new release delayed a bit

• To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: new release delayed a bit
• From: Russ Rew <russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1993 14:10:27 -0700

Hi,

First a reminder: administrative requests to be added to or deleted from
this mailing list should be sent to netcdfgroup-adm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, *not*
netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Question 4 in the NetCDF Frequently Asked Questions list is:

4:  When will the next version be available?  What changes are included?

The previous answer was that we would have the next version available in
January 1993, but January is over and the new version is not quite ready
yet.  We hope to have a beta release available in another week or two.  I'm
just calling it "the new version" because we're still discussing whether to
call it netCDF 2.3 or netCDF 3.0.  We are making no incompatible changes in
the interface, but the additions of some new functions may justify a new
release number.

Here's the updated answer to Question 4 in the FAQ list (pub/netcdf/FAQ on
unidata.ucar.edu): 

A:  We hope to make the next version available in February 1993.  It contains
    bug fixes, portability enhancements, performance enhancements, and new
    capabilities.

    We implemented some new optimizations for the library that result in
    significant speedups for accessing cross-sections involving
    non-contiguous data.

    New capabilities include some additional interfaces that provide a more
    general form of hyperslab access.  This supports sub-sampling along
    specified dimensions and a mapping between the points of the hyperslab
    and the memory locations of the corresponding values.  In a generalized
    hyperslab, an index mapping vector is used to define the mapping between
    points in the generalized hyperslab and the memory locations of the
    corresponding values, so data values that are written or read need no
    longer be contiguous in memory.

    There are also some new interfaces that can be used to write, read, and
    inquire about records, where a record may contain multiple variables of
    different types and shapes.  Where before you had to access a record's
    worth of data using multiple calls, now you will be able to use a single
    call.

    The ncdump utility supports several new command-line options including
    the ability to specify for which variables data values will be output,
    to provide brief annotations in the form of CDL comments to identify
    data values for large multidimensional variables, or to provide full
    annotations in the form of trailing CDL comments for every data value.

    The new release also includes a prototype implementation of a C++
    interface for the netCDF data access library.  It provides all the
    functionality of the C interface, improves type safety by eliminating
    all use of void* pointers, and is somewhat simpler to use than the C
    interface.  With the C++ interface no IDs are needed for netCDF
    components, there is no need to specify types when creating attributes,
    and less indirection is required for dealing with dimensions.  However,
    since this is a prototype interface and implementation, it may be
    changed before a supported version is released.

________________________________________________________________________
Russ Rew                                        Unidata Program Center
russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                           UCAR, PO Box 3000
                                                Boulder, CO 80307-3000