Subject: Visualization Freeware Release

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Goldsmith)
Date: 23 Aug 1995 22:55:03 GMT

LinkWinds 2.1 Release

The new LinkWinds, version 2.1, is ready for release.  For those 
unfamiliar with LinkWinds, a brief description is below.
The software executes only on SGI platforms under IRIX 4 or
IRIX 5.  An alpha-test build for the Sun workstation running
under Solaris 2.4 is also available.  It contains the 2-
dimensional subset of LinkWinds applications only.

The Linked Windows Interactive Data System (LinkWinds) is a 
visual data exploration system which has served as a testbed 
and prototyping environment for a NASA/JPL program of 
research into graphical methods for rapidly and 
interactively accessing, displaying and analyzing large 
multivariate multidisciplinary datasets.  It provides a 
variety of functions and services, including interactive 2-
dimensional and 3-dimensional graphical displays of data, 
hard copy of graphical displays and text, interactive color 
manipulation, animation creation and display, data 
subsetting either at the input or output, a journal and 
macro capability, context-sensitive help, and network 
support for data search and retrieval as well as 
collaborative data analysis.  It is an integrated multi-
application execution environment, running under UNIX, with 
a full graphical user interface (GUI).  The system has several 
facilities for database access and provides for the 
ingestion of very large data files in a variety of database 
formats.  Data formats currently accepted are:

1)  Raw binary integer (1 - 4 byte) and floating point (4, 8 byte) data.
2)  The Hierarchical Data Format (HDF).
3)  The Common Data Format (CDF).
4)  NetCDF.
5)  The Silicon Graphics, Inc. native RGB image format.
6)  Data with Planetary Data System (PDS) headers.
7)  The astrophysics Flexible Image Transport System (FITS).

Various LinkWinds packages are available via anonymous ftp from:

        twinky.jpl.nasa.gov

in the /pub/LinkWinds directory.  YOU MUST MAKE THE TRANSFER IN 
BINARY MODE.