My project entails designing a tutorial for the GEMPAK (GEneral Meteorological PAcKage) software distributed by Unidata, a division of UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research). GEMPAK analyzes, diagnoses, and displays geo-referenced data, usually meteorological data. The tutorial is... Show moreMy project entails designing a tutorial for the GEMPAK (GEneral Meteorological PAcKage) software distributed by Unidata, a division of UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research). GEMPAK analyzes, diagnoses, and displays geo-referenced data, usually meteorological data. The tutorial is designed using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML is a language that assigns structural elements to text, such as: emphasis, address, citation, code, etc. [CTAN, 1993] HTML documents are read and displayed using a client application called a browser. I worked primarily with Mosaic, one of the most common browser applications. It also can imbed images, sounds, video, and "links" to other documents. The browser, therefore, can be programmed or configured to display these structural elements as the programmer or user chooses. With Mosaic, links appear as text or bordered images highlighted in blue or purple. The user can select a highlighted object (with the mouse if using Mosaic) to view another document. The GEMPAK tutorial uses "next" and "prev" (previous) icons to link the sections so the user can progress sequentially, and it has a detailed table of contents so the user can skip around the document. At the end of each section is a set of exercises that test users' understanding and the tutorial can display the correct answer so that users can check their results. This interactive quality of HTML documents makes it an excellent medium for tutorials. Show less
