Re: HDF and netCDF (fwd)

------- Forwarded Message

Date:    Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:38:32 -0600
From:    Mike Folk <address@hidden>
To:      "Ted Habermann" <address@hidden>, address@hidden,
         address@hidden, Brand Fortner <address@hidden>
cc:      address@hidden
Subject: Re: HDF and netCDF

Hi Ted.  Great to hear from you.   Russ's reply captures the differences 
extremely well, I think, so I won't confuse things with yet another 
version.  Just a couple of additions:

One thing about HDF5 that has been relevant for certain users: HDF5 can 
store large *numbers* of objects.  Whereas the old HDF could store a 
maximum of 64,000 of any given object (and only 20,000 datasets (SDS)), 
HDF5 can store 2^31-1 or 2^64-1 objects, depending on how the file is created.

And about netCDF I would add that in my view the netCDF data model is more 
closely suited to the context in which many scientists view their data.  I 
would say it's a more scientifically powerful data model for a very wide 
range of applications.  This is why we would really love to offer the 
netCDF API to HDF5 users.

Mike

At 01:40 PM 11/19/2002, Ted Habermann wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>A blast from the distant past. Hope all of you are well and doing
>interesting things! I have been asked to gather information comparing
>HDF and netCDF for scientific data archives. This group must be able to
>point me towards some up to date comparisons...
>
>Thanks,
>Ted Habermann

--
Mike Folk, Scientific Data Tech (HDF)   http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu
NCSA/U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign          217-244-0647 voice
605 E. Springfield Ave., Champaign IL 61820     217-244-1987 fax

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