Re: NetCDF, Objective-C, Apple's Spotlight

Hi Thomas,

> I contacted you a few years ago about my objective-c interface to the  
> netcdf library via Argonne National Laboratory.  That didn't get  
> distributed for weird reasons while I was at argonne.  However, I'm  
> no longer at Argonne and now have permission to release the  
> software.  Here are my near-future plans:
> 
> 
> 1. Release a spotlight plugin for macosx tiger - I'd really like your  
> input on this, if possible  (I completed a alpha tonight and thought  
> I might like to share a screenshot, see below).

This looks useful for people who store netCDF data on MacOS X
platforms.  It would be great if it was practical to make Spotlight
index the variable names or string-values attributes, such as the
value of a "standard_name" attribute, used by data that conforms to
the CF conventions.  That way Spotlight could quickly find files that
contain a particular parameter, for example.

> 2. Release the objective-c interface
> 3. Release the NetCDF Editor application based on the interface.
> 
> 
> Both 2 and 3 are considered open source by Argonne, hence my ability  
> to release.  In any case, I'd like to make sure that all the required  
> information are included with my distributions.  So, if possible, I'd  
> like to arrange for you to see a preview version of the distros.

That would be fine, although I can't promise to provide any useful
feedback for your preview versions, due to being somewhat
over-committed from now to February.  Also, I'm not an Objective-C
developer, so I'm not qualified to even comment on that interface.

When they're ready, I'll be happy to add entries describing your
packages on our "Software for Manipulating or Displaying NetCDF Data"
and "What's New with NetCDF?" web pages.  Thanks for your
contributions!

--Russ

_____________________________________________________________________

Russ Rew                                         UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                     http://www.unidata.ucar.edu