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                           Newsletter #62
                         September 18, 2001


CONTENTS
                                            *******************************
. The h4toh5 Library (alpha release)        * Visit the HDF home page     *
. HDF5 High Level APIs (beta release)       * for up-to-date information  *
                                            *                             *
                                            *  http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/  *
                                            *                             *
                                            *******************************


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

The h4toh5 Library (alpha release)
==================================

An alpha version of the h4toh5 library is now available.  

The h4toh5 library consists of a utility (h4toh5) for converting a
whole HDF 4 file into an equivalent HDF5 file, as well as a set of C
library routines that perform part or all of this conversion when called
from a C program.

The software can be obtained from:
  
   ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF5/h4toh5/h4toh5lib1.0alpha.tar

The HDF4 to HDF5 Library Home page is located at:

   http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/h4toh5/libh4toh5.html

A User's Guide and Reference Manual can be obtained from this page.


HDF5 High Level APIs (beta release)
===================================

A beta version of the HDF5 High Level APIs is available from:
 
   http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/hdf5_hl/

The HDF5 High Level APIs consist of higher-level functions which do more 
operations per call than the basic HDF5 interface. The purpose is
to simplify and standardize operations within HDF5. 

There are currently two APIs: 

HDF5 Lite (HDF5LT):  
  Consists of general higher level functions which do more operations
  per call than the basic HDF5 interface.  This version of the API
  has two sets of functions - dataset and attribute related functions. 

HDF5 Image API (HDF5IM): 
  Defines a standard storage for HDF5 datasets that are intended to 
  be interpreted as images. The specification for this API is 
  presented in another document: "HDF5 Image and Palette Specification".
  This version of the API is primarily concerned with two dimensional 
  raster data similar to HDF4 Raster Images. The HDF5 Image API uses 
  the HDF5 Lite functions.



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

   hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu