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Re: netCDF3.6.0-beta3

Hi Reimar,

> we recognized the development of netCDF3.6.0-beta3.
> 
> 
> It would be fine if we could get added the plus sign (+) to the allowed
> signs for netCDF variables.
> 
> 
> I am sorry I have missed to ask this before.

I can't see any objections to allowing "+" in names that don't also
apply to "-" which has been allowed from the beginning.  I'll have to
make sure it doesn't cause any new problems.

We already have objections to allowing '.' in variable names, because
it conflicts with the most natural syntax for specifying structure
members in netCDF-4 and in the current Java interface.  

How difficult would it be for you to require escaping some of these
special characters in variable names, for example instead of
permitting the variable name 'a.b(c)', requiring 'a\.b\(c\)'?

If we required escaping special characters in variable names, we could
allow all special characters, including blanks.  We're considering
this for netCDF-4, as well as permitting Unicode for names.  I realize
there are backward compatibility problems, I'm just wondering how
serious the backward compatibility issue is at this point, since it
will only get worse and eventually make such a change impossible.

--Russ