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Re: 970609: idl manipulation

>To: address@hidden
>From: Zoe Stockwell <address@hidden>
>Subject: idl manipulation
>Organization: KNMI
>Keywords: 199706091039.EAA21583

Hi Zoe,

> I would like to use NetCDF. I have downloaded netcdf.tar
> to my silicon graphics machine. 
> 
> I should like to read in files located on Netscape into IDL.
> I have IDL already. I was wondering where I could get ncdf_open
> and the others below. Also how to link up to the files on Netscape
> without downloading them to my workstation?
> 
>         id = ncdf_open('data/april.nc')
>         ncdf_varget,id, ncdf_varid( id, 'GP'), gp

The IDL functions ncdf_open, ncdf_varget, and so on are part of the IDL
package from RSI, not part of the netCDF package.  If you have any
recent version of IDL (since about 1994), it should include these
functions.

When you say you have IDL, there may be some confusion, because there
are at least two completely different software packages that have the
name "IDL":

  - IDL (Interactive Data Language) from Research Systems, Inc.,
    described at
        http://www.rsinc.com/idl/main.html
    This is a scientific data visualization package that includes data
    access functions for netCDF data.

  - IDL (Interface Definition Language), a language used to
    specify CORBA interfaces, part of any Object Request Broker
    installation that implements the CORBA specifications.  It has
    nothing to do with netCDF.

You might be referring to the second meaning of IDL, since you also ask
about "files on Netscape", and as far as I know, there are no netCDF
files on the netscape.com servers.  Netscape is planning to include
support for IIOP in all its browsers, however, and IIOP is related to
the second meaning of IDL.

If you mean access to netCDF files with a Netscape browser, I'm not sure
how either IDL would help with that.  We will probably eventually supply
a netCDF browser in the form of an applet that can be used with
netscape, but it is not available yet.

--Russ