19990923: Problems on 7.6 Test?

>From: "Jennie L. Moody" <address@hidden>
>Organization: UVa
>Keywords: 199909231817.MAA10778 McIDAS-X 7.60 test

Jennie,

>Just got around to testing the build of McIDAS7.6 before trying
>to set up an installation.  Hit what might be a problem, but 
>I thinks its minor, maybe just documentation? 
>
>First, I wondered if I really wanted this version to overwrite the
>.mcidasrc file I already had.  So I copied it to .mcidasrc71, just to 
>be on the safe side.  When I ran mcidas however, it never did update
>the file .mcidasrc

If you wanted the 7.60 version of .mcidasrc, you should have moved
the old file to .mcidasrc71.  Copying it leaves .mcidasrc in place,
and McIDAS will not overwrite .mcidasrc if it exists in the user's
HOME directory.

>Anyway, the error I get is :
>Error in startup script:  couldn't read file
>"/home/mcidas/mcidas7.6/tcl/lib/tk8.0/xmfbox.tcl": no such file
>or directory
> while executeing
>"source $McINST_ROOT/tcl/lib/tk$tk_version/xmfbox.tcl"
>(file "/home/mcidas/bin/mcgui k" line 230)

This is caused by 7.60 not being installed yet. The Tcl/Tk stuff (i.e.
GUI stuff) will not run until the installation is complete.  The reason
for this is that the Tk routine 'mcwish' has the location of shared
libraries "burned" into it.

Apparently, your .mcidasrc file says to bring up MCGUI automatically
upon start.  My testing procedures tacidly assume (apparently
incorrectly) that the GUI stuff will not be run during the test.  I
guess that I should change the documentation to tell a user to bring up
McIDAS specifying a different defaults file that does not exist.  This
would prevent the GUI stuff from being run.

>I noted that there is no lib directory in ...mcidas7.6/tcl, its
>actually ...mcidas7.6/tcl/library, then realized it was 
>actullay trying to run the old mcgui

Right.

>I am figuring that I got this error because inspite of the fact
>that the instructions said:
>
>"If this is the first time you have run McIDAS-X version 7.x, then
>the file .mcidasrc will be created in the /home/mcidas directory.
>If you have run McIDAS-X version 7.x before, the settings in .mcidasrc
>will be read and used to define your session environment. "

Right again, but I wasn't taking into account a user specifying automatic
startup of MCGUI (or GUI) in .mcidasrc.

>This didn't actually happen (ie., even though this was the first
>time I ever tried to run version 7.6, which _is_ what I ran, it
>didn't make a new .mcidasrc).  So then it tried to execute the
>line
>-c MCGUI
>which was in my .mcidasrc file which already existed, and
>this created the problem. 

Right.

>The rest of the "test" went fine, so I am assuming this
>in no big deal.

You are correct.  It is no big deal.

>I decided to try it again, and this
>time I removed my .mcidasrc, and ran mcidas
>again, and it did make a new .mcidasrc, did not generate the error, 
>and the only difference I could see in the .mcidasrc files was the
>commented out MCGUI line.
>
>So, maybe this just represents a minor documentation problem??  

You are correct.  I will have to remember to address this in my
documentation.

Tom