Re: NetCDF manual in Japanese

Hi Masato,

> We are approaching the end of compiling the NetCDF manual in
> Japanese.
> 
> Here are some questions in English expressions we don't understand
> clearly.  I would appreciate your comments on the followings.
> 
> "A variable external data type is one of a small set of netCDF types
> that have the names NC_BYTE, NC_CHAR,NC_SHORT, NC_INT,NC_FLOAT, and
> NC_DOUBLE in the C interface. NC_LONG is a deprecated synonym for
> NC_INT in the C interface."
> 
> How do you explain "deprecated synonymy" in easier way?

The intended meaning is:

  "NC_LONG" is an old name for the type "NC_INT".  "NC_INT" is the
  name we now encourage using instead.  Both names are still accepted,
  but we discourage the use of "NC_LONG", because on some platforms,
  "long" and "int" are different sizes and confusion could result.

> "This is a two layer cache. The first (synchronous) layer is composed
> of 256 8-block buffers in memory, the second (asynchronous) layer is
> composed of 4 1024-block buffers on the SSD. This scheme works well
> when accesses proceed through the dataset in random waves roughly
> 2x1024-blocks wide."
> 
> What is "random waves"?  Is this a special method to access buffers?

Steve Emmerson wrote this.  I'll try to get him to provide a simpler
description or explain what is meant by "random waves", since I don't
understand it either.

--Russ