Time and Level Menu Files

WXP offers the ability to tailor the appearance of most menus shown in WXP.  The variable menus will be discussed later because their syntax is slightly different. Each program that has a forecast time menu will have an associated time menu file such as "grbcalc.tim". The same holds for level menus such as "upcalc.lev". The file contains a list of possible menu items, abbreviations used to define the item to WXP and a toggle which specifies when the item is to appear. The syntax of each line is:

   Abbrev    Name      Toggle

• Abbreviation - This define an abbreviation which is used to define the time or level.  These must conform to the syntax for these resources (see time or level resource). 
• Name - this is the text to be used in the menu listing. No spaces are allowed but underscores "_" can be used in their place.
• Toggle - this is a menu toggle which defines when the menu item will appear.  This can be one of the following:
  • 1 -- the item always appears
  • 0 -- the item never appears. This is not useful in a menu file but is in a variable file.
  • mo=model -- a model type. This is the string specified by the model resource.
  • ft=time -- a forecast time. This is a string either specified by the time resource or at the time menu prompt
  • le=level -- a vertical level.  This is a string either specified by the level resource or at the level menu prompt

  Wildcard characters are permitted.  Each of the above strings can be logically and'd or or'd.

  . or ?	match a single character
  *	match any character
  [letters]	match a single character from the set.
  [^letters]	match any character except those from the set.
  str	match string
  ~str	true if doesn't match string
  str1|str2...	match a set or strings (logical or). Pipe "|" separates strings
  str1&str2...	match all strings (logical and). Ampersand "&" separates strings
  _	underscore matches a space.

Here is a sample time menu file:

init    Initial         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h06     6_hour          mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h12     12_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h18     18_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h24     24_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h30     30_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h36     36_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h42     42_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h48     48_hour         mo=ngm|eta|avn*
h60     60_hour         mo=avn*
h72     72_hour         mo=avn*
e3      3.5_day         mo=mrf*
d4      4_day           mo=mrf*     
...        

For example, the 12 hour menu will display whenever the model type is ngm or eta or any match of a avn model. This goes against the model resource value.

Here is a sample level menu file:

sfc    Surface           mo=eta
1000mb 1000_mb           1
850mb  850_mb            mo=~mrf*
700mb  700_mb            mo=~mrf*
500mb  500_mb            1
400mb  400_mb            mo=~mrf*
300mb  300_mb            mo=~mrf*
250mb  250_mb            mo=~mrf*
200mb  200_mb            mo=~mrf*
150mb  150_mb            mo=~mrf*
100mb  100_mb            mo=~mrf*
trop   Tropopause        mo=avn*|ngm
wind   Max_wind          mo=avn*|ngm
snd    Whole_sounding    mo=~mrf*           

In this case, the 1000 mb and 500 mb items always appear.  The surface item only appears for the eta model. The 850 mb item only appears if the model is not of type mrf.  In other words, if the model value starts with mrf, this item won't appear.