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[netCDF #GTA-125251]: Needed support

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  • Subject: [netCDF #GTA-125251]: Needed support
  • Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:31:17 -0600
Hi Limor,

> I openned your website on the ALMA and the netCDF formats, and I
> just don't understand what I need to download to my computer in
> order to read the file or maybe there is a procedure in the website
> that I didn't do.

I'm not sure what the "ALMA format" refers to, but we maintain the netCDF site 
at 

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/

If you intend to read the netCDF file from a program, then you will need to 
install the netCDF library, which is intended to be called from programs 
written by developers to access data stored in netCDF form.  If you are using a 
C, C++, or Fortran program, you will need the C-based netCDF library, which 
also includes C++, Fortran-77, and Fortran-90 interfaces.  This is available in 
source form from our web site, but you would have to follow the installation 
instructions to build and install the libraries on your computer so your 
programs could be linked with them to access data.

If instead you are using a Java program, you would need to download the 
netCDF-Java library, also available from our web site.  You can also read 
netCDF data from programs written in several other languages (Perl, Python, 
Ruby, MATLAB, IDL, ...), for which you would need to download and install the 
appropriate interface, in addition to the C library.

If you only want to print out some data or plot it, you may instead need to use 
the "ncdump" utility, a simple command-line application for displaying what is 
in a netCDF file and for printing selected data.  If you want an application 
with a Graphical User Interface to visualize or plot netCDF data, there are 
many programs to choose from, some freely available and some licensed:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/software.html

Some of the options above are not available for some platforms, so what you can 
use also depends on what kind of computer and development environment you have 
available.  For a simple introduction to netCDF, you might be intersted in 
looking at the online workshop or tutorial:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/workshop/
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/netcdf-tutorial.html

--Russ



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



Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: GTA-125251
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed