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Dear Mark, Freddie and everyone else.
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">McStas (and thus McXtrace) has had partial NeXus support since ~ year 2000 and full support since ~2008. McStas is written in (and generates) C, and hence it was easy and convenient for us to make use of the NeXus C-API trhough napi.h.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">While we do have a long term plan to transition to writing through lower-level HDF calls, it is unclear when we will have resources and time for such a development effort. The napi is btw, the basis of our hooks to Mantid.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Best,</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Peter W et. al.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Here are the formal answers to the survey:</div>
<div class="">____________</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Abandoning the support for NAPI for bugfix or compatibility with future linux/library/compiler versions will cause me problems at the following level:<br class="">
<br class="">
[x] Critical: I am using NAPI in critical data acquisition or data reduction/analysis software<br class="">
[x] Major: important applications may not be usable at some future date<br class="">
[] Minor: inconvenience, I have alternatives/can live with this<br class="">
[] None: either i am not using NAPI, or I have copies of all the dependencies that I build/maintain myself<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I want the NIAC to continue developing NAPI and make it support more HDF5 features. Please list the<br class="">
HDF5 feature you miss in NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI file format bindings do you use:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] HDF4<br class="">
[x] HDF5<br class="">
[] XML<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI language bindings do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[x] ANSI-C<br class="">
[] Fortran<br class="">
[] C++<br class="">
[] Java<br class="">
[] IDL<br class="">
[] Swig generated bindings to Tcl, perl, ...<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI utilities do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[x] NXbrowse<br class="">
[] NXingest<br class="">
[] NXtranslate<br class="">
[] NXconvert<br class="">
[] NXdump<br class="">
[] NXsummary<br class="">
<br class="">
General<br class="">
<br class="">
[x] I am willing to help maintain NAPI<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<div>
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 22 Oct 2020, at 17.08, <a href="mailto:nexus-request@shadow.nd.rl.ac.uk" class="">
nexus-request@shadow.nd.rl.ac.uk</a> wrote:</div>
<div class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 14:08:40 +0000<br class="">
From: "Koennecke Mark (PSI)" <<a href="mailto:mark.koennecke@psi.ch" class="">mark.koennecke@psi.ch</a>><br class="">
To: Discussion forum for the NeXus data format <<a href="mailto:nexus@nexusformat.org" class="">nexus@nexusformat.org</a>><br class="">
Subject: [Nexus] NAPI future<br class="">
Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:E847FB16-12D2-4C5C-A6F7-7950CD64F0D4@psi.ch" class="">E847FB16-12D2-4C5C-A6F7-7950CD64F0D4@psi.ch</a>><br class="">
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<br class="">
<br class="">
Dear NeXus-API users,<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus International Advisory Committee (NIAC) is contemplating dropping support for the NeXus-API (NAPI,
<a href="https://manual.nexusformat.org/napi.html?highlight=napi" class="">https://manual.nexusformat.org/napi.html?highlight=napi</a> ),<br class="">
his is a library for accessing NeXus data files. Before we make a decision, we would like to determine how many people are still using it. If you still rely on this API,
<br class="">
please let the NIAC know! In order to focus our efforts better, we would also like to have some information about which parts of NAPI are still used.<br class="">
<br class="">
But first some history: The NeXus-API was conceived shortly after the inception of NeXus as a means to simplify the access to files in the then prevalent HDF4 format. The HDF4 API is very complex and NAPI abstracted a lot of that complexity away. At that time
the NAPI was a major selling point for NeXus.<br class="">
<br class="">
Years later the HDF group presented HDF-5 and it was felt that the NAPI should support HDF-5 too. And this being a transition period, it should support both HDF4 and HDF5 transparently. Consequently the NAPI was refactored to allow other file formats and HDF5
was integrated.<br class="">
<br class="">
Some more years later, the community wished to have a human readable ASCII version of the NeXus file format. XML was in favour at the time and thus NAPI was extended to support an XML version of NeXus using the mxml library.<br class="">
<br class="">
Moving to the current day, the simpler HDF5 native interface and python packages such as h5py means many people are writing NeXus format files directly with these interfaces rather than using NAPI. This lead to the decision by the NIAC to place the NAPI in
maintenance only mode.<br class="">
<br class="">
The NAPI now requires some attention, most notably to make it work with newer versions of the underlying libraries such as mxml-3.x which introduced a breaking API change and is now present on many recent linux distributions. We are preparing a new NAPI release
to address this. But the NIAC as an organization is relying on volunteers to get its work done and is hard pressed to maintain NAPI, so we wish to determine where best to divert our efforts.<br class="">
<br class="">
To help the NIAC make the most informed decisions, please could you answer a few questions. Please place an X between the square brackets in order to mark statements which apply.<br class="">
<br class="">
## Questions<br class="">
<br class="">
Abandoning the support for NAPI for bugfix or compatibility with future linux/library/compiler versions will cause me problems at the following level:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] Critical: I am using NAPI in critical data acquisition or data reduction/analysis software<br class="">
[] Major: important applications may not be usable at some future date<br class="">
[] Minor: inconvenience, I have alternatives/can live with this<br class="">
[] None: either i am not using NAPI, or I have copies of all the dependencies that I build/maintain myself<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I want the NIAC to continue developing NAPI and make it support more HDF5 features. Please list the<br class="">
HDF5 feature you miss in NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI file format bindings do you use:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] HDF4<br class="">
[] HDF5<br class="">
[] XML<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI language bindings do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] ANSI-C<br class="">
[] Fortran<br class="">
[] C++<br class="">
[] Java<br class="">
[] IDL<br class="">
[] Swig generated bindings to Tcl, perl, ...<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI utilities do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] NXbrowse<br class="">
[] NXingest<br class="">
[] NXtranslate<br class="">
[] NXconvert<br class="">
[] NXdump<br class="">
[] NXsummary<br class="">
<br class="">
General<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I am willing to help maintain NAPI<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus validator: cnxvalidate, is missing in this list. This is a separate product to NAPI and the NIAC is committed to maintaining it. It uses the HDF5 API directly rather than NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Thank you for your time filling in this questionnaire!<br class="">
<br class="">
Please send replies to <a href="mailto:nexus-committee@nexusformat.org" class="">nexus-committee@nexusformat.org</a><br class="">
<br class="">
If you have further concerns or comments regarding the NAPI, please inform your NIAC representative - these are listed at <a href="https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html" class="">https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html</a><br class="">
<br class="">
If your facility is using NeXus, but has no representation on the NIAC, please consider joining the NIAC.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best Regards,<br class="">
<br class="">
Freddie Akeroyd<br class="">
Mark Koennecke<br class="">
on behalf of the NIAC<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
------------------------------<br class="">
<br class="">
Message: 2<br class="">
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 14:08:53 +0000<br class="">
From: "Koennecke Mark (PSI)" <<a href="mailto:mark.koennecke@psi.ch" class="">mark.koennecke@psi.ch</a>><br class="">
To: Discussion forum for the NeXus data format <<a href="mailto:nexus@nexusformat.org" class="">nexus@nexusformat.org</a>><br class="">
Subject: [Nexus] NAPI future<br class="">
Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:A9C14699-06DA-4312-B39D-84A0A5C714E1@psi.ch" class="">A9C14699-06DA-4312-B39D-84A0A5C714E1@psi.ch</a>><br class="">
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<br class="">
<br class="">
Dear NeXus-API users,<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus International Advisory Committee (NIAC) is contemplating dropping support for the NeXus-API (NAPI,
<a href="https://manual.nexusformat.org/napi.html?highlight=napi" class="">https://manual.nexusformat.org/napi.html?highlight=napi</a> ),<br class="">
his is a library for accessing NeXus data files. Before we make a decision, we would like to determine how many people are still using it. If you still rely on this API,
<br class="">
please let the NIAC know! In order to focus our efforts better, we would also like to have some information about which parts of NAPI are still used.<br class="">
<br class="">
But first some history: The NeXus-API was conceived shortly after the inception of NeXus as a means to simplify the access to files in the then prevalent HDF4 format. The HDF4 API is very complex and NAPI abstracted a lot of that complexity away. At that time
the NAPI was a major selling point for NeXus.<br class="">
<br class="">
Years later the HDF group presented HDF-5 and it was felt that the NAPI should support HDF-5 too. And this being a transition period, it should support both HDF4 and HDF5 transparently. Consequently the NAPI was refactored to allow other file formats and HDF5
was integrated.<br class="">
<br class="">
Some more years later, the community wished to have a human readable ASCII version of the NeXus file format. XML was in favour at the time and thus NAPI was extended to support an XML version of NeXus using the mxml library.<br class="">
<br class="">
Moving to the current day, the simpler HDF5 native interface and python packages such as h5py means many people are writing NeXus format files directly with these interfaces rather than using NAPI. This lead to the decision by the NIAC to place the NAPI in
maintenance only mode.<br class="">
<br class="">
The NAPI now requires some attention, most notably to make it work with newer versions of the underlying libraries such as mxml-3.x which introduced a breaking API change and is now present on many recent linux distributions. We are preparing a new NAPI release
to address this. But the NIAC as an organization is relying on volunteers to get its work done and is hard pressed to maintain NAPI, so we wish to determine where best to divert our efforts.<br class="">
<br class="">
To help the NIAC make the most informed decisions, please could you answer a few questions. Please place an X between the square brackets in order to mark statements which apply.<br class="">
<br class="">
## Questions<br class="">
<br class="">
Abandoning the support for NAPI for bugfix or compatibility with future linux/library/compiler versions will cause me problems at the following level:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] Critical: I am using NAPI in critical data acquisition or data reduction/analysis software<br class="">
[] Major: important applications may not be usable at some future date<br class="">
[] Minor: inconvenience, I have alternatives/can live with this<br class="">
[] None: either i am not using NAPI, or I have copies of all the dependencies that I build/maintain myself<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I want the NIAC to continue developing NAPI and make it support more HDF5 features. Please list the<br class="">
HDF5 feature you miss in NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI file format bindings do you use:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] HDF4<br class="">
[] HDF5<br class="">
[] XML<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI language bindings do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] ANSI-C<br class="">
[] Fortran<br class="">
[] C++<br class="">
[] Java<br class="">
[] IDL<br class="">
[] Swig generated bindings to Tcl, perl, ...<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI utilities do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] NXbrowse<br class="">
[] NXingest<br class="">
[] NXtranslate<br class="">
[] NXconvert<br class="">
[] NXdump<br class="">
[] NXsummary<br class="">
<br class="">
General<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I am willing to help maintain NAPI<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus validator: cnxvalidate, is missing in this list. This is a separate product to NAPI and the NIAC is committed to maintaining it. It uses the HDF5 API directly rather than NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Thank you for your time filling in this questionnaire!<br class="">
<br class="">
Please send replies to <a href="mailto:nexus-committee@nexusformat.org" class="">nexus-committee@nexusformat.org</a><br class="">
<br class="">
If you have further concerns or comments regarding the NAPI, please inform your NIAC representative - these are listed at <a href="https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html" class="">https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html</a><br class="">
<br class="">
If your facility is using NeXus, but has no representation on the NIAC, please consider joining the NIAC.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best Regards,<br class="">
<br class="">
Freddie Akeroyd<br class="">
Mark Koennecke<br class="">
on behalf of the NIAC<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
------------------------------<br class="">
<br class="">
Message: 3<br class="">
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 14:49:42 +0000<br class="">
From: "Chang, Peter (DLSLtd,RAL,LSCI)" <<a href="mailto:Peter.Chang@Diamond.ac.uk" class="">Peter.Chang@Diamond.ac.uk</a>><br class="">
To: "'Discussion forum for the NeXus data format'"<br class="">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><<a href="mailto:nexus@shadow.nd.rl.ac.uk" class="">nexus@shadow.nd.rl.ac.uk</a>><br class="">
Subject: Re: [Nexus] NAPI future<br class="">
Message-ID:<br class="">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><<a href="mailto:DB6PR0102MB26804B9DFE5BDAC794244B12B91D0@DB6PR0102MB2680.eurprd01.prod.exchangelabs.com" class="">DB6PR0102MB26804B9DFE5BDAC794244B12B91D0@DB6PR0102MB2680.eurprd01.prod.exchangelabs.com</a>><br class="">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><br class="">
