20031124: Additional questions

>From: kbennett <address@hidden>
>Organization: ?
>Keywords: 200311230809.hAN89JEH008677 netCDF Windows

Katrina,

>Hi, I received some help to set up the netCDF program from Tom Yoksas.  I have
>a few more questions about the install.

OK.

>I re-downloaded the netCDF program, this time the files seemed to unpack 
>properly and I did get executable files for ndump and ngen.

Very good.

>I then put these 
>files into my C:\Windows directory, as this directory was located in my PATH.

OK.

>I also added the netcdf.dll to the C:\Windows directory.

>I then tried to start up the executables by clicking on them.  ngen opens with
>a blank DOS command box, and ndump simply flashes across the screen and then 
>closes.

Both ncdump.exe and ncgen.exe are command line utilities - they need
arguments to run correctly (i.e., you do not click on them and have
a GUI interface popup that you interact with).

>In the readme file for windows install it says to place your netcdf.lib in a 
>library directory to link against...what is a library directory?
>I have some 
>under my windows install...this is the one step I appear to be missing.

Again, this is only if you are planning on doing program development
which it doesn't sound like you want to do.

>As well, do I keep the remaining files for netcdf that I downloaded somewhere?

If you are only going to be using ncdump.exe to list out data files,
you do not need to keep the other files around.

>Do I need to tell the ndump/ngen programs where those files are located?  If 
>so, how do I edit their variables to tell them how to find the files?

The only thing you need to tell ncdump.exe is the location of your
data file(s).

You can get help a quick help for how to run ncdump.exe by typing:

ncdump -?

This will show:

ncdump -?
ncdump [-c|-h] [-v ...] [[-b|-f] [c|f]] [-l len] [-n name] [-p n[,n]] file
  [-c]             Coordinate variable data and header information
  [-h]             Header information only, no data
  [-v var1[,...]]  Data for variable(s) <var1>,... only
  [-b [c|f]]       Brief annotations for C or Fortran indices in data
  [-f [c|f]]       Full annotations for C or Fortran indices in data
  [-l len]         Line length maximum in data section (default 80)
  [-n name]        Name for netCDF (default derived from file name)
  [-p n[,n]]       Display floating-point values with less precision
  file             File name of input netCDF file
netcdf library version 3.5.0 of Oct 21 2003 11:29:53 $


The last argument to ncdump is the name of the netCDF file you want
to dump as ASCII.
  
>Thanks again for your assistance,

No worries.

>Katrina
>Victoria, BC

Tom Yoksas

>From address@hidden Mon Nov 24 17:13:36 2003

>Ahh, now I get it.  Thanks very much for everything.  Take care,

>Katrina