I hate to embarrass myself, but an anecdote is in order. The biology nexus<br>file format is, unfortunately, extensible and has many different named block types.<br>It's entirely possible that there could be a block type called "Muon" or "Neutron"
<br>or "XRay" or perhaps something like the pre-existing "DISTANCES" block that<br>contains a matrix of numbers. This is in fact what misled me into mistakenly<br>packaging the wrong NeXus library for Debian. I was completely confused by
<br>the name, did not realize the capital X was crucial, and thought that the XRay<br>part was just a special extension to the more generic and extensible Nexus<br>file format. This was of course a bad assumption but I suspect I will not be
<br>the last to make it. Incidentally, does anybody know a good reason why we<br>cannot solve the problem by combining the two libraries some day? e.g.<br>unifying the formats and adding just a new block type or a few new types
<br>so that one format can subsume two seperate and incompatible ones without<br>two much headache? I am hoping for any solution since, for example, we<br>are already packaging both libnexus and libNeXus for Debian at the moment
<br>because there is substantial interest in both libraries. And I have pretty much<br>finished the packaging for the NeXus so far. If the NeXus committee does not <br>make a disambiguating name, packagers will have no choice but to make one
<br>up for themselves and this couldlead to a bit of fragmentation perhaps in both<br>library's official name.<br><br>Best regards,<br><br>Rudi<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/29/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">
Nick Maliszewskyj</b> <<a href="mailto:nickm@nist.gov">nickm@nist.gov</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
An unfortunate coincidence, particularly since we have no trademark.
It's a bit<br>
late in the game to switch names, as both collaborations are older than
ten years<br>
and have some name recognition. Does the UnUsuaL capitalization help us
stand out?<br>
<br>
In any case, when I use Google to search for "nexus data format" I<br>
do get both nexuses (nexii ?) but each format has a different context.<br>
Ours is associated with neutron,x-ray, and muon data, and the other<br>
is associated with systematic biology. I think it's reasonable to assume<br>
that the end-user searching will be subject to some confusion, but <br>
should still select the correct format according to its context.<br>
<br>
Perhaps littering our links with neutron/x-ray/muon will help out<br>
the search engines to better steer our users to the right place...<br>
<br>
Nick<div><span class="e" id="q_112d83290bfc2a4e_1"><br>
<br>
Rudi Cilibrasi, Ph.D. wrote:
</span></div><blockquote cite="http://midbd3cb4550705270853o1c2ccab7pc66b8c94cf501365@mail.gmail.com" type="cite"><div><span class="e" id="q_112d83290bfc2a4e_3">Agreed, it seems an excellent release. However, I would
also
<br>
ask if the name itself for the library is "set in stone"?
Unfortunately,
<br>
there is another scientific data format called the "Nexus" file format
<br>
and it is used in bioinformatics. You can read about it here:
<br>
<br>
<a href="http://awcmee.massey.ac.nz/spectronet/nexus.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://awcmee.massey.ac.nz/spectronet/nexus.html</a>
<br>
<br>
The confusing part is that the other Nexus file format has an
<br>
extendable block format. It can very well be misunderstood to contain
<br>
an X-Ray or other radiation type data block. It already contains many
<br>
other data block types and so this will probably continue to be a
source
<br>
of confusion for all newcomers to either file format potentially, since
<br>
most people type nexus into the search box anyway both results come
<br>
up intermingled and thus suggesing that the two libraries are the same
<br>
format when in fact they are totally unrelated.
<br>
<br>
The bioinformatics Nexus format has been around about 10 years now I
think.
<br>
I just
<br>
checked the NeXus mailing lists and noticed that that use of the term
has
<br>
also
<br>
been around for about 10 years, so I'm not sure which use came first
So
<br>
probably eventually
<br>
one of the two file formats will need to change names I think;
otherwise
<br>
there will be no end of confusion due to the similarity between
<br>
Nexus
<br>
and
<br>
NeXus
<br>
and the confusing similarity of scientific file format domains.
<br>
<br>
I look forward to any ideas for resolution of this problem. Best
regards,
<br>
<br>
Rudi
<br>
<br>
On 5/26/07, Ray Osborn <a href="mailto:ROsborn@anl.gov" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"><ROsborn@anl.gov></a> wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
On 2007/05/25 8:27, "Nick Maliszewskyj" <a href="mailto:nickm@nist.gov" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"><nickm@nist.gov></a> wrote:
<br>
<br>
> The NeXus technical committee is pleased to announce the official
<br>
> release of version 4.0 of the NeXus API. The NeXus API provides a
<br>
> unified interface for writing hierarchical data files in HDF4,
HDF5,
<br>
> and XML formats. Version 4.0 resolves a number of bugs reported in
the
<br>
> 3.0 release by providing updated makefiles, support for the
gfortran
<br>
> compiler, and an improved test suite.
<br>
<br>
Congratulations for all the work done in getting this release out - I
<br>
think
<br>
it's been a very well conducted process. Could I put in a plea though
<br>
that
<br>
someone updates the documentation on the API wiki page to include the
new
<br>
routines?
<br>
<br>
Obviously not until after the Memorial Day (or Whitsun or Pfingsten...)
<br>
holiday.
<br>
<br>
Have a great weekend,
<br>
Ray
<br>
--
<br>
Dr Ray Osborn Tel: +1 (630) 252-9011
<br>
Materials Science Division Fax: +1 (630) 252-7777
<br>
Argonne National Laboratory E-mail: <a href="mailto:ROsborn@anl.gov" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ROsborn@anl.gov</a>
<br>
Argonne, IL 60439-4845
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</span></div><pre><hr size="4" width="90%"><span class="q">
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</span></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre cols="72">-- <br>ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo<br>o Dr. Nicholas C. Maliszewskyj<br>o Center for Neutron Research<br>o National Institute of Standards & Technology<br>o 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8562
<br>o Gaithersburg MD 20899-8562<br>o <a href="mailto:nickm@nist.gov" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">nickm@nist.gov</a> Phone: (301)975-3171 Fax: (301)921-9847<br>ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
<br></pre>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.<br>Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.