Announcing the OpenGrADS Cookbooks

[Arlindo da Silva]

All,

The OpenGrADS Cookbooks <http://cookbooks.opengrads.org/> are now available.
Inspired by the format of the Perl
Cookbook<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_Cookbook>,
each recipe has a very simple standard format including the statement of
the *problem* one is trying to solve, followed by the proposed *solution* and
a *discussion* section. User contributions are highly encouraged (and badly
needed).

As Hoop reminded me recently, most of us "developers" usually work under the
hood, we don't drive. The actual expertise in using GrADS is with you guys
that use it on a daily basis on a variety of problems. The "Cookbooks"
project is an effort to organize this collective knowledge with an
easily searchable and extensible wiki. It is our hope that most recipes will
come out of the GrADS user community, although developers are also expected
to make contributions from time to time.

The Cookbooks are not meant as a replacement for the excellent on-line
documentation that Brian and Jennifer maintain at
http://grads.iges.org/grads/gadoc/index.html. The Recipes contained in the
Cookbooks simply present the information from a task oriented perspective
(say, "how to import GrADS data into a spreadsheet") rather than document a
specific command (say, "set gxout print").  In addition, each recipe is a
practical example that should be reproducible by the reader. Some people
learn better this way.

While most recipes may originate from discussions in this list, Cookbooks'
specific discussion related to the editorial process should be conducted at
the new list

        opengrads-cooks at lists.sourceforge.net.

The availability of new recipes, and important revisions when completed, can
still be announced on gradsusr.

For a list of available recipes consult:

       http://cookbooks.opengrads.org/index.php?title=Table_of_Contents

Instructions for contributing your own recipes are here:


http://cookbooks.opengrads.org/index.php?title=Recipe-001:_Writing_a_Recipe

Please don't feel that you need to have a killer script in order to be able
to contribute recipes. Keep in mind that simple recipes that are geared
towards new users are just as valuable as complex PDEF trickery.

   I hope to hear from you soon at opengrads-cooks at lists.sourceforge.net.

   Take care,

   Arlindo da Silva
   On behalf of the OpenGrADS development team


--
Arlindo da Silva
dasilva at alum.mit.edu
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