Downloads

Replacement httplib.tcl To Match NHC Site Change

Updated 24Oct01 1800 CDT

The NHC has made a minor (but good, in my opinion) change to their web site's format in the advisory archive: they've split them up by year. Naturally, changing the URL to the advisories broke the HTTP method of grabbing the data. The httplib.tcl below replaces the one currently in the httpfilt directory, and fixes this.

httplib.tcl

JStrack version 3.3.3a (bug-fix to 3.3.2b)

01Jun2011: Version 3.3.3a is out. This is a minor bug-fix release from 3.3.2b, with a few minor updates (e.g., storms data for 2010 moved to storms/old, storms directory ready for this year, etc.).

21Sep2010: Minor update to 3.3.1.

This eliminates the nonsense about the winEXE version having to have its own paths.tcl in place. Instead, it recognizes that it's an EXE, and uses paths.tcl.winexe instead. Too simple, too obvious. No wonder I didn't think of it before. I wasn't going to do anymore this season, after getting sick twice from putting in so many hours on JStrack (only truly sick, fever and all for a few hours each time...the first time, doc said it was a virus...the second time showed a different pattern that clearly says back off from JStrack)...but this was only a couple of lines of code in four files (this web page update is taking longer than the patch).

The patched version of the main download is version 3.3.1a. If you download 3.3.1a, you do NOT need the patch above (won't hurt, but it won't do anything, either).

On the other hand, if you already downloaded 3.3.1, and aren't having any problems with paths.tcl, you don't need the patch or 3.3.1a.

Version 3.3.1 changes the alternate data update method, the NHC's FTP server, to use their HTTP server instead. It also requires a new set of win32 EXE files for those using the EXE version for windows. This replaces the old (and no longer suported) FTP stuff with the new HTTP EXEs. It also adds an autoupdate.exe and an init_ts.exe to run the contents of the initialize_timestamp_files script. Just edit the time setting in the Tcl script, and run the EXE.

Version 3.3.0 is a combination bug-fix and new features release. Among other things, thanks again to Ron Murphy (NWS), there's another map: a close-up view of the Caribbean. I've also made some font/color changes to make text info windows much more readable. Plotting of city names is now a bit smarter—if you ask the tracker to put a city name on a map that doesn't have that location, it will let you know. There were also some bugs in the previous release that should be all better now.

• PATCH to httplib.tcl!!! The NHC changed their HTML very slightly, but enough to break a regular expression search in the filename listing used by httplib.tcl. Replace the copy in httpfilt/httplib.tcl with this new version: httplib.tcl.
• Common files and information for ALL JStrack users
  • JStrack documentation (PDF)
  • WARNING: If you have already installed 3.0.0 or higher, and have configured the city names files, you MUST back these up prior to extracting new versions, or you will lose your changes!
  • JStrack-3.3.3a main installation files ... EVERYONE needs these: [.tar.gz] // [.zip].
    
  • 01Jun2011: A little tweek that is in THIS releae improves the positioning of the GOES EAST satellite imagery over the new Caribbean map. It's about as close as I'm likely to ever get it.
  • JStrack E-mail List - I've created an e-mail list for JStrack questions, discussions, etc. on googlegroups.com. To subscribe or unsubscribe, see JStrack e-mail list instructions.
• Windows users wanting to use the EXE files: (if you don't aleady have them): Windows EXE files for JStrack.
  These have been updated for version 3.3.1, and you must use these for 3.3.1/3.3.1a/3.3.2 (and beyond, unless more new EXEs are needed at some point).

  This is only the executables and path.tcl specific to the EXE version.

• JStrack users on non-Windows systems (e.g., various Unix flavors, Mac OS X, etc.) also need portions of the netpbm package. These are required for viewing GOES EAST imagery. If you don't have these installed, you'll need to download, compile, and install this package (trust me, it's worth it on its own). The programs you need are jpegtopnm, pamcut, and pamscale.

