[netCDF #PAJ-722670]: netCDF General - netCDF 4 beta ready for release?

> Institution: NCAR/CISL
> Package Version: netcdf 4
> Operating System: All
> Hardware Information: none
> Inquiry: Hi,
> 
> We are getting ready to release a new version of PyNIO, which is a Python 
> interface to the netCDF 3 library. We also have an interface to the netCDF 4 
> classic routines, but we haven't advertised this or made it available yet.
> 
> Do you think your current netcdf-4.0-beta1 release is ready for release to 
> the public, or should we stick with building our software against netCDF 
> 3.6.2 and wait for the official release of 4.0?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> --Mary

Howdy Mary!

NetCDF-4 is certainly ready for release, in beta. Users need to understand that 
netCDF-4 is in beta, and depends on HDF5 1.8.0, also in beta.

NetCDF-3 classic and 64-bit offset files produced with netCDF-4 are 
indistinguishable from those produced with netCDF-3.6.2 (because the netCDF-3 
core C library is part of netCDF-4).

However, netCDF-4 requires more installation work from the user, and since it 
is in beta, should not be used for operational data.

What some other tool users are doing is supporting netCDF-4 if the user tells 
it to, and netCDF-3 otherwise. This leaves the decision in the users' hands and 
supports the eventual switch to netCDF-4 without breaking any existing netCDF-3 
operational code.

As a tool developer, I would switch to netCDF-4 beta. (In fact, I have, for my 
other tool development). NetCDF-3 code is 100% compatible with netCDF-4. 

Thanks,

Ed



Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: PAJ-722670
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed