NAPI unit conversions

[Ray Osborn]

If you recall, we suggested at SoftNeSS'96 that if we put the units as an
argument in NXgetdata, we could get the API to do an automatic unit
conversion from the stored units to the requested units.  This suggests
that we should also put the units as an argument in NXputdata, to encourage
them to be stored properly.  I know that I argued earlier that we should
not overload the user with required attributes, but I think that it would
be a good idea to make the units a special attribute that should always be
specified if available.

I would like to propose therefore that the NXputdata helper routine be
something like

NXstatus NXputdata (NXhandle file_id, char *name, int type, int rank, int
dims[], void *data, char *units)

which would call NXmakedata, NXopendata and NXputattr.  I think that this
would remove 90% of all attribute calls.

NXgetdata would have to be amended to include an extra argument as well.

Any thoughts on this?

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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