Tim Holt has made numerous comments about the "conventions.info" and
the brief variable names used (like T, Tmin, etc.). Personally, I
think the variable names should be short and that extra information be
put into attributes. I like the idea of naming variables the same way
they are used in the dynamics equations, or using well known acronyms.
Nothing will frustrate a programmer more that having to type
unnecessarily long names that add little to the understanding of what
the variable is. And if you are trying to deal with netCDF files in a
generic way, you can grab temperature without worrying about whether
it is "temperature_from_ship_type_457b2" or
"temperature_from_groundstation", you just grab "T".
Information on how the data was derived, limitations, etc., more
naturally belong in an attribute than in a variable name. Certainly
it is important information to keep with the data, but the variable
name is the wrong place for it.
--
Harry Edmon INTERNET: harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(206) 543-0547 UUCP: uw-beaver!atmos.washington.edu!harry
Dept of Atmospheric Sciences, AK-40
University of Washington
