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25 Developing generic netCDF software
Experience developing generic netCDF software tools

Developing general tools that can handle arbitrary netCDF data, such as ncdump, ncgen, and nccopy, demonstrated the adequacy of the APIs and some shortcomings.

A netCDF tool is generic if it can handle arbitrary netCDF variables of

The enhanced data model for netCDF-4 adds arbitrarily nested groups and user-defined data types that may be nested, leading to an unlimited variety of types.

25.0  Issues in Writing Generic NetCDF Software
There are several issues to be aware of in writing software designed to read arbitrary netCDF data.
25.1  Of what use is a utility to copy netCDF files?
There are already utility programs to copy files, for example the Unix "cp" command.
25.2  Lessons learned from developing nccopy
Was anything useful learned in developing the generic netCDF program nccopy?
25.3  The Problem
How can you write code to process all the values of any multidimensional variable?
25.4  A Solution
The nccopy utility solves this problem with iterators, implemented in C.
25.5  Benefits of Iterators
Use of an iterator simplifies the code and makes it general.

 


Previous: NetCDF-Java and the CDM Next: Issues in Writing Generic NetCDF Software Table of contents Frames 2012 Unidata NetCDF Workshop