Changes to NXopen

[Ray Osborn]

Freddie wrote:
>I thought that these global attributes were mandatory - in which case if
>you put them into the arguments of NXopen you are making sure they are
>always set.  I agree that any additional/optional global attributes can
>easily be added with NXputattr before opening an SDS, but assuming that
>these attributes must always be set, i think six 'string' arguments is
>easier that six calls to NXPUTATTR. Maybe programming in C is to blame
>- i don't have to worry about only 72 columns and continuation
>markers!
>
I don't see any reason for making the global attributes mandatory,
especially ones like owner_telephone_number.  I don't believe that we
debated this thoroughly in the mailing list, but the only global attribute
that I believe we must have is the NeXus version number and that would be
supplied by the API, not the programmer.  I therefore propose that NXopen
revert to its original form unless anyone has any strong objections.


>Ray, it may be best to amend your example program on the WWW for the
>moment - as you know it makes use of features that are not yet in the
>interface e.g.  opengroup() doing a make for you, many argument
>putdata(). Your message to the neutron list said the interface was
>undergoing a minor revision - that is now done for the "base"
>interface, and the example program available in NAPI.TAR works with
>that. While the example you have placed on the WWW is nice and short,
>the helper interface hasn't been totally agreed on yet and so i think
>it would be best to either put a provisor near it, or put up one of the
>working demos from NAPI.TAR instead.  Hopefully the helper interface
>will be ready in the next few days
>

That's a very sensible suggestion.  I put in the simpler form because I was
worried about frightening off others with the excessive code.  However, I
have probably succeeded in confusing the first people to check out the
code, which I regret.

Ray

------------------------------------------------------
Dr Ray Osborn                  Tel: +1 (630) 252-9011
Materials Science Division     Fax: +1 (630) 252-7777
Argonne National Laboratory    E-mail: ROsborn at anl.gov
Argonne, IL 60439-4845


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