FAQ: netCDF vs. HDF

• To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: FAQ: netCDF vs. HDF
• From: kac@xxxxxxxxxxx (Kevin Campbell)
• Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 11:41:27 PDT

  I know that this is a FAQ, but the FAQ list's answer didn't help me
very much.  What I got from the FAQ was that NCSA has written an interface
to netCDF in the HDF package.  How does this affect a programmer?  Does
it mean that he can access all of the functionality of netCDF while only
linking with the hdf library?  Or does it mean that he can read from and
write to either kind of file (hdf or netCDF) with one function call?
  I'm going to be writing a newsletter article on this software soon, and
need to be able to describe the difference between these two packages
and how they interact so that the users will be as non-confused as
possible.
  Also, does anyone know if NCSA has some kind of support line?  The
documentation that came with their package is rather sparse, and I'd
like to ask them if they've got anything better.  Of course, if anyone
on this list knows of any good documentation I'd be happy to hear from
them as well.

Thanks a lot,
Kevin