1996-12-18
|
A note about a documentation inaccuracy in the NetCDF 2.4 User's Guide has been added to the list of Known Problems with the NetCDF Distribution. Thanks to William C. Mattison for pointing out the problem.
|
1996-11-12
|
Plot Plus (PPLUS), a general-purpose scientific graphics package that can read netCDF files as well as ASCII and binary files, is now available at no charge. It does require licensing on a per computer basis, but the license is at no cost. For more information, see http://www.halcyon.com/www2/dwd.
|
1996-10-28
|
Version 2.3.0 of the Unidata decoders package was released, for converting various kinds of meteorological bulletins into netCDF data. In addition to the GRIB decoder (gribtonc) written in C, the package now includes four perl decoders: a synoptic decoder (syn2nc), a buoy decoder (buoy2nc), a METAR decoder (metar2nc), and an upper-air decoder (ua2nc).
|
1996-10-23
|
Steve Simpson has made available the source and .mak files necessary to make a Win32 DLL for the alpha (prerelease) version of the C-language-only part of netCDF-3, called netcdf-3.1a. A .zip file is available for downloading.
|
1996-10-03
|
A binary release of netcdf-3.1a for 32 bit Windows platforms is available for downloading.
|
1996-09-19
|
Phil Miller has contributed "fanmat", a MATLAB interface to the FAN library for extracting and manipulating array data from netCDF files. It includes two MEX functions, nc2mat and mat2nc, that are simple gateway functions to the FAN library and are MEX file equivalents to the FAN utilities nc2text and text2nc. The fanmat package is available via FTP from ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/contrib/, a collection of files of freely available, user-contributed software and documentation related to netCDF.
|
1996-09-13
|
The Python netCDF module is now available for testing and use. More information is available from the URL http://snow.cit.cornell.edu/noon/ncmodule.html Python is an interpreted, object-oriented language that is supported on a wide range of hardware and operating systems. More information and sources can be obtained from http://www.python.org/
The netCDF bindings allow easy creation, access and browsing of netCDF files. The bindings also use the udunits library to do unit conversions.
|
1996-08-30
|
An alpha (prerelease) version of the C-language-only part of netCDF-3, called netcdf-3.1a, is now available for downloading. A description of the prerelease is available in the NetCDF-3 Prerelease document and man-page reference documentation is also available with the release.
We are releasing this version so C users can have early access to netCDF-3 without waiting for the completion of other components of the software. We will appreciate feedback, especially on bug reports, porting problems, and performance comparisons. Please send to support@unidata.ucar.edu, identifying the prerelease version in your message.
|
1996-08-12
|
Version 2.4.3 of Unidata's netCDF software is now available via anonymous FTP from
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.Z
Changes are described in the Release Notes.
|
1996-07-17
|
Added a new document Known problems with the netCDF Distribution that describes reported problems and workarounds in the current release. Referenced this document from the netCDF homepage and the netCDF FAQ.
Documented a couple of steps that are needed for building on Windows NT platforms that were inadvertantly left out of the build instructions in the current release.
|
1996-06-26
|
Joe Sirott <sirott@atmos.washington.edu> has made available both source and compiled Java code for his Java netCDF interface.
You should look at the README file, at ftp://ftp.atmos.washington.edu/freud/java/README before downloading the tar file from ftp://ftp.atmos.washington.edu/freud/java/rmicdf.tar.Z.
|
1996-06-07
|
A description of the new EzGet Fortran library for retrieval of modeled and observed climate data stored in popular formats including DRS, netCDF, GrADS, and GRIB has been added to the Web document Software for Manipulating or Displaying NetCDF Data.
|
1996-05-24
|
The mailing list searches on the netCDF home page have been modified to use glimpse instead of WAIS, and a new search option has been added for searching all the netCDF-related web documents maintained by Unidata.
|
1996-05-22
FAN version 2.0.2 (see description below) has been installed in the netcdf contrib ftp area as ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/contrib/fan.tar.Z This fixes a bug causing spurious 'errors' when attribute 'valid_range' defined. Also minor change to document "Introduction to FAN Language and Utilities".
|
1996-05-20
|
FAN version 2.0.1 has been installed in the netCDF contributed software FTP area as ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/contrib/fan.tar.Z FAN provides a high-level interface to netCDF.
