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NOTICE: This version of the NSF Unidata web site (archive.unidata.ucar.edu) is no longer being updated.
Current content can be found at unidata.ucar.edu.
To learn about what's going on, see About the Archive Site.
Tim Holt has made numerous comments about the "conventions.info" and the brief variable names used (like T, Tmin, etc.). Personally, I think the variable names should be short and that extra information be put into attributes. I like the idea of naming variables the same way they are used in the dynamics equations, or using well known acronyms. Nothing will frustrate a programmer more that having to type unnecessarily long names that add little to the understanding of what the variable is. And if you are trying to deal with netCDF files in a generic way, you can grab temperature without worrying about whether it is "temperature_from_ship_type_457b2" or "temperature_from_groundstation", you just grab "T". Information on how the data was derived, limitations, etc., more naturally belong in an attribute than in a variable name. Certainly it is important information to keep with the data, but the variable name is the wrong place for it. -- Harry Edmon INTERNET: harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (206) 543-0547 UUCP: uw-beaver!atmos.washington.edu!harry Dept of Atmospheric Sciences, AK-40 University of Washington
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