Subject: [Fwd: Xnow's life cycle coming to an end]
Resent-From: SR.IFPS@noaa.gov
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 17:08:35 -0600
From: "Melinda Bailey" <Melinda.Bailey@noaa.gov>
To: _NWS SR WCMs <sr.wcm@noaa.gov>, _NWS SR IFPS <SR.IFPS@noaa.gov>
CC: Walt Zaleski <Walt.Zaleski@noaa.gov>,
     _NWS SR WFO MICs <sr.wfo.mic@noaa.gov>,
     Scott Plischke <Scott.Plischke@noaa.gov>,
     _NWS SRH IFPS <SRH.IFPS@noaa.gov>,
     _NWS SRH DivChiefs <srh.divchief@noaa.gov>

Everyone,

This topic was brought up on the IFPS and WCM calls this week.  Here is
the background information:

Melinda

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Subject: Xnow's life cycle coming to an end
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 14:42:08 -0600
From: "Scott Plischke" <Scott.Plischke@noaa.gov>
Organization: National Weather Service
To: Jack Settelmaier <Jack.Settelmaier@noaa.gov>,
     Melinda Bailey <Melinda.Bailey@noaa.gov>,
     Eric Howieson <Eric.Howieson@noaa.gov>,
     Judson Ladd <Judson.Ladd@noaa.gov>,
     Jose Garcia <Jose.Garcia@noaa.gov>

Hi Folks,

I just want to let you know that FSL will have a new zone combiner tool
in the GFE for IFPS 16 (slated for this summer).  As such, the Xnow GFE
Interface will no longer be needed.  Along with an agreement that was
made to not retool Xnow for VTEC, Xnow's life cycle will come to an end
late this year.  Unless I hear otherwise or something unforeseen
happens, I plan to stop supporting Xnow's GFE Formatter Interface once
IFPS 16 is fielded.  I  then plan to end all support for Xnow once VTEC
is implemented.   Xnow was a fun project that took me on an 8 year
odyssey.   It's now time for me to move on to other new and exciting
projects.

I'm forwarding Mark Mathewson's email about the new GFE zone combiner
and his take on stopping Xnow support.

Please feel free to circulate this information as you see fit.

-Scott

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Subject: Re: XNOW and future GFE changes
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 12:05:21 -0700
From: "Mark A Mathewson" <Mark.A.Mathewson@noaa.gov>
Organization: NOAA FSL
To: Scott Plischke <Scott.Plischke@noaa.gov>

Scott,

We think that the zone combiner capability will be available in IFPS16,
which will be deployed this summer.   Yes it will be deployed at the
same time as the other items.   We will probably have an early version
of it via the RPP process this spring.  If you have the time and
capability, perhaps you could take a look at it and give us feedback.

My gut feeling is that you can stop supporting Xnow once we have this
new capability, and it sounds like you agree with that statement.

I fully understand what you are saying about moving on to new things.
Once you deploy something that a lot of sites use, then you end up with
an anchor around you too.

Thanks for the positive words -- I was worried that you might feel that
we are invading your territory.

-Mark

Scott Plischke wrote:

>Mark,
>
>Regarding item 4, when will the zone combiner be fielded?  Will the zone
>combiner be implemented at the same time as items 1 through 3?  I assume
that
>I can stop supporting Xnow once the zone combiner is released - ?   Xnow
was a
>fun journey but I look forward to moving on to new things.  I welcome FSL's
>effort to add zone combining capability to the GFE.
>
>-Scott
>
>Mark A Mathewson wrote:
>
>
>
>>Scott,
>>
>>I wanted to touch base with you on some enhancements we are doing in the
>>GFE.   Tracy and I just got back from a 3-day Text Formatter IWT in
>>Phoenix, and there was much discussion about "backup" formatters.
>>Basically each site will be required to maintain a standard set of GFE
>>formatters, as well as a set of "baseline" formatters which are not
>>modified from the baseline delivered.  This allows the NCF to handle 1st
>>tier support and help the site roll back to the baseline version if the
>>local version fails in the middle of the night.   The meeting also
>>talked about the VTEC issues that will be implemented shortly within the
>>GFE formatters.  The VTEC issues involve using w/w/a database, since
>>that is what the NWS has decided (for the short-term).
>>
>>All of these changes affect the way the GFE handles processes and
>>formatters.   Here are a number of changes that we are anticipating, or
>>have already started on:
>>
>>1) Background processes, e.g., formatters, can be started from the GFE
>>and run either locally (on the same machine as the GFE) or remotely on
>>the server.  When run on the server machine, they run faster.   This has
>>involved a process management module to be added to both the GFE and the
>>ifpServer, which will control the number of simultaneous processes that
>>can be run.
>>
>>2) Formatters will have their back-end (output display dialog) and the
>>front-end (selection dialogs) separated out from the main formatter.
>>This is required to allow the formatters to run on the remote machine,
>>as well as ensure that no GUIs will lock out other formatters (because
>>of the new process management module).
>>
>>3) We need to add a capability similar to XNOW zone combining for
>>handling watches, warnings, and advisories.  We will be using a modified
>>spatial and temporal editor to depict the current wwa as well as what
>>the headlines grids show for proposed wwa.  The user interface will
>>allow the user to accept recommendations, or change them before the
>>proposed/recommendations are sent to w/w/a.
>>
>>4) Since #3 will use similar technology to a zone combiner, we are
>>planning to build in a zone combiner to the GFE.  We have talked about
>>this for years, but never did it since XNOW had that capability.   Now
>>that  GFE formatters are becoming the baseline formatters, this
>>capability needs to exist.    This has become more important since the
>>NCF will now be doing national support on the GFE text formatters and
>>will have to know exactly how to run them and diagnose them.
>>
>>I wanted to let you know about these changes, since some of them may
>>affect the use of XNOW in the field.    Please feel free to discuss
>>any/all of them with me.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>-Mark
>>
>>--
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Mark Mathewson             mark.a.mathewson@noaa.gov
>>NOAA/FSL/MD/EFT            EFT Branch Chief
>>R/FS6                      http://www-md.fsl.noaa.gov/eft
>>325 Broadway               voice: (303) 497-6713
>>Boulder, CO 80305  USA     fax:   (303) 497-3096
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>

--
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Mark Mathewson             mark.a.mathewson@noaa.gov
NOAA/FSL/MD/EFT            EFT Branch Chief
R/FS6                      http://www-md.fsl.noaa.gov/eft
325 Broadway               voice: (303) 497-6713
Boulder, CO 80305  USA     fax:   (303) 497-3096
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  Scott Plischke <Scott.Plischke@noaa.gov>
  Information Technology Officer
  National Weather Service

  Scott Plischke
  Information Technology Officer  <Scott.Plischke@noaa.gov>
  National Weather Service
  1900 English Rd                 Fax: (806) 335-3118
  Amarillo                        Work: (806) 335-1421
  TX
  79108-7512
  Additional Information:
  Last Name    Plischke
  First Name   Scott
  Version      2.1