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                          Newsletter #48
                          December 3, 1999

CONTENTS
                                            *******************************
. Java Products Release 2.4                 * Visit the HDF home page     *
. Platform to be Dropped                    * for up-to-date information  *
. HDF5 Documentation in PostScript and PDF  *                             *
                                            *   http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ *
                                            *******************************

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Java Products Release 2.4
=========================

Release 2.4 of the Java HDF Products is now available. It is a bug fix 
release with a few new features for HDF 4.1r3.  For information, 
documentation, and downloads see:

        http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/java-hdf-html/

Changes in this Release
-----------------------

  1.  All bugs in our database were fixed.
  2.  The Java HDF Interface was upgraded:
        * The HDF library is now accessed as 'static' native methods,
          eliminating the need to explicitly initialize the HDFLibrary
          class. See the JHI manual for more information.

        * Support for Macintosh and Windows path names was added to
          the Java HDF Interface.

        * The HDFArray class was extended to handle arrays of any class
          of 'Number', (i.e., 'Float' as well as 'float') and also
          arrays of Java String objects.

        * Additional exception handling was implemented.

        * The JHI is now also distributed as a separate product.

  3. The HDF Java Products were compiled and tested with JDK 1.2.
     The non-graphic parts work with 1.2 (e.g., the JHI), but some
     graphics components only work with JDK 1.1.

  4. The JHI was successfully ported to Macintosh.

New Features in this Release
----------------------------

Below is a list of new features in release 2.4. For a complete list
of features, you can read the JHV User's Guide.

  1. The Image window now provides an extra option to expand the
     image 2, 4, and 8 times using pixel replication. (See Chapter
     5 of the User's Guide.)

  2. The Vdata spreadsheet has a new option to save data from a 2D
     field.  A Vdata field with order > 1 (i.e, the entries are a 1D
     array) may be selected and saved as a 2D HDF SDS. The saved
     dataset can be read by the JHV or other tools to create plots
     or images from the data.

Limitations
-----------

The current implementation of JHV has the following limitations.

  1.  The JHV cannot be compiled with versions of the JDK older
      than 1.1.6.

  2.  The JHV can be compiled with JDK 1.2, but some of the graphics
      components do not work correctly with JFC.  All components work
      with JDK 1.1.x.

  3.  The Java HDF Viewer does not support HDF-5.  For more information
      about Java products for HDF-5, see:
        http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/java-hdf5-html/



Platform to be Drop
===================

We are dropping support for the DEC Alpha NT with the next
release of HDF 4.  



HDF5 Documentation in PostScript and PDF
========================================

The HDF5 documentation is available in PostScript and PDF format,
accessible from the HDF5 Home page at:

    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc/PSandPDF/index.html

This is also available in compressed format from the NCSA ftp server:
    
    ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF5/docs/5-1.2.0-docs.tar



--------------------------------------------------------------
For questions regarding this or other HDF issues, contact:

   hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu