[gradsusr] GrADS v. Opengrads

[Andrew Friedman]

Dear Jennifer, Arlindo, and other GrADS and Opengrads developers and volunteers,

I am a graduate climatology student and enthusiastic GrADS and Opengrads user. I recently attended a World Climate Research Program conference, where I met many international GrADS users. In talking to people about the software, I encountered several common questions about the role of GrADS and Opengrads: 

First, many GrADS users are unaware that Opengrads exists since there is no link from the GrADS website (or if there is a link, it is not obvious); however, I think that many people could benefit from its features. Others are aware of the Opengrads website, but unclear about how it relates to GrADS. For example, many of the Opengrads cookbook recipes can help with common GrADS issues, even for users not running Opengrads. Would it be possible to link to Opengrads and clarify the relationship on the GrADS website?

Second, there are many GrADS scripts that have been shared on the listserve, or are on individual users' websites - many more than in the GraDS script library in the documentation. Would it be possible for users to submit links somewhere on the GrADS website, or possibly even upload scripts? Also, how can users' scripts get incorporated into future GrADS and Opengrads versions?

I really appreciate all of the hard work of the GrADS developers, and I hope that addressing some of these questions can make GrADS more accessible and strengthen the user community.

Thanks,
Andrew

> 
> I'd like to make something very clear. COLA is the main developer of GrADS, and most of what find in the OpenGrADS builds is the result of the hardwork of Brian, Jennifer and a number of other folks that contributed to GrADS over the years. The OpenGrADS builds are simply a value added repackaging of COLA's GPL sources. It is not a fork.
> 
>     Arlindo
> 
> -- 
> Arlindo da Silva
> dasilva at alum.mit.edu
> _______________________________________________



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Andrew Friedman
Geography Department, UC Berkeley
andfried at berkeley.edu