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<br class="">
<br class="">
Dear Mark and others,<br class="">
<br class="">
Diamond Light Source does not use the NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best regards,<br class="">
Peter<br class="">
<br class="">
-----Original Message-----<br class="">
[...]<br class="">
## Questions<br class="">
<br class="">
Abandoning the support for NAPI for bugfix or compatibility with future linux/library/compiler versions will cause me problems at the following level:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] Critical: I am using NAPI in critical data acquisition or data reduction/analysis software<br class="">
[] Major: important applications may not be usable at some future date<br class="">
[] Minor: inconvenience, I have alternatives/can live with this<br class="">
[x] None: either I am not using NAPI, or I have copies of all the dependencies that I build/maintain myself<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I want the NIAC to continue developing NAPI and make it support more HDF5 features. Please list the<br class="">
HDF5 feature you miss in NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI file format bindings do you use:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] HDF4<br class="">
[] HDF5<br class="">
[] XML<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI language bindings do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] ANSI-C<br class="">
[] Fortran<br class="">
[] C++<br class="">
[] Java<br class="">
[] IDL<br class="">
[] Swig generated bindings to Tcl, perl, ...<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI utilities do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] NXbrowse<br class="">
[] NXingest<br class="">
[] NXtranslate<br class="">
[] NXconvert<br class="">
[] NXdump<br class="">
[] NXsummary<br class="">
<br class="">
General<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I am willing to help maintain NAPI<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus validator: cnxvalidate, is missing in this list. This is a separate product to NAPI and the NIAC is committed to maintaining it. It uses the HDF5 API directly rather than NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Thank you for your time filling in this questionnaire!<br class="">
<br class="">
Please send replies to <a href="mailto:nexus-committee@nexusformat.org" class="">nexus-committee@nexusformat.org</a><br class="">
<br class="">
If you have further concerns or comments regarding the NAPI, please inform your NIAC representative - these are listed at <a href="https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html" class="">https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html</a><br class="">
<br class="">
If your facility is using NeXus, but has no representation on the NIAC, please consider joining the NIAC.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best Regards,<br class="">
<br class="">
Freddie Akeroyd<br class="">
Mark Koennecke<br class="">
on behalf of the NIAC<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
_______________________________________________<br class="">
NeXus mailing list<br class="">
<a href="mailto:NeXus@nexusformat.org" class="">NeXus@nexusformat.org</a><br class="">
https://lists.nexusformat.org/mailman/listinfo/nexus<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
------------------------------<br class="">
<br class="">
Message: 4<br class="">
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 17:08:28 +0200<br class="">
From: V. Armando Sol? <sole@esrf.fr><br class="">
To: nexus@nexusformat.org<br class="">
Subject: Re: [Nexus] NAPI future<br class="">
Message-ID: <10803012-d012-0fc2-c351-59e4f03c3740@esrf.fr><br class="">
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8<br class="">
<br class="">
Dear all,<br class="">
<br class="">
The ESRF does not use the NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best regards,<br class="">
<br class="">
Armando<br class="">
<br class="">
On 22/10/2020 16:08, Koennecke Mark (PSI) via NeXus wrote:<br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">Dear NeXus-API users,<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus International Advisory Committee (NIAC) is contemplating dropping support for the NeXus-API (NAPI, https://manual.nexusformat.org/napi.html?highlight=napi ),<br class="">
his is a library for accessing NeXus data files. Before we make a decision, we would like to determine how many people are still using it. If you still rely on this API,
<br class="">
please let the NIAC know! In order to focus our efforts better, we would also like to have some information about which parts of NAPI are still used.<br class="">
<br class="">
But first some history: The NeXus-API was conceived shortly after the inception of NeXus as a means to simplify the access to files in the then prevalent HDF4 format. The HDF4 API is very complex and NAPI abstracted a lot of that complexity away. At that time
the NAPI was a major selling point for NeXus.<br class="">
<br class="">
