Hi,
At Unidata, we've drafted a new FAQ section on "Formats, Data Models, and
Software Releases":
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/netcdf/docs/faq.html#formats-and-versions
It includes brief answers to the following questions:
* How many netCDF formats are there, and what are the differences
among them?
* How many netCDF data models are there?
* How many releases of the C-based netCDF software are supported?
* Should I get netCDF-3 or netCDF-4?
* What is the "enhanced data model" of netCDF-4, and how does it
differ from the netCDF-3 classic data model?
* Why doesn't the new netCDF-4 installation I built seem to support
any of the new features?
* Will Unidata continue to support netCDF-3?
* To read compressed data, what changes do I need to make to my
netCDF-3 program?
* To write compressed data, what changes do I need to make to my
netCDF-3 program?
* If I create netCDF-4 classic model files, can they be read by
MATLAB, IDL, or ArcGIS?
* What applications are able to deal with arbitrary netCDF-4 files?
* How can I convert netCDF-3 files into netCDF-4 files?
* Why might someone want to convert netCDF-4 files into netCDF-3
files?
* How can I convert netCDF-4 files into netCDF-3 files?
* How can I convert HDF5 files into netCDF-4 files?
* How can I convert netCDF-4 files into HDF5 files?
* Why aren't different extensions used for the different formats,
e.g. .nc3 and .nc4?
* Why is the default of netCDF-4 to continue to create classic files,
rather than netCDF-4 files?
* Can netCDF-4 read arbitrary HDF5 files?
* I installed netCDF-3 with --enable-shared, but it looks like the
libraries it installed were netCDF-4, with names like
libnetcdf.4.dylib. What's going on?
* NetCDF-3.6.3 permits UTF-8 encoded Unicode names. Won't this break
backward compatibility with previous software releases that didn't
allow such names?
* How difficult is it to convert my application to handle arbitrary
netCDF-4 files?
If the answers to any of these questions are unclear or if you spot
errors, please let us know with email to
support-netcdf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks!
--Russ
