-------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to the THG news mailing list, please send an empty message to "news-subscribe@hdfgroup.org". To unsubscribe, send a message to "news-unsubscribe@hdfgroup.org". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter #90 January 19, 2007 CONTENTS ******************************* . C# Prototype Release * * * Visit the THG home page for * . Corruption Bug in HDF5 * up-to-date information: * * * . Alpha Release of h5check Validation Tool * http://hdfgroup.org/ * * * . Dropped/Added/Platforms ******************************* . RFC Regarding Change to H5IM API . Tell Us About Your HDF-Related Projects! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C# Prototype Release ==================== We are pleased to announce the prototype release of a C# API for HDF5. It consists of C# wrappers for the HDF5 C library for the .NET environment. In this first prototype, wrappers are implemented for many of the basic C functions, and a detailed example is included. A future prototype will provide a comprehensive set of C# wrappers for the HDF5 C library. This release is available, at: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/pub/outgoing/hdf5/Csharp-prototype/HDF5dotNet.zip Once you have downloaded and uncompressed the file, you can access the documentation from the following location: .\HDF5DotNet\HDF5DotNet\doc\output\HDF5DotNet.chm (double-click on the file) The list of currently implemented wrappers along with general instructions for using the wrappers is provided in the release notes at: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/pub/outgoing/hdf5/Csharp-prototype/PrereleaseNotes.txt Corruption Bug in HDF5 ====================== We have encountered a corruption bug in the HDF5 code. If an application renames an attribute to a longer name, it is possible for the library to overwrite other parts of the object header (or even another object in the file, in rare cases). If you have renamed any attributes in HDF5, please check your HDF5 files. This problem is fixed in the latest HDF5 1.6.6 snapshot (snap14) available from the snapshots directory at: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/pub/outgoing/hdf5/snapshots/ It will be fixed in the HDF5-1.8.0 Alpha 6 release, when that is made available. Alpha Release of h5check Validation Tool ======================================== The h5check utility is a new tool for checking the validity of an HDF5 file. It verifies that the content of an HDF5 file is encoded according to the HDF5 File Format Specification. Not only can this tool help determine whether HDF5 files are valid, but it may also help with invalid files, to pinpoint the invalid parts of a file. An alpha release of h5check is available. If you would like to obtain it, please let us know. More information regarding h5check can be found at: http://hdfgroup.com/RFC/H5CHK/ Dropped/Added Platforms ======================= We are planning on dropping the following platforms in the next release of HDF and HDF5. If this will cause any problems for you, please let us know as soon as possible: HP-UX 11.00 Linux 2.4 Cray SV1 and TS IEEE Solaris 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 AIX 5.1 and 5.2 Windows 2000 SGI IRIX64-6.5 Mac OS X 10.3 We will be adding the following platforms: Mac OS X 10.4 (Intel) Linux 2.6 Solaris 2.10 (Intel) HP-UX 11.23 Cray XT3 Windows 64-bit (32-bit binary) We are hoping to fully support Windows 64-bit in a future HDF5 release. We are looking for extra funding to accelerate the current working process. Please let us know if you are interested in this issue. We would also like to determine the interest in Windows Visual Studio 6.0 as well as Compaq Visual Fortran 6.6c. If you are a Windows user and would like for support to continue for either VS 6.0 or Compaq Visual Fortran 6.6c, please let us know. RFC Regarding Change to H5IM API ================================ The HDF5 Image and Palette Specification allows for an HDF5 image to be written either as a 2D or 3D dataset. Currently, however, the High Level API function H5IMmake_image_8bit only creates a 3D dataset. We have had several requests for the H5IM API to write a 2D image dataset, instead of or in addition to the current 3D dataset. We would like to add this capability to the Image API, and would like to know your opinion on what the default behavior should be. The HDF5 Image and Palette Specification can be found in the HDF5 Application Developer's Guide at: http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/ADGuide/ImageSpec.html Tell Us About Your HDF-Related Projects! ======================================== Do you have any publications in 2006 that are results of work in which HDF or HDF5 was used? Is there any material you would like to share with us and the rest of the HDF community about your HDF usage (success or failure stories)? If so, we would very much like to hear from you! ------------------------------------------------------------- For questions regarding these or other THG issues, contact: help@hdfgroup.org