[netcdfgroup] NetCDF-3 file format changes

[Joe Sirott]

Hi,

In the "classic" netCDF file format (netCDF-3), a variable without a 
record dimension cannot be larger than 2GB. This limitation has been 
giving me a lot of headaches lately. I know that netCDF-4 is supposed to 
solve this problem, but there are a number of reasons why netCDF-4 is 
not a good option for me (no Java write support, for one).

I could be missing something, but it seems like a very small change to 
the netCDF-3 file format would solve this problem. The only requirement 
would  be changing the variable size info in the netCDF header from a 32 
bit to a 64 bit int (and, of course, updating the version info in the 
header).

I'm guessing that I'm not the only netCDF user who has run into this 
problem and who is also reluctant to move to netCDF-4. Any possibility 
that Unidata could make these changes?

Cheers,

Joe S.