Hi,
Before I send this note out to the netcdfgroup mailing list, I'd like
to get any suggestions for changes from this smaller mailing list,
since it mentions netCDF-4 plans, HDF5 work, and Greg Sjaardema's
64-bit offset changes. Please feel free to suggest changes. Thanks!
To: netcdfgroup
Cc:
Subject: Announcement: netCDF version 3.5.1 now available
Reply-to: russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Organization: UCAR Unidata Program
Fcc: +outbox
Hi,
A new minor release of netCDF, version 3.5.1, is now available from
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.Z
Version 3.5.1 is essentially the same as version 3.5.1-beta13. It
includes bug fixes, portability improvements, and performance
enhancements. The netCDF language interfaces and file format are
unchanged, so files written with previous versions can be read or
written with version 3.5.1. For more information on the changes
between 3.5.0 and 3.5.1, see the release notes:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/release-notes-3.5.1.html
Please report problems to support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Soon we will be making available a beta-release of netCDF 3.6 that
includes code contributed by Greg Sjaardema of Sandia Laboratories to
supporting 64-bit file offsets for huge netCDF files in a way that is
backward compatible with current programs and files. If you aren't
affected by any of the issues described in the release notes
referenced above, you may want to wait for the 3.6 release.
At the same time, we're working with NCSA developers on netCDF-4,
which will provide a netCDF interface to HDF5 data and inherit some
useful new features from the HDF5 underpinnings.
We recently developed a prototype implementation of the netCDF-3 API
using HDF5 as a storage layer. This implementation passed all netCDF-3
tests and convinced us that
- using HDF5 as a storage layer for the netCDF data model is
practical, and
- backward compatibility with both netCDF-3 programs and data can be
achieved by just recompiling and relinking.
In addition, it helped to identify a few desired enhancements to HDF5
to accommodate netCDF-4 more easily. These new features have been
specified in a requirements list, and the HDF5 team is working to
implement them. The prototype also demonstrates that read/write times
and file sizes using the HDF5 format through a netCDF interface are
reasonable.
We can't support files written using this prototype, because it
requires artifacts in the format that will no longer be needed when
the necessary HDF5 enhancements are complete. Nevertheless, the
results are encouraging and we hope to release a supportable version
by June 2005, barring unanticipated problems.
-- Russ Rew
-- Ed Hartnett
