said all this, if Curtis comes back and points you to including
some Renderer in the SpreadSheet's BasicSSCell, then that might be the
way to go for this project...
tom
--
Tom Whittaker
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Space Science and Engineering Center
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
Telephone/VoiceMail: 608.262.2759