The most generally useful facility is provided by the following four utilities:
- nc2text prints selected data from netCDF files.
- ncmeta prints selected metadata from netCDF files.
- ncrob reads data from netCDF files, performs some process on it (e.g. calculating mean) and then either prints the result or writes it to a netCDF file.
- text2nc reads ASCII data and copies it into netCDF files. It can also create, modify and delete attributes.
The FTP file contains the document "Introduction to FAN Language and Utilities" in both HTML and PostScript forms. The HTML form may be viewed as: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/fan_utils.html
What is New in Version 2? The utility ncmeta is new. There are significant enhancements to the utility ncrob. It can now print results as well as write them to netCDF files. A number of bugs have been fixed. Further details in section headed "What is New in Version 2?" in the above document. The utilities have been tested on the following platforms:
- Cray Y-MP4E/464 running UNICOS 8.0.4.
- DEC alpha running OSF1 V3.2.
- DEC risc running ULTRIX V4.5.
- DEC vax running ULTRIX V4.4.
- HP 9000/715 running HP-UX A.09.05
- IBM RS6000 running AIX 4.1.
- Intel i386 running BSD/OS 2.1.
- SGI mips IP20 running IRIX 5.3.
- SGI mips IP26 running IRIX64 Release 6.1.
- Sun sparc running SunOS 4.1.4.
- Sun sparc running SunOS 5.5.
|
1996-05-02
|
The 2.4.2 release of netCDF, a minor update to netCDF 2.4, is now available via anonymous FTP from
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.Z
In addition, a patch file containing the differences between release 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 is available from the same directory as
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/diffs-2.4.1-2.4.2
and the most recent Release Notes, describes the 2.4, 2.4.1, and 2.4.2 releases.
The 2.4.2 release contains a few minor changes:
- Ported to an Intel 386-based, BSD/OS 2.1 system (but with no FORTRAN support).
- Ported to DJGPP Version 2 for MS-DOS.
- For CRAY systems, changed XDRing of scalars to use the same functions as XDRing of vectors. This provides a workaround for a CRAY problem where the
same value written as an attribute produced a slightly different external representation than when written as a variable.
- Added the FORTRAN interfaces macro file `linux.m4' to the distribution.
- Liberalized conditions on use and distribution of the netCDF software by changing a sentence in the software copyright notice and in netcdf.h from a requirement to a request.
- Fixed an ncgen bug in generating the proper value for a scalar character variable initialized from a string in a CDL file.
|
1996-04-30
|
The netCDF FAQ has been updated with the addition of an answer to the question: What is the best way to handle time using netCDF?
|
1996-04-15
|
Although we don't develop or support a Windows 95 version of netCDF, Toshinobu Hondo has contributed a port for Windows 95 compiled by Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0. The diffs and a binary distribution are available from ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/win32/
|
1996-04-11
|
The gennet.f program for generating a Fortran program to read an arbitrary netCDF file, contributed by Barry Schwartz of NOAA/FSL, has been updated. It's described in the catalog and included in the directory of user-contributed netCDF software.
The generated program now recognizes when variable IDs have changed, warns the user when gennet should be rerun to regenerate code, permits specification of the input file name, and adds a call to NCCLOS.
|
1996-04-02
|
Conditions on use and distribution of the netCDF software were liberalized by changing a sentence in the software copyright notice from
Further, the user agrees to credit UCAR/Unidata in any publications that result from the use of this software or in any product that includes this software.
to
Further, UCAR requests that the user credit UCAR/Unidata in any publications that result from the use of this software or in any product that includes this software.
Thanks to Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project, for pointing out that the old terms could create unnecessary problems for users and for suggesting the change.
|
1996-03-19
|
The 2.4.1 release of netCDF, a minor update to netCDF 2.4, is now available via anonymous FTP from
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.Z
In addition, a patch file containing the differences between release 2.4 and 2.4.1 is available from the same directory as
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/diffs-2.4-2.4.1
The 2.4.1 release contains fixes for a portability problem in the previous 2.4 release, an ncgen bug, and a few documentation updates:
- Slightly modified VAX OpenVMS build mechanism: made makevms.com' command procedures VAX-C specific in order to better specify the build environment and avoid incompatibilities.
