Re: wrap HDF5 property lists for netCDF-4?

• To: netcdf-hdf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: Re: wrap HDF5 property lists for netCDF-4?
• From: John Caron <caron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 10:40:52 -0600

Ed Hartnett wrote:

Quincey raises an interesting question: are we going to somehow wrap
HDF5 property lists? Or shall we expose them to the netCDF-4 user?

For example, the HDF5 file creation process involves two property
lists, one for creation properties and one for access properties.

Now we currently make various assumptions about what is desired when
handling a nc_create call. That is, we just go with default property
lists.

But we probably also want to add a function to netcdf which directly
exposes those property lists, allowing the user to construct and
manipulate them with HDF5 functions, and then taking the property
lists and handing them down to the HDF5 file creation function that
gets called.

This is a bit of a weird mix of HDF5 and netCDF-4, but it will allow
the user to take advantage of new features in HDF5 without updating

any netCDF-4 code.

Or perhaps this is a bridge too far for Russ and Mike in terms of
mixing the interface.

I note that we face a similar decision about compound types. We could
wrap HDF5 functions in netCDF functions that conform with our current
interface, but why not just use the perfectly good HDF5 interface for
creating compound types, and then taking the hid_t into an netCDF
function?

(Of course then we have to ask: what if they use a HDF5 type not
supported in netCDF, if there are any such types?)

Ed

• References:
  • Re: parallel I/O and netCDF-4
    • From: Quincey Koziol