Other Things You May Need/Want

If you aren't using the Windows EXE release, you will need to have Tcl/Tk installed before you do anything else. After you extract the archives (and have installed Tcl/Tk), you will need to run autoconfig.tcl (under the main jstrack directory).

NOTE: The code for satellite imagery and for creating an image file from the main window REQUIRES the Img extension. This is included in the ActiveTcl release for Windows. For Unix users, you'll need to download it (see links below).

Links You Need to Have (and local copies of some files)

• Old Storm Data (1986–2006)
• Really Old Storm Data (1851–1985—courtesy of NHC site)
  • storms_1851--1985.tar.gz
  • storms_1851--1985.zip
• Things you need if you are NOT running the Windows EXE release:
  • Tcl/Tk 8.4.15 (all from other sites)
    • Get ActiveTcl Tcl/Tk 8.4.15 for Windows
    • Tcl 8.4.15 and Tk 8.4.15 - Unix source, .tar.gz
    • Local mirror: tcl8.4.15-src.tar.gz //
      tk8.4.15-src.tar.gz //
      ActiveTcl8.4.15.0.280619-win32-ix86-threaded.exe
      Refer to installing_tcl.txt in the JStrack documentation (jstrackdoc.pdf)
    • Img 1.2.4 (included in ActiveTcl distribution for Windows)
    • Unix source (.tar.gz) // local mirror: img1.2.4.tar.gz
    • Sourceforge Home
    • My (very rough) notes from installing Img 1.2.4 on my FreeBSD system

Info on previous versions

JStrack version 3.2.1

This release's primary purpose is to add a download with Windows executables for the tracker program and for the autoftp program (which automates data updates via JStrack's ftp code). The conversion to EXE files on the windows side is something I've been working on for some time, little by little learning more about how to use tclkit.exe and sdx.kit.

All users using the plain Tcl/Tk version (i.e., not the EXE) should download the non-EXE copy, extract the archive, and run autoconfig.tcl as usual.

• JStrack version 3.2.1
  • Changes to the console: now using TkCon instead of the old consoles (interp.tcl for Unix, and the "console" command in Windows). Now there's a consistent console for testing, etc.
  • Improvements to the watch/warning plots. Still experimental!
  • Basically, it got up to three patches, which I decided was enough to justify just wrapping up a new minor release.
  • Old storm data no longer loads. Something I did somewhere in the code broke this....I have no idea when this happened, as I rarely even think about old storm data except when testing (that's how I found this problem today!).
• JStrack version 3.1.0

  Put simply, trying to get the data (reliably for all locations) from the NHC products turned out to be both unreliable and impractical. So the whole idea has been replaced with a new menu item on the menu bar. Just select the Watches/Warnings button and a text window will pop up with the watch/warning data for storms you have loaded.

  The previous two releases really should have been 3.1.x, so this one will make that step up.

• JStrack version 3.0.3
  • Processing and plotting of NHC Watch/Warning data. EXPERIMENTAL

    Note that, for now, at least, this relies very heavily on how the NHC formats the information. The more formal formatting used for the two storms while I was working on this worked fine. The casual format used for the current (22Jul2010) tropical depression is missed completely. Eventually, I hope to "teach" the filter how to read the less formal versions, but for now, just know that this is experimental, and may not even stay.

    Either way, DO NOT EVER rely exclusively on JStrack or any other non-official source for your watch/warning data!

  • Improved handling of city and location names, including per-map settings.

• JStrack version 3.0.2
  • NEW FEATURE - Plotting of city/location names is now moved out of the incomplete category to the hopefully-working-right category.
  • NEW FEATURE - Allows the GOES East satellite imagery to be plotted directly on the tracking map. See gulf_sat+map.gif for a sample from early on in the process of adding this.
  • fixes the problems with the filter introduced when the NHC changed the date format from (e.g.) "2100Z" to "2100 UTC"
  • has some limited city names for the gulf coast map...but only the first time the map is loaded...this is very much an incomplete work in progress, and I was thinking about disabling it before making the above archive files, but I chose instead to at least let people see where things are (or may be) headed.
  • adds lots of other stuff—see the HISTORY file for more information....