- Slightly modified ncdump/ncdump.c: expanded use of isprint() into two statements to avoid problems under Alpha OpenVMS where that function is actually a complicated macro.
- Fixed ncgen bug in filling one-dimensional string variables when specified with multiple values that should be concatenated, eliminating spurious "too many values for this variable" message.
- In User's Guide, added links to C++ and netCDFPerl interface documentation.
See the Release Notes for a description of what's new in the 2.4 release.
|
1996-03-04
|
The Frequently Asked Questions about netCDF document has just been updated to state that the OpenVMS-6.2 platform on which the latest release of netCDF was tested was a Digital MicroVAX, not a Digital Alpha.
Unidata is looking for a volunteer site in Europe to mirror the netCDF software distribution. [A site volunteered, see mirror sites.]
|
1996-03-01
|
Binary versions of the netCDF 2.4 release are now available for a few platforms:
The source release (from which the above binaries were built) is available from ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.Z. The NetCDF 2.4 User's Guide is available separately as a PostScript file, a set of info files, or a web document.
|
1996-02-28
|
The 2.4 release of netCDF is now available. See the Release Notes for a description of what's new in the release. The freely available source can be obtained by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.Z. This release provides a new version of the netCDF software that incorporates support for new platforms and updated versions of previously-supported platforms, provides new optimizations, improves the documentation, incorporates fixes for reported bugs, and includes other miscellaneous improvements. Version 2.4 is intended to
be a stable release incorporating bug fixes and improvements that do not involve significant additions to the netCDF data model or interfaces.
|
1996-02-16
|
A new version of the NetCDF User's Guide for the 2.4 release is now available in several forms:
- HTML
- as a set of HTML documents for viewing with a web browser.
- PostScript
- as a compressed PostScript file. When uncompressed, this is suitable for printing or viewing with a PostScript viewer. (In the PostScript file, the Table of Contents is printed last, so please reorder before duplicating.)
- Info files
- as a compressed tar file of Info files, suitable for viewing with an Info documentation browsing system such as GNU info.
Changes to the new User's Guide include the following:
- a new appendix that formally specifies the netCDF format, independent of its implementation;
- a new section on limitations of the netCDF data model and implementation;
- a new section on compiling and linking with the netCDF library;
- a new section on UNICOS optimization;
- a new section discussing the correspondence between CDL, netCDF, FORTRAN, and C data types;
- clarification of, and some changes to, recommended standard attribute conventions;
- clarification of cross-section access, strided access, and mapped access to arrays;
- better embedding of URLs, so the derived HTML form of the User's Guide has working links to external documents and references; and
- a more useful Index.
We expect to release version 2.4 of the netCDF software next week. It is currently available only in a beta test version, from netcdf-beta.tar.Z
|
1996-01-10
|
We have added nctopnm, a contributed program from Bear Giles of NOAA/FSL, to the catalog and directory of user-contributed netCDF software. Here's a brief description:
NCTOPNM converts a NetCDF "image" field (a two-dimensional (finite) or three-dimensional (unlimited) field of "char" or "byte"
data) into a PNM portable pixmap. It can use a pseudo-color or greyscale colormap in the same file or a different file, add a colorbar to the lower left corner
of the image, and "burn in" a map background.
|
1996-01-08
|
The version 2.4 beta6 release of netCDF was made available via anonymous FTP from the directory ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/. The compressed tar file is netcdf-beta.tar.Z (a link to the most recent beta release). This release contains fixes for:
- a bug in not recognizing the new names of variables and dimensions renamed in define mode;
- a bug in ncdump that caused it to print the explicit fill value instead of "_" for floating-point variables that had a negative "_FillValue" attribute;
- a bug in using the "-f" option of ncdump for full annotations, in which multidimensional character arrays were missing a comma delimiter;
- memory leaks in ncdump for some option combinations.
The release notes list operating systems on which the beta release has been tested, describe what's new since release 2.3.2pl2, and describe other problems that have been fixed.
|