README
1$Id: README,v 1.8 1999/07/21 16:37:36 steve Exp $
2
3Greetings,
4
5 This file briefly describes the netCDFPerl package.
6
7INTRODUCTION
8------------
9
10 The netCDFPerl package is a perl extension for accessing netCDF
11 datasets based on version 2 of the netCDF package (netCDF-2). For
12 example, the following netCDF-2 actions:
13
14 1. Open dataset "foo.nc";
15
16 2. Write a 2 x 3 array of double-precision values into the
17 starting corner of the first variable; and
18
19 3. Close the dataset.
20
21 can be accomplished by the following C fragment:
22
23 int ncid = ncopen("foo.nc", NC_WRITE);
24 int varid = 0;
25 long start[2], count[2];
26 double values[6];
27
28 ncid = ncopen("foo.nc", NC_WRITE);
29
30 start[0] = 0;
31 start[1] = 0;
32 count[0] = 2;
33 count[1] = 3;
34
35 values[0] = 0.0;
36 values[1] = 1.0;
37 values[2] = 2.0;
38 values[3] = 3.0;
39 values[4] = 4.0;
40 values[5] = 5.0;
41
42 ncvarput(ncid, varid, start, count, values);
43
44 ncclose(ncid);
45
46 or by this equivalent perl fragment:
47
48 use NetCDF;
49
50 $ncid = NetCDF::open("foo.nc", NetCDF::WRITE);
51 $varid = 0;
52 @start = (0, 0);
53 @count = (2, 3);
54 @values = (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
55 NetCDF::varput($ncid, $varid, \@start, \@count, \@values);
56 NetCDF::close($ncid);
57
58 There are perl-callable functions for all appropriate functions of
59 the netCDF-2 API.
60
61netCDF-2 vs. netCDF-3
62---------------------
63
64 Currently, the NetCDFPerl extension module is implemented using
65 version 2 of the netCDF API (netCDF-2). On 1997-05-16, version 3
66 of the netCDF package was released (netCDF-3). This newer version,
67 however, contains a netCDF-2 backward compatibility interface.
68 Thus, with a few minor changes already made, NetCDFPerl works with
69 netCDF-3 as well as netCDF-2.
70
71 Users should be aware, however, that the NetCDFPerl user-interface
72 is based on netCDF-2. In particular, the NetCDFPerl documentation
73 doesn't describe the NetCDFPerl interface in detail but instead
74 describes the differences between it and the netCDF-2 interface.
75 The intention was that users would use the NetCDFPerl and netCDF-2
76 documentation together in order to program using NetCDFPerl.
77
78 With the deprecation of the netCDF-2 interface, this has become
79 slightly problematical -- but not unworkable. The solution is to
80 ensure the availability of the netCDF-2 documentation. Currently,
81 the netCDF version 2 User's Guide is available at the following URL:
82
83 ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/guide-2.4.3.ps.Z
84
85 and the netCDF-library manual page for netCDF-2 is available as the
86 file "netcdf-2.4.3/src/doc/netcdf.3" in the netCDF-2 distribution at
87 the following URL:
88
89 ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf-2.4.3.tar.Z
90
91
92AVAILABILITY
93------------
94
95 netCDFPerl is freely available from either of the following URLs:
96
97 http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf-perl/
98
99 or
100
101 ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf-perl/netcdf-perl.tar.Z
102
103INSTALLATION
104------------
105
106 See the file INSTALL in the top-level directory of the netCDFPerl
107 distribution for instructions on how to incorporate netCDFPerl into
108 your perl utility.
109
110 You will need write access to your installed perl(1) libraries in
111 order to install netCDFPerl.
112
113ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
114----------------------
115
116 See the installed manual page, netCDFPerl(1), for additional
117 information.
118
119 There is a WWW page for netCDFPerl. It's URL is
120
121 http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf-perl
122
123MAILING-LIST
124------------
125
126 There is a netCDFPerl mailing-list. To subscribe, send to the
127 following address:
128
129 majordomo@unidata.ucar.edu
130
131 a message whose body consists solely of the following:
132
133 subscribe netcdf-perl [opt-addr]
134
135 where [opt-addr] is an optional email address -- if you use it, then
136 mailing-list postings will be sent to it; otherwise, they will be
137 sent to the return address of the subscription request.
138
139
140Regards,
141Steve Emmerson <support@unidata.ucar.edu>
142