Years later the HDF group presented HDF-5 and it was felt that the NAPI should support HDF-5 too. And this being a transition period, it should support both HDF4 and HDF5 transparently. Consequently the NAPI was refactored to allow other file formats and HDF5
was integrated.<br class="">
<br class="">
Some more years later, the community wished to have a human readable ASCII version of the NeXus file format. XML was in favour at the time and thus NAPI was extended to support an XML version of NeXus using the mxml library.<br class="">
<br class="">
Moving to the current day, the simpler HDF5 native interface and python packages such as h5py means many people are writing NeXus format files directly with these interfaces rather than using NAPI. This lead to the decision by the NIAC to place the NAPI in
maintenance only mode.<br class="">
<br class="">
The NAPI now requires some attention, most notably to make it work with newer versions of the underlying libraries such as mxml-3.x which introduced a breaking API change and is now present on many recent linux distributions. We are preparing a new NAPI release
to address this. But the NIAC as an organization is relying on volunteers to get its work done and is hard pressed to maintain NAPI, so we wish to determine where best to divert our efforts.<br class="">
<br class="">
To help the NIAC make the most informed decisions, please could you answer a few questions. Please place an X between the square brackets in order to mark statements which apply.<br class="">
<br class="">
## Questions<br class="">
<br class="">
Abandoning the support for NAPI for bugfix or compatibility with future linux/library/compiler versions will cause me problems at the following level:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] Critical: I am using NAPI in critical data acquisition or data reduction/analysis software<br class="">
[] Major: important applications may not be usable at some future date<br class="">
[] Minor: inconvenience, I have alternatives/can live with this<br class="">
[X] None: either i am not using NAPI, or I have copies of all the dependencies that I build/maintain myself<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I want the NIAC to continue developing NAPI and make it support more HDF5 features. Please list the<br class="">
HDF5 feature you miss in NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI file format bindings do you use:<br class="">
<br class="">
[] HDF4<br class="">
[] HDF5<br class="">
[] XML<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI language bindings do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] ANSI-C<br class="">
[] Fortran<br class="">
[] C++<br class="">
[] Java<br class="">
[] IDL<br class="">
[] Swig generated bindings to Tcl, perl, ...<br class="">
<br class="">
Which of the NAPI utilities do you use?<br class="">
<br class="">
[] NXbrowse<br class="">
[] NXingest<br class="">
[] NXtranslate<br class="">
[] NXconvert<br class="">
[] NXdump<br class="">
[] NXsummary<br class="">
<br class="">
General<br class="">
<br class="">
[] I am willing to help maintain NAPI<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
The NeXus validator: cnxvalidate, is missing in this list. This is a separate product to NAPI and the NIAC is committed to maintaining it. It uses the HDF5 API directly rather than NAPI.<br class="">
<br class="">
Thank you for your time filling in this questionnaire!<br class="">
<br class="">
Please send replies to nexus-committee@nexusformat.org<br class="">
<br class="">
If you have further concerns or comments regarding the NAPI, please inform your NIAC representative - these are listed at https://www.nexusformat.org/NIAC.html<br class="">
<br class="">
If your facility is using NeXus, but has no representation on the NIAC, please consider joining the NIAC.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best Regards,<br class="">
<br class="">
Freddie Akeroyd<br class="">
Mark Koennecke<br class="">
on behalf of the NIAC<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
_______________________________________________<br class="">
NeXus mailing list<br class="">
NeXus@nexusformat.org<br class="">
https://lists.nexusformat.org/mailman/listinfo/nexus<br class="">
</blockquote>
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
------------------------------<br class="">
<br class="">
Subject: Digest Footer<br class="">
<br class="">
_______________________________________________<br class="">
NeXus mailing list<br class="">
NeXus@nexusformat.org<br class="">
https://lists.nexusformat.org/mailman/listinfo/nexus<br class="">
<br class="">
<br class="">
------------------------------<br class="">
<br class="">
End of NeXus Digest, Vol 143, Issue 3<br class="">
*************************************<br class="">
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br class="">
<div class="">
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<br class="">
Peter Kjær Willendrup<br class="">
Forskningsingeniør, Specialkonsulent<br class="">
Næstformand for DTU Fysik LSU<br class="">
<br class="">
DTU Physics<br class="">
<br class="">
</div>
</div>
<br class